For years people of the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, some 1,000 kms from the mainland, have proudly described their Union Territory as a casteless Mini India. Indeed, official records of the ANI administration haven’t had Other Backward Class categorisations.

But now a job reservation plan of the administration is creating a rift among islanders.

The Andaman & Nicobar Commission for Other Backward Classes (OBC) has recommended the reservation of 38 per cent government jobs, to be shared by two broad groups: sons of the soil, and post-1949 settlers.

The former are descendants of families of freedom-fighters incarcerated here by the British, and the latter are mainly Bengali Hindu groups resettled here by the government post-1949. Other groups given OBC status are the Moplahs of Kerala, the Karens, and the Bhatus, brought to the Andamans for labour.

“The communities that have been included in the OBC list are those who came here for historical reasons, have been settled here by the government and don’t have any other Indian state to go back to. For them, the process of implementation of the recommendation is already underway,” said G.C. Joshi, secretary, Tribal Welfare Department of the ANI administration.

About the others, he said: “Why did these people come here? They came here for leisure and started their own business and settled down. Their case is different from the settlers and they should not expect to get job reservations.”

But this is hotly contested.

Said Sanjay Chowdhury, president of the Hotel & Restaurant Association of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, “In the 1950s, thousands of people were recruited by the central government to help develop the islands. In those days, only one ship came here in a month, quality education was lacking, the whole area was thickly forested, malaria was rampant. Even potatoes were brought from the mainland. To say we settled here for leisure is an absurd idea and the commission’s recommendations are incomplete and hideous.”

... contd.