Author: Omesh Saigal
Publisher: National Book Trust
Year: 2000
Language: English
Pages: 219
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8123731086
Description
This detailed study gives history of the island since 1500 BC and a comprehensive account of the strategically situated territory, describing its physical and natural characteristics, and portrays the life of its colorful and simple people.
The present book has been written with the intention of closing both the information and the perception gaps that exist in relation to Lakshadweep.
The least known of India’s States and Union Territories, Lakshadweep is an archipelago of 12 atolls consisting of 36 coral islands. It is a tiny island territory, situated 250-500 kms south-west of the Kerala coast, a mere 32 sq kms in area with a population of more than fifty-one thousand. This detailed study gives a comprehensive account of the strategically situated territory. Besides describing its physical and natural characteristics, the book portrays the life of its colorful and simple people, the history of the island since 1500 B.C., and how modernism and change are fast overtaking this lesser known archipelago. While discussing the science of the coral reefs, the author acquaints the reader with the wide variety of marine life in the blue lagoons, the social and economic trends since the last hundred years as also the evolution of the political and administrative structure.
Contents
Preface
Preface to the Second Edition
1. Physical Features
2. Island Formation and Geology
3. Island People
4. The First Settlers
5. Through the Ages
6. Economic condition of the People
7. Early Administration
8. Recent Administrative and Economic Trends
9. Social and communal Life
10. Customary Laws
11. Crime and Criminals
12. Strange Shipwrecks
13. The Death of a Ship
14. lants and Land Animals
15. Terns of Pitti
16. Living Reefs
17. Coral Cities Underwater
18. Potential of Lakshadweep Sea
References
Index