|
 Of the 36 islands in Lakshadweep, only 10 are inhabited mainly due to lack of drinking water on the other islands. The people are warm, friendly and god-fearing. The language spoken on all the islands except Minicoy is Malayalam. In Minicoy, Mahl, a dialect of the ancient Sinhalese is spoken. The origin of the islanders is a matter of conjecture. The early history of the archipelago is submerged in myths and legends.
 The people are of mixed Arab and Hindu descent, akin to the Moplahs of Malabar. 90 percent of the people are devout Muslims who follow the matrilineal system still prevalent in some parts of Kerala but are matrilocal in residence. The young man continues to stay in his mother’s house after his marriage and visits his wife every evening. Remarriage for both sexes is accepted.
In Minicoy things different. Here a man, after marriage not only moves to his wife’s home but also adopts her family name. Marco Polo described Minicoy as a “female island”. Women are dominant and make all the decisions.
Not much is known about the early history of the islands. According to a local tradition, Cheraman Perumal, the legendary king of Kerala converted to Islam and set out on a pilgrimage to Mecca. When he did not return from his sojourn for quite some time, his cousin Kolathiri, a king from another empire sent a search expediti on after him. This party was shipwrecked and landed at one of the atolls. They went back to their king and reported to him their discovery of a virgin land fit for the cultivation of coconuts. Impressed by the prospect of good agriculture, the king proclaimed that any one going to these islands could occupy any extent of land they could cultivate. It is believed that the islands of Amini, Androth, Kalpeni and Kavaratti were inhabited first.
According to one view, the early inhabitants of the islands were perhaps all Hindus. Apart from the Hindu family names found in all the islands, the typical Hindu temple architecture adopted in the construction of some of the mosques, the pieces of Hindu icons excavated in some areas and above all the caste distinctions indicate the Hindu origin of the people. It is believed that the population converted to Islam somewhere around the 7th century A.D. According to a local belief, an Arab saint named Hazrat Ubaidullah had a dream while praying at a mosque in Medina. Prophet Mohammed appeared in his dream, commanding him to leave for distant shores to propagate Islam. The ship on which Hazrat Ubaidullah was sailing was wrecked and after drifting on a plank of wood he reached the island of Amini where his mission met with fierce opposition. After many vicissitudes he was able to carry out his mission and to this day, the people of Lakshadweep follow Islam.
|
