The Battle of Aberdeen, on the Andaman Islands of India close to Port Blair, was an armed conflict that occurred on 14 May 1859 (according to Portman but 17 May according to other sources [1] [2] ) between the natives of the Andaman islands, the forces of the British colonial government in India, and to some extent the convicts (Indian independence activists) of the Ross Island Penal Colony.
In 1789, the Bengal Presidency established a naval base and penal colony on Chatham Island in the southeast bay of Great Andaman. After two years, the colony was moved to the northeast part of Great Andaman and was named Port Cornwallis. However, there was much disease and death in the penal colony and the government ceased operating it in May 1796.
In 1824, Port Cornwallis was the rendezvous of the fleet carrying the army to the First Burmese War.
The hostile nature of the native inhabitants was highlighted in the 1830s and 1840s, when shipwrecked crews who landed on the Andamans were often attacked and killed by Andamanese tribespeople, and the islands had a reputation for cannibalism. The loss of the Runnymede and the Briton in 1844 during the same storm, while transporting goods and passengers between India and Australia, and the continuous attacks launched by Andamanese tribespeople, which the survivors fought off, alarmed the British government.
In 1855, the government proposed another settlement on the islands, including a convict establishment, but the Indian Rebellion of 1857 forced a delay in its construction. However, the rebellion led to the British holding a large number of prisoners, who could be held more securely and at less risk in an offshore penal colony than on the Indian mainland, and so the development of a new Andaman settlement and prison became an urgent necessity. The first prisoners landed at the Andaman Islands on 10 March 1858, and were soon engaged in clearing the dense forest of Ross Island, building their own shelters and other buildings, and laying roads, while living and working in extremely arduous conditions.
The plan of the impending attack was revealed by Dudhnath Tewari, an escaped convict who had lived with the tribespeople for some time. Tewari, convict number 276, had escaped on 6 April 1858 with several other prisoners from Ross Island and had been taken prisoner by the tribesmen after the others had been killed, and he had been shot and wounded. Tewari had then been accepted and allowed to live with the locals, and even made to marry two tribal girls. When he heard of the plan to attack the prison colony, Tewari returned on 23 April to inform the superintendent of the penal colony, Dr J.P. Walker of the impending attack. The natives were armed with bows and arrows, spears and knives, while the British were equipped with firearms. Tewari had been imprisoned for his desertion and role in the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and his account has been questioned by some authors, although he was subsequently pardoned by the British for his role in the events. [3] [4]
The battle was preceded by a series of skirmishes. On 6 April 1859, 248 convicts were shot at with arrows by 200 tribals on Haddo. On 14 April another group of convicts was attacked by some 1,500 armed tribals, with the convicts being forced to jump into the sea to escape. The tribals were described as showing intent to attack only those who did not have fetters (legcuffs) on them. According to the account of Portman, the Andamanese objected to the destruction of the jungle by clearings that were being made by convict workgangs. On 28 April a seaman aboard the schooner Charlotte was struck by an arrow off North Point and Dr Walker forbade anyone from landing there.
On 14 May, the tribesmen launched a major attack on Aberdeen itself, from Atalanta Point. Expecting such an attack, the navy schooner Charlotte was nearby, and fired on at the attacking tribesmen. The British within the settlement defended themselves with firearms, and the natives never returned to fight again. [5] Shortly after this incident Dr Walker resigned from duty and was succeeded by Colonel J.C. Haughton. [6]
While the tribal forces were defeated, and British policy towards them subsequently became more benevolent approach to the tribes on the islands, they remained hostile to the new arrivals.
Today, the battle is commemorated by a memorial in the Rajiv Gandhi Water Sports Complex, in Port Blair Andaman.
The Andaman Islands are an archipelago, made up of 200 islands, in the northeastern Indian Ocean about 130 km (81 mi) southwest off the coasts of Myanmar's Ayeyarwady Region. Together with the Nicobar Islands to their south, the Andamans serve as a maritime boundary between the Bay of Bengal to the west and the Andaman Sea to the east. Most of the islands are part of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a Union Territory of India, while the Coco Islands and Preparis Island are part of the Yangon Region of Myanmar.
Penal transportation was the relocation of convicted criminals, or other persons regarded as undesirable, to a distant place, often a colony, for a specified term; later, specifically established penal colonies became their destination. While the prisoners may have been released once the sentences were served, they generally did not have the resources to return home.
The Andamanese languages are the various languages spoken by the indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean. There are two known Andamanese language families, Great Andamanese and Ongan, as well as two presumed but unattested languages, Sentinelese and Jangil.
North Sentinel Island is one of the Andaman Islands, an Indian archipelago in the Bay of Bengal which also includes South Sentinel Island. The island is a protected area of India. It is home to the Sentinelese, an indigenous tribe in voluntary isolation who have defended, often by force, their protected isolation from the outside world. The island is about 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) long and 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) wide, and its area is approximately 60 square kilometres (23 sq mi).
The Sentinelese, also known as the Sentineli and the North Sentinel Islanders, are an indigenous people who inhabit North Sentinel Island in the Bay of Bengal in the northeastern Indian Ocean. Designated a particularly vulnerable tribal group and a Scheduled Tribe, they belong to the broader class of Andamanese peoples.
The Andamanese are the various indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands, part of India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the union territory in the southeastern part of the Bay of Bengal. The Andamanese are a designated Scheduled Tribe in India's constitution.
Port Blair, officially known as Sri Vijaya Puram, is the capital city of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a union territory of India in the Bay of Bengal. It is also the local administrative sub-division (tehsil) of the islands, the headquarters for the district of South Andaman, and the territory's only notified town.
The Cellular Jail, also known as 'Kālā Pānī', was a British colonial prison in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The prison was used by the colonial government of India for the purpose of exiling criminals and political prisoners. Many notable independence activists were imprisoned there during the struggle for India's independence. Today, the complex serves as a national memorial monument.
The music of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands are a mixture of the indigenous cultures of the islands, as well as more recent cultural influencers from the descendants of the early settlers in the island from the Indian subcontinent. Folk traditions of the area include that of the Moken seafarers and various kinds of ritual tribal dance.
The Great Andamanese are an indigenous people of the Great Andaman archipelago in the Andaman Islands. Historically, the Great Andamanese lived throughout the archipelago, and were divided into ten major tribes. Their distinct but closely related languages comprised the Great Andamanese languages, one of the two identified Andamanese language families.
The Onge are an Andamanese ethnic group, indigenous to the Andaman Islands in Southeast Asia at the Bay of Bengal, India. They are traditionally hunter-gatherers and fishers, but also practice plant cultivation. They are designated as a Scheduled Tribe of India.
The Jarawas are an indigenous people of the Andaman Islands in India. They live in parts of South Andaman and Middle Andaman Islands, and their present numbers are estimated at between 250–400 individuals. They have largely shunned interaction with outsiders, and many particulars of their society, culture and traditions are poorly understood. Since the 1990s, contacts between Jarawa groups and outsiders grew increasingly frequent. By the 2000s, some Jarawas had become regular visitors at settlements, where they trade, interact with tourists, get medical aid, and even send their children to school.
Robert Christopher Tytler was a British soldier, naturalist and photographer. His second wife Harriet C. Tytler is well known for her work in photographing and documenting the monuments of Delhi and for her notes at the time of the 1857 revolt in India. Mount Harriet in the Andamans was named after her. A species of bird, Tytler's leaf warbler, is named after him.
Ross Island, officially known as Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Island, is an island of the Andaman Islands. It belongs to the South Andaman administrative district, Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The island is situated 3 km (2 mi) east from central Port Blair. The historic ruins are a tourist attraction.
Maurice Vidal Portman was a British naval officer, who is best known for documenting some of the Andamanese tribes between 1879 and 1901 when he was posted as a superintendent of the Andaman Island Penal Colony.
Ross Island Penal Colony was a convict settlement that was established in 1858 in the remote Andaman Islands by the British colonial government in India, primarily to jail a large number of prisoners from the Indian Rebellion of 1857, also known as the Indian Mutiny. With the establishment of the penal colony at Ross Island, the British administration made it the administrative headquarters for the entire group of Andaman and Nicobar Islands and built bungalows and other facilities on the site. This colony was meant as "manageable models of colonial governance and rehabilitation". The Chief Commissioner's residence was located at the highest point on the island. Over time, several other islands including Chatham and Viper were used for the penal colony.
John Andaman or Jack Andaman was the name given to an Andaman native who was taken captive aboard a British navy ship near Interview Island on a survey of the Andaman Islands under Frederic J. Mouat. He was taken to Calcutta and returned to the place of his capture when ill health began to torment him. It has been suggested that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle described Tonga, an Andamanese native character, in his 1890 novel The Sign of Four based on Mouat's description of John Andaman.
Dudhnath Tiwari was an Indian convict from the Sepoy mutiny who was sent to the penal settlement in the Andamans and became famous for escaping and living with the Andamanese tribes for about a year. Accounts of life among the tribals, though coloured by his own prejudices and by possible embellishments, became famous in his time. During the time that he spent among the tribes, he came to learn of a tribal uprising being planned against the British at the penal settlement at which point he chose to return to the penal settlement and reveal the plans. The British penal settlement officers then prepared themselves for what was known as the Battle of Aberdeen in which the tribals were defeated. For his actions Tiwari was pardoned.
Madhumala Chattopadhyay is an Indian anthropologist who specializes in the Indigenous peoples of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. In 1991, Chattopadhyay and her colleagues were the first outsiders to make peaceful contact with the Sentinelese people.
The Andaman and Nicobar Islands is an archipelago of 572 islands of which 37 are inhabited. It is a union territory of India.
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