rofile: Mohamed Nasheed
The new President-elect of the Maldives is known to his supporters on the islands as Anni.
The remarkable political journey of the 41-year-old leader started at John Moores University in Liverpool in 1984 where he read maritime studies. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1989 he returned to the Maldives and became a very vocal critic of President Maumoon Addul Gayoom, who had then been in power for 13 years.
In 1991 Anni was jailed and made an Amnesty International "prisoner of conscience" for writing for the popular political magazine Sangu. It was to be the first of 13 occasions when he was jailed for showing open dissent to Mr Gayoom's autocratic regime, on one occasion claiming he was so badly beaten that he now walks with a limp.
In 2000 Anni was elected as a representative of the capital Male in the People's Majlis, or parliament, and this soon became his power base.
Six months later, in 2001 he was tried and sentenced to two and half years in prison for the theft of unspecified "government property". On his release he fled the Maldives and in November 2003 joined with Mohamed Latheef to form the Maldivian Democratic Party while in exile in Sri Lanka.
In the same year a political prisoner, Hassan Evan Nassem, died in custody at the hands of the security forces causing waves of protest across the islands and a chorus of criticism abroad.
This hugely increased the pressure on Mr Gayoom to progress with democratic reforms, especially after Mr Nasheed was granted political asylum by the British Government the following year.
After about 18 months in self-proclaimed exile when he forged close ties to Britain's Conservative party, he returned to Male in April 2005 to a hero's welcome. When political parties were finally declared legal in June he built a network of support across the archipelago with branches on nearly all the 200 inhabitated islands.
In August 2005, he was arrested again during a sit in to mark the second anniversary of Black Friday, the violent putting down of a peaceful protest in the Male the previous year. He was charged with terrorism and his arrest again provoked huge unrest and civil disobedience. However, by now Mr Gayoom's grip on the Maldives was weakening and in the same year he finally agreed to a roadmap to democratic reform which resulted in the countries first free presidential elections in October 2008.
Like the plot from a Alexander Dumas novel the prisoner who he had jailed so many times in the hope the people of the Maldives would forget about him eventually became his nemesis and ended his 30 years in power.
The new President-elect of the Maldives is known to his supporters on the islands as Anni.
The remarkable political journey of the 41-year-old leader started at John Moores University in Liverpool in 1984 where he read maritime studies. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1989 he returned to the Maldives and became a very vocal critic of President Maumoon Addul Gayoom, who had then been in power for 13 years.
In 1991 Anni was jailed and made an Amnesty International "prisoner of conscience" for writing for the popular political magazine Sangu. It was to be the first of 13 occasions when he was jailed for showing open dissent to Mr Gayoom's autocratic regime, on one occasion claiming he was so badly beaten that he now walks with a limp.
In 2000 Anni was elected as a representative of the capital Male in the People's Majlis, or parliament, and this soon became his power base.
Six months later, in 2001 he was tried and sentenced to two and half years in prison for the theft of unspecified "government property". On his release he fled the Maldives and in November 2003 joined with Mohamed Latheef to form the Maldivian Democratic Party while in exile in Sri Lanka.
In the same year a political prisoner, Hassan Evan Nassem, died in custody at the hands of the security forces causing waves of protest across the islands and a chorus of criticism abroad.
This hugely increased the pressure on Mr Gayoom to progress with democratic reforms, especially after Mr Nasheed was granted political asylum by the British Government the following year.
After about 18 months in self-proclaimed exile when he forged close ties to Britain's Conservative party, he returned to Male in April 2005 to a hero's welcome. When political parties were finally declared legal in June he built a network of support across the archipelago with branches on nearly all the 200 inhabitated islands.
In August 2005, he was arrested again during a sit in to mark the second anniversary of Black Friday, the violent putting down of a peaceful protest in the Male the previous year. He was charged with terrorism and his arrest again provoked huge unrest and civil disobedience. However, by now Mr Gayoom's grip on the Maldives was weakening and in the same year he finally agreed to a roadmap to democratic reform which resulted in the countries first free presidential elections in October 2008.
Like the plot from a Alexander Dumas novel the prisoner who he had jailed so many times in the hope the people of the Maldives would forget about him eventually became his nemesis and ended his 30 years in power.
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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2008
Maldives Rejects Leader in Election
Supporters of Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) presidential candidate Mohamed 'Anni' Nasheed celebrate after his win on October 29, 2008
The Indian Ocean island nation of the Maldives has weathered cyclones and tsunamis, but never before has it experienced sweeping change of the sort ushered in on Oct. 28. By the next day, it was clear that President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom — whose 30-year reign marked him as Asia's longest serving leader — had been toppled in the country's first-ever democratic elections by a man whom he had imprisoned just a decade ago. After coming second in multi-party polls earlier in October, 41-year-old Mohamed Nasheed beat Gayoom in a run-off contest by a nearly 10% margin — a gulf wide enough for the oft-dictatorial Gayoom to concede defeat over state radio even before all the ballots were counted.
To the outside world, this tiny archipelago nation of some 300,000 people exists mostly in ads for sun-dappled luxury holidays. The Maldives lie southeast of India, a jumble of nearly 20,000 idyllic islands and azure lagoons nestled in coral atolls (a word for reef formations which came to English, fittingly, from Dhivehi, the local Maldivian tongue). Gayoom, 71, is chiefly responsible for building up the lucrative tourism sector — which has fast become the country's leading industry, ahead of its traditional fisheries. It has made Maldivians — at least statistically — the most affluent people in South Asia, and the country host to waves of Hollywood celebrities who pay thousands of dollars for the chance to spend a night on their own white sand isle.
But there has always been a darker side to this paradise. Since coming to power in 1978, Gayoom has tended to run the Maldives as his personal sultanate, awarding seats in government to members of his own family while, to this day, 40% of the population earn less than a dollar a day. Political parties were banned and dissent stifled while Gayoom periodically renewed his own mandate through elections with only one name on the ballot. "There was a catalog of human rights violations," says Abbas Faiz, a South Asia researcher for Amnesty International. "Authorities could detain anyone and treat them the way they wanted. Torture was widespread." Nasheed, a fiery critic of the regime who came to prominence as a writer of subversive anti-government polemics, was repeatedly detained on grounds of sedition, according to rights groups. He claims to have been kept in solitary confinement for 18 months and to have been chained by national security agents to a chair and left outside for 12 days. In 1996, his struggle earned him recognition as an Amnesty International "Prisoner of Conscience."
Opposition to Gayoom's rule reached a peak in late 2003, when news leaked of government violence against political prisoners led to mass protests on the streets of the Maldives' capital, Male. "We had been telling the population that they deserved better," says Ahmed Moosa, a prominent opposition figure who said he fled to London after receiving death threats from elements within Gayoom's government. "Now we were able to expose the regime for the crimes it had committed." International pressure and defections from his own cadres slowly forced Gayoom to change tack and speak of democratic reform. Ibrahim Hussein Zaki served for ten years as a minister in Gayoom's cabinet, but quit to help found the rebel Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) in November 2003 alongside Nasheed. "I realized that change could never come from within. This was a family regime, not the people's regime," he told TIME.
October's elections come after five years of campaigning on the part of Nasheed and the opposition — and numerous more detentions at the hands of the government. By 2005, Gayoom introduced a "roadmap" toward multi-party democracy, but it is unlikely the incremental changes allowed in the past few years would have come about without the efforts of activists who had long been frozen out of the political mainstream. "A free press, an independent judiciary, an auditor general — it took Gayoom nearly three decades to even consider these things," says Moosa, the self-exiled activist who is also editor of the online Dhivehi Observer.
In the landmark multi-party election on Oct. 8, Gayoom won 40% of the vote amid allegations of irregularities and vote-rigging. The margin wasn't large enough, though, for him to claim total victory and a run-off was scheduled two weeks later against the runner-up, Nasheed. Gayoom launched blistering attacks on his opponent's credibility, pointing to his lack of experience and claiming he was trying to convert Maldivians to Christianity — a weighty accusation in this staunchly Sunni Muslim state. But with all the opposition factions united behind him, Nasheed turned his deficit from the first vote into a significant majority and completed his rise from prison to the halls of power amid scenes of widespread jubilation in Male on Oct. 29.
The charismatic President-elect has urged calm and has already said he will stage snap-elections halfway through his five-year term — a sign, he claims, of his commitment to healthy democracy in the state. Both his ascendant MDP and Gayoom's old regime insist that the transition of governments will be peaceful and efficient. Gayoon addressed the nation magnanimously on state radio, expressing his "full support" for the man who had been a thorn in his side for over a decade. After spending a lifetime warring against Gayoom's dictatorship, Nasheed and his party know they, too, must be graceful in victory. The global financial crisis has sparked fears of a downturn in tourism, while Nasheed must also tend to a budding housing shortage and a staggering drug epidemic: by some estimates, 1 out of every 3 Maldivian youth is a drug addict. "We are not interested in revenge," says the MDP's Zaki. "Now is the time to look to our future."
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MONDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2000
The Dhivehin, as the islanders are called, are a mixed people of Aryan, Negroid, Sinhalese, Dravidian and Arab descent. The islands were under Muslim control from the 12th century, and then Portuguese rule from 1518 before becoming a dependency of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in 1645. They became a British Protectorate, with an elected Sultan as head of state, in 1887. The islands became a republic, briefly, in 1953-4 and achieved full independence as a sultanate in 1965. Three years later, the Republic of the Maldive Islands was re-established and Ibrahim Nasir, Prime Minister since 1954, became President.
In 1978, President Nasir decided against a third term as President, and was succeeded by Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. Gayoom – the dominant figure in the islands’ politics since then – established a ‘Citizens’ Special Majlis’ (legislature), which began work in 1980 with a brief to revise the constitution. After 17 years of work, the new model constitution was ratified by President Gayoom and came into effect in January 1998. In 1985, the Maldives was a founder member of the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) and hosted regional summits in 1990 and 1997. Islam is a central feature of the country’s life and is now supervised by a Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, working under direct presidential control. With no formal political parties, the Maldives’ politics are personality based; no credible threat to Gayoom has emerged in the 25 years during which he has held power, not least because dissent is firmly repressed by Gayoom’s security forces. The only overt sign of discontent in recent years came in September 2003 when the death of several prisoners sparked riots in the capital. Nonetheless, after the riots were quelled, Gayoom – underpinned by his reputation for good economic management – went on to secure a record sixth term of office at the presidential poll in November 2003. The Government’s other major concern is global warming. The Maldives are among those small low-lying islands – 80 per cent of the territory is less than 1m above sea level – whose very existence is threatened. American rejection of the Kyoto protocol on greenhouse gas emissions caused some bitterness. Since The Maldives are so low-lying, they are also additionally vulnerable when it comes to any natural catastrophe. However, the devastating tsunami triggered by a southeast Asian earthquake on December 26 2004, would have caused calamitous effects, regardless - such was its magnitude. Twenty of The Maldives' 199 inhabited islands were totally destroyed. For once, the low-lying and shallow waters of The Maldives may even have positively hampered the total destructive effects of the tsunami but flooding was still extensive. World Bank figures in January 2005 unveiled the shocking statistic that tourism arrivals were down nearly 70 per cent of those in January 2004. The Asian Development Bank has now declared that reconstruction will cost around $304 million, and the government is seeking $1.3 billion over the next three to five years. However, only a fraction of this amount has been pledged so far. Temporary units for those displaced by the tsunami are still being assembled.GovernmentUnder the revised constitution which came into effect in 1998, the legislature, or Majlis, has 48 members. Of these, 40 are directly elected for a five-year term in multi-seat constituencies, and the remaining eight are Presidential appointees. The President holds executive power assisted by an appointed ministerial cabinet. Outside the capital, however, considerable power is exercised by the atoll chiefs (Atholhu Verins), who are appointed by the President.EconomySmall quantities of cereals, fruit and vegetables are grown on the little fertile land available on the islands. Fishing is far more important: tuna fishing accounts for half of the Maldives’ export earnings.The industrial sector has grown substantially since 1980 as a result of major infrastructure investment in desalination plants, refurbished accommodation, generators and air conditioning. Much of this was originally designed for use by the tourism industry, which has also grown rapidly following the decline of shipping, and now accounts for almost one-quarter of GDP.Otherwise, there is some light industrial activity, including fish-canning, textiles and boat building, and a small financial services sector which has recently come under scrutiny (along with several dozen other small economies offering ‘offshore’ services).In general, the islands’ economic development has been constrained by their relative isolation and the small size of the domestic market. Hopes that the Maldives might become an oil producer were dashed when a 10-year exploration program failed to locate deposits in the islands’ territorial waters. The Maldives is a member of the Asian Development Bank and the Colombo Plan.
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The Maldives were populated perhaps many thousands of years ago. The oral tradition of the Maldives doesn’t have any
reference concerning how or where the original inhabitants came from. But it’s most likely that the first settlers came from the coastal regions of India and Sri Lanka.The oldest legends tell us that some people came from the North and became kings, but in all these legends Maldivians were already living in their islands, when those events happened.Thanks to a great number of archaeological remains, we know that there was a prolonged Buddhist period in the Maldives. The Buddhist ruins are massive and reveal a great deal of the skill and craftsmanship of their makers. This Maldive Buddhist civilization reached its height during the 9th century AD, and by then the Divehi culture, as we know it now, was already formed. The Divehi language, its script and the cultural values and practices that are the foundation of present-day Maldive culture were a product of that period.
Islam came relatively late to the Maldives. Sind and the Malabar Coast already had Muslim communities by the 7th century AD. However, the Maldivians remained Buddhist still for a long time and it would be more than five hundred years later that they converted to Islam.Islam, however, is given the star role in all Divehi chronicles. When one reads books of Islamic history, one of the most common assertions is that in a particular country "before Islam there was Jahiliya, the age of ignorance." According to this manner of interpreting facts, history is rewritten in a manner where truth and serious historical inquiry become irrelevant. The only crucial guideline is to make Islam appear victorious and beneficial for the country, tarnishing the non-Islamic past as much as possible. This is done whether by hook or by crook.In this way history becomes something flexible that can be tampered with at will. Facts are rewritten in such a manner that no other period of the nation’s history seems more glorious than the Islamic one. Hence in Maldive "historical" chronicles, the first settlement of the country, spanning millennia of a background of fisher folk who were probably of Dravidian origin, followed by the arrival of a kingly Buddhist dynasty, which ruled the country for over a thousand years, bringing influences from the North of the Subcontinent, are dealt with in a few sentencesThis incredibly reduced summary is invariably followed by the following sweeping statement: "…And the King and all the inhabitants of the Maldive Islands became Muslim." Officially only then the "real history of the Maldives" begins: The history of the Islamic Nation. This history of the Maldives as an Islamic nation is given so much importance, that all the previous periods of Maldive history are made to become irrelevant.The flourishing of a genuinely Maldive Buddhist civilization, on which the present-day Divehi language, customs, manners and ceremonies are still largely based, is deliberately ignored. Solid historical evidence goes unheeded, even though ancient Maldive ruins plainly testify that none of the buildings built after the twelfth century is anywhere near as grand as the stupas that were built by Maldivians in most inhabited islands towards the end of the first millennium AD.Still, some of the old skills were allowed to continue for a few centuries, well into the Maldive Islamic period. Thus, mosques built in a syncretistic style, with beautiful woodcarvings and lacquer work still manage to give us a glimpse of the ancient cultural splendour of the Maldivians.But during the centuries that followed, even those few remainders of the wealthy cultural past were deleted. The main emphasis was on giving the Maldives an Islamic appearance. The history of the Maldive Islands had to be emphasized in Islamic terms, and in the new framework national heroes had to be heroes of Islam. After all the Maldive Islands are a "100% Muslim country."During the last few centuries there are no known instances of Maldivian scholars of integrity having openly challenged the falsehoods imposed by this trend. On the contrary, many historians have pandered to this sheer Islamisation of Maldive history, and have rewritten the stories of historical Maldivian figures in order to make them appear even more Islamic. On the other hand, accounts that challenged this view have been suppressed with determination.
One example is the contrast between the stories regarding Bodu Takurufaanu as they appear in Pyrard de Laval’s book, written in the seventeenth century, and the recent versions of the same story endorsed by the Maldive government. This distortion of history is widely propagated in all Maldive schools and via the government-controlled media, so that it has deep effects on all Maldivians.
Books that straightforwardly tell the truth about the Maldives, like Voyage de Pyrard aux Indes Orientales, both in its original edition and in its English translation, as well as Clarence Maloney’s anthropological survey People of the Maldive Islands are forbidden in the Maldives by the government and local students have no access to them.
The books written by Pyrard and Maloney are not freely available in the Maldives in their original versions. A highly placed Maldive official who contacted this site stated, under condition of strict anonymity, that the few copies existing in the Maldives are restricted. In public libraries they are allowed for the perusal of certain people- a kind of 'for insiders only' arrangementExcerpts of those books have been translated and published in other publications.
A pre-Islamic Maldive icon
Maloney's book is never openly on sale in Maldive bookstores, even though it is quite easily and cheaply available in India. If someone gets caught with copies at the airport, they would be confiscated.These books are forbidden in a quite way. The authorities do not want to be overt about it in order not to draw more attention upon them. But it is quite obvious that distribution inside the Maldives is forbidden and that now they are not openly available either in bookstores or in libraries in the Maldives.The same well-placed official once pointed out in a government meeting that everything written about the Maldives should be published as it is- good or bad. However most of the intellectuals and writers in government positions favour bowdlerization and censorship. Pyrard's book in its original French edition candidly exposes some very tough things, which were bowdlerized even in Gray's English translation.
Lacking a balanced view of their own history and being fed only Islamic propaganda, Maldivian people are made to believe that the history of their nation is at its most glorious height during its Islamic period. This "glorious" period includes the present days and in which the Maldive nation is portrayed as being constantly under the threat of foreign influences that are seen through the narrow prism of Islamic religious obsession.As a consequence, the well being of this island country is attached to its ability to preserve Islam, and thus the men and women of the Maldives are put on guard against any influence that may upset the "triumphant Islamic period the nation is enjoying." In such an atmosphere, openness of mind is thwarted in its root. Therefore, the display of hostility against other religions, especially Christianity is seen as a patriotic duty in the Maldives.
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Profile: Mohamed Nasheed
The new President-elect of the Maldives is known to his supporters on the islands as Anni.
The remarkable political journey of the 41-year-old leader started at John Moores University in Liverpool in 1984 where he read maritime studies. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1989 he returned to the Maldives and became a very vocal critic of President Maumoon Addul Gayoom, who had then been in power for 13 years.
In 1991 Anni was jailed and made an Amnesty International "prisoner of conscience" for writing for the popular political magazine Sangu. It was to be the first of 13 occasions when he was jailed for showing open dissent to Mr Gayoom's autocratic regime, on one occasion claiming he was so badly beaten that he now walks with a limp.
In 2000 Anni was elected as a representative of the capital Male in the People's Majlis, or parliament, and this soon became his power base.
Six months later, in 2001 he was tried and sentenced to two and half years in prison for the theft of unspecified "government property". On his release he fled the Maldives and in November 2003 joined with Mohamed Latheef to form the Maldivian Democratic Party while in exile in Sri Lanka.
In the same year a political prisoner, Hassan Evan Nassem, died in custody at the hands of the security forces causing waves of protest across the islands and a chorus of criticism abroad.
This hugely increased the pressure on Mr Gayoom to progress with democratic reforms, especially after Mr Nasheed was granted political asylum by the British Government the following year.
After about 18 months in self-proclaimed exile when he forged close ties to Britain's Conservative party, he returned to Male in April 2005 to a hero's welcome. When political parties were finally declared legal in June he built a network of support across the archipelago with branches on nearly all the 200 inhabitated islands.
In August 2005, he was arrested again during a sit in to mark the second anniversary of Black Friday, the violent putting down of a peaceful protest in the Male the previous year. He was charged with terrorism and his arrest again provoked huge unrest and civil disobedience. However, by now Mr Gayoom's grip on the Maldives was weakening and in the same year he finally agreed to a roadmap to democratic reform which resulted in the countries first free presidential elections in October 2008.
The new President-elect of the Maldives is known to his supporters on the islands as Anni.
The remarkable political journey of the 41-year-old leader started at John Moores University in Liverpool in 1984 where he read maritime studies. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1989 he returned to the Maldives and became a very vocal critic of President Maumoon Addul Gayoom, who had then been in power for 13 years.
In 1991 Anni was jailed and made an Amnesty International "prisoner of conscience" for writing for the popular political magazine Sangu. It was to be the first of 13 occasions when he was jailed for showing open dissent to Mr Gayoom's autocratic regime, on one occasion claiming he was so badly beaten that he now walks with a limp.
In 2000 Anni was elected as a representative of the capital Male in the People's Majlis, or parliament, and this soon became his power base.
Six months later, in 2001 he was tried and sentenced to two and half years in prison for the theft of unspecified "government property". On his release he fled the Maldives and in November 2003 joined with Mohamed Latheef to form the Maldivian Democratic Party while in exile in Sri Lanka.
In the same year a political prisoner, Hassan Evan Nassem, died in custody at the hands of the security forces causing waves of protest across the islands and a chorus of criticism abroad.
This hugely increased the pressure on Mr Gayoom to progress with democratic reforms, especially after Mr Nasheed was granted political asylum by the British Government the following year.
After about 18 months in self-proclaimed exile when he forged close ties to Britain's Conservative party, he returned to Male in April 2005 to a hero's welcome. When political parties were finally declared legal in June he built a network of support across the archipelago with branches on nearly all the 200 inhabitated islands.
In August 2005, he was arrested again during a sit in to mark the second anniversary of Black Friday, the violent putting down of a peaceful protest in the Male the previous year. He was charged with terrorism and his arrest again provoked huge unrest and civil disobedience. However, by now Mr Gayoom's grip on the Maldives was weakening and in the same year he finally agreed to a roadmap to democratic reform which resulted in the countries first free presidential elections in October 2008.
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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2000
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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2000
The Maldives consist of over 1000 small coral islands stretching over 764 km of the Indian Ocean west of Sri Lanka. The country is populated by roughly 180,000 people who call themselves Devehi(s) ('islanders'), and their language is Divehi, which is also the ethnographic term. These islands are grouped mostly into ring-like coral atols, and since atol is a Devehi word it should be spelled correctly with one l. Seafaring explorers of past centuries fancied that the shape of this chain of atols resembled a garland, and indeed on a map it does look like this. So the Archipelago came by the name mala div (garland island, a common word in Indian languages), and the name should properly be spelled Maladiv, not Maldive.
By Clarence Maloney
The Maldives people are a clear ethnic category, having a unique language derived from Sinhala but grafted on to an earlier Tamil base, and they have a homogeneous cultural tradition. In early medieval times they followed the Sri Lanka type of Buddhism, but in 1153 were converted to Islam by order of their ruler. There is another island located to the north of Maldives territory that belongs culturally to the Maldives, Minicoy (properly, Maliku), which because of events during the colonial period is now held by India as part of its Laksh- advip Island group. Most of the Maldives islands are tiny, less than a mile long, but Minicoy is the largest island populated by Divehi people. The Indian government does not allow foreigners to visit this island.
The Maldives is known in Europe mainly because of its resort hotels and beaches. More than thirty otherwise uninhabited small islands have these hotels. Government policy is to keep Maldivians off these islands, and tourists out of the rest of the country, except for Male the little capital. Male is only 1.5 km long, though there is a slightly larger nearby island, Hulule, which serves as the airport. A few years ago Male was characterized by bright, sunny, sandy, sleepy streets lined with white compound walls and mosques, but now is has some 45,000 people, a severe water problem, and a number of motorcars, although the place is not large enough to get them into fourth gear.
Historical Records
Early references to the Maldives are found in the Commentary on the Bharu Jataka and the Khuddapatha, early Buddhist texts, and the Dipavamsa, the earliest Sinhala epic (4th century BC), and the Mahavamsa (3rd century BC). The country was probably overrun from Kerala in the Sangam Period of South India (1-3 century AD). It is mentioned in the Greek text Periplus (1st century AD), by Pappas of Alexandria (4th century), and several fifth century Greek authors. The islands are mentioned by the Chinese travellers Fa Hsien (5th century) and Hsuan-Tsang (7th century), and in a document of the Tang Dynasty (8th century). The country was conquered by Tamil Pallavas from neighbouring Madras (late 7th century).Islamic records start with an account by Sulaiman the merchant (c. 900 AD), and Al-Mas'udi (916), Abul Hassan the Persian (1026), Al Biruni (1039), and Al-Idrisi (c. 1100). In the meantime, the country was reconquered by the Tamils, namely by Rajaraja Cola (1017). Europeans are on a more familiar territory when they read the account of Marco Polo (1279- 92). Ibn Battuta made two visits and spent a year and a half in the Maldives as an Islamic legal advisor (1343-46).Portuguese accounts begin from about 1500. In the brutal competition for control of ocean routes they invaded the Maldives in 1588, killed the sultan, and established Portuguese rule, but that only lasted for fifteen years. Most interesting is a lengthy three-volume account by François Pyrard of Laval, who was held captive in the Maldives (1602-07) and learned Divehi. It is a gold-mine of original Divehi history, customs, and language.British interest dates from the early 1600s. The Divehis had always managed to remain essentially independent, except for the brief Portuguese occupation, but in 1887 the sultan formally accepted British suzerainty. The only sustained historical work of the Maldives done in the British period was that by H.C.P. Bell, a British antiquarian who studied the Buddhist remains, texts, and coins. The British did not leave an administrative or cultural stamp as they did in India, except for their base in Gan in the south. The Maldives became independent in 1965 and joined the United Nations.
Tamils, Sinhalas, and ArabsWhere did the Divehis come from?
Generally, ordinary Divehis mostly know only that their islands were settled from Sri Lanka, that before Islam they were Buddhist, and that their language suggests the same origin. Because of the long dominance of Islamic tradition, they tend to stress Arabic and Muslim cultural influences and overemphasize Arab ancestors. Scholars came from the Islamic centres of learning in Egypt, and the Divehis accepted the Shafi school of Islamic law. They rationalize Divehi culture and behaviour in terms of traits in Arab culture mentioned earlier in old Islamic texts. But for all that, and despite eight centuries of official status, the Islamic tradition is something of a cultural overlay.The influence of medieval Sinhalas is the dominant cultural stream. From roughly the 8th to the 10th century, unwanted kings and their retinues were apparently banished from Sri Lanka to the Maldives, and they brought their culture, language, and religion with them. There are several remains of Buddhist stupas (excavated by Bell), with coins, inscriptions, and various artefacts.What was not known previous to my research in the early 1970s, is that there is a strong underlying layer of Tamil population and culture. So far, most Divehis have not shown themselves interested in accepting this finding, as it does not suit their sense of their presti- gious origins. Be that as it may, the evidence is overwhelming. There is a clear Tamil substratum in the language, which also appears in place names, kin terms, poetry, dance, and religious beliefs. This is actually Tamil-Malayalam, as up to about the 10th century when the Malayalam language acquired a separate identity, what is now Kerala was considered to be part of the Tamil area. There are numerous references in the Tamil Sangam (1-3 century) and medieval literature to kings of Kerala having ships, conducting invasions by sea, and ruling the northern part of Sri Lanka. People of Kerala settled the Lakshadvip Islands, and evidently viewed the Maldives as an extension of them. There is a Maldivian epic about Koimala, who is said to have come from India, bringing with him his royal lineage, landed on a northern atol, and then made Male his capital. The name koi is from Malayalam koya, son of the prince, which is also the name of a high caste group in the Lakshadvip Islands. Koimala has now become a generalized eponymous ancestor of the pre-Muslim Divehis.The medieval settlements from Sri Lanka were strongest in the southern islands, and this gave rise to the Divehi language, Buddhism, and the ideals of kinship. The chronic wars between the Sinhalas and the Tamils which have characterized 2500 years of history in Sri Lanka, probably spilled over to the Maldives, so these settlers from Sri lanka ultimately absorbed all the earlier population into their Divehi culture.
By the 1970s there was only one identifiable separate caste, the Giravaru, who then lived on Hulule Island near Male. They were virtually endogamous, and unlike the other Divehis they cherished marriage as a permanent state. These people said that they were from "Tamilas" though they did not know what that meant. Their former status was rather like the palm-tree tapping lower castes of Kerala, and other Divehis regarded them as impure. They themselves averred that their customs and morals were purer then those of other Divehis. Now the Giravaru have been evicted from Hulule to make room for the expanded airport, and this remnant of Indian caste has nearly disappeared.The Divehi kinship system is partly of Dravidian origin, and bears evidence of some matriliny, like the Nayar and other matrilineal groups of Kerala. Some of the kinship terms are clearly derived from Malayalam. On to this was grafted the royal lineage system of medieval Sinhala immigrants, but the matrilineal background remained evident in the royal lineage. This is an anomaly for an Islamic society, and can only be explained in terms of the cultural history.In religion we find a vibrant underlying system, called fandita, co-existing with the formal politically-linked theological Islamic system which provides the rationale for behavioral and political control. The word fandita comes from the Indic word pandit, and refers to special powers possessed by certain men and women. This belief system encompasses ideas about spirits, ghosts, winds, and lights on the sea, and it allows people to control their health, their enemies, their boats, their fishing catch, and their destiny. The rituals contain a lot of what in India might be called puja and mantravadi (reciting of mantras), besides South Indian ideas about health and healing. This is marvellously islamicized by the institutionalized belief in jinns. The fandita experts engrave charms to be tied around the neck as is done in South India and Sri Lanka, and this is islamicized because they scratch on them marks resembling Arabic script. It is said that the Maldives was converted to Islam because a visiting saint in the 12th century showed the king that his faith had the power to control the most terrible ocean jinn then afflicting the people. The king ordered his subjects to be converted, and the saint rewarded him with the title sultan. But in fact, conversion to Islam was probably motivated more by the strength of Islamic trade and civilization which dominated the Indian Ocean at that time.
The Earliest Settlers?
There are hints of two other early layers of immigration. One is from Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia from where people found their way to settle Madagascar roughly about the time of Christ. Did some of them stop in the Maldives on the way? Probably. There are a number of Southeast Asian traits and artefacts present in the Maldives: crops such as sweet potatoes and taro, dark-coloured fish of Southeast Asia, and "bed-roasting" a custom which compels the mother to rest on a bed with fire under it for ten days after delivery to purify her, which is of Southeast Asian origin. Very early visitors to or settlers in the Maldives were probably Gujaratis. Seafaring from Gujarat began during the Indus civilization. The Jatakas and Puranas show abundant evidence of this maritime trade. The Gujaratis reached and settled Sri Lanka about 500 BC. Some evidence of direct cultural influence from North India can be deduced from the methods of boat-building and silver punch-marked coins (of the Mauryan period) have likewise been found. It is quite possible that intrepid Gujarati seafarers were shipwrecked on these islands, or that Gujarati exiles settled on them as they did on Sri Lanka, before the rise of Tamil-Malayalam sea power in the early Christian era.
Language and ScriptDevehi is derived basically from an old form of Sinhala called Elu, which was spoken in Sri Lanka before many Pali and Sanskrit words were added. This dialect must have come ultimately from the Panjab. This supports the interpretation of the Sinhala chronicles that the ancestors of the Sinhalas, and therefore of the Divehis, came from western India, from Gujarat by sea, and not from Bengal. Many Sinhalas prefer the myth that they came from Bengal because of the historical importance of Buddhism, and indeed from the time of the Mauryas (3rd century BC) the sea traffic on the east side increased, and Buddhism came to Sri Lanka via Bengal. Before that, the core of Sinhala settlers came from western India, a claim which is supported by linguistic and cultural features and the specific descriptions in the epics themselves, for instance that Vijaya, the founder of the Sinhalas, visited Bharukaccha (Broach, in Gujarat) in his ship on the voyage down.Dihevi though built up from a Sinhala dialect was grafted on to earlier Tamil speech and has incorporated words from every cultural wind that buffeted the Maldives: Bengali, Malay, Persian, Arabic, Hindi, Portuguese, and English.The Brahmi script dating from Mauryan times, used in the edict inscriptions of King Asoka, gave rise to all indigenous scripts in India. It came by sea to the far southern coasts and gave rise to both the Sinhala and Tamil scripts. Brahmi was an angular script, but it evolved into the rounded medieval Sinhala script. The original Maldives script, called Evala Akuru, was roundish and resembled medieval Sinhala script. A more evolved form, Dives Akuru, is known from the copper-plate grants and tombstones especially from the 14th century, studied by Bell, and it bears the influence of the old Tulu and Grantha scripts of South India and the original script of Lakshadvip. It was used in the southern atols of the Maldives as late as 1835.The modern Divehi script, called Tana, was invented by a unknown person after the Portuguese interlude. He must have been an educated Muslim who also had a knowledge of classical Indian phonetics, as the script combines features of both Arabic and Indian scripts. The basic symbols are Arabic numerals and other letters to which Divehi phonetic values are given, and the script runs right to left. There is a full set of long and short vowels whose marks surround the consonants, the consonants have the inherent vowel 'a' but are marked with a little circle above when mute, and the script lacks aspirated consonants. These are the features derived from South India, probably along with scientific understanding of phonetics. The result is a simple script, suitable to the language and easy to learn. Most Divehis are literate, as they learn to read Islamic texts in little religious schools, and type fonts are available for printing in the script. In the 70s there was a move to replace the Tana script with "English" (Roman) script, but because of its obvious deficiencies for South Asian langu- ages, the official tendency is again to support wider use of the Tana script.
The SocietyThe Devehi pattern of family organization, marriage, divorce, and kinship grew out of the confluence of historical streams in the Maldives. There have been three conflicting kinship systems: the Dravidian, the North Indian, and the Arab. Most fundamental is the Dravidian: kinship terms classify kin into those marriable and unmarriable with self; cross-cousin marriage is preferred; girls have a puberty ceremony; and matriliny is possible. There are several indications of a former preferential cross-cousin marriage in the Maldives, but in the Arab system now superimposed, any cousin marriage is acceptable. The North Indian system with its patriarchal authority and wider rules of exogamy, was brought by the original Sinhalas to Sri Lanka, but there it was greatly modified by the underlying Dravidian element until it also accepted preferential cross-cousin marriage while it still retained strong lineages for political reasons, and this was brought to the Maldives.The present rules of marriage and family are thought by the Divehis to follow Islamic rules strictly, but these rules are interpreted in unique ways. Most striking is the frequency of divorce. The Maldives has the highest divorce rate (of registered marriages) of any country in the world, according to United Nations statistics. In the 1970s the rate was eighty-five divorces for every 100 marriages. By Islamic law as interpreted in the Maldives, the same man and woman can marry three times, after which they must marry other partners, and then they are free to marry each other another three times. An official notification limited the number maximum to three such cycles, or nine marriages for the same couple. But by giving a gift to charity even this could be relaxed, so some couples have remarried many more times than that. Traditionally there was an element of pride, even piety, in a man having had many marriages. Some individuals claim to have had forty to eighty marriages.Divorce is not so traumatic as in Western societies for either the partner or for their children. Most people live on tiny islands, and all the households know each other well. A man can divorce and remarry and move to a nearby household. His children are still close. They know that he is likely to remarry their mother anyway. This game of marriage is often the most important entertainment in these isolated communities with their somewhat stultifying atmosphere.Social control is exercised through religion. Every island has an Island Chief who is head of the mosque and also represents the government. The Island Chiefs fall under an Atol Chief, who is assisted by gazis who perform ceremonies and uphold Islamic law. Any misbehaviour is reported by the Island Chief to the Atol Chief and to the Department of Justice in Male. This includes theft, drinking liquor, not attending mosque, adultery (though this seldom arises), and even masturbation (by law but not in practice). There are practically no murders.The political system is also special to the Maldives, though there is not enough room to summarize it here. There are a few families who control most assets such as the shipping company, tourist hotels, and real estate in Male. These families tend to control the government. There is a majlis (national assembly) but democratic practices are only slowly gaining ground. A president who identifies an opponent is likely to exile him to an uninhabited island for some years - the commonest form of punishment, which is of ancient origin in the Maldives.
The FutureMaldives is an active and equal member of SAARC (South Indian Association for Regional Co-operation), which is recognition of its fundamental cultural similarity with India and Sri Lanka, although as a practical matter the financial aid proffered from the Arab countries is also accepted.The Maldives government is increasingly worried about crowding on the small islands and the lack of fresh water. On Male the water lens (floating on salt water) has long been polluted with human waste and human burials, and the rainwater catchment is not enough. The Maldives has only 300 sq km of land (and the ocean between), and the population has long outgrown the local produce, mainly fish supplemented by a little agriculture. Traditionally tuna was the main export, in exchange for which rice was imported. The main income now is from the tourist islands, shipping, international aid, and trade as Maldives has declared itself as a free port. Education has expanded very rapidly, and the Divehis, who were so long isolated from the wider world, are quickly adapting to their expanded opportunities. These changes have brought population growth through a decline in infant mortality, and a population shift to Male. The main long-term worry however is the rising level of the ocean, which threatens to obliterate the country within one or two centu- ries.The Maldives is an exceedingly interesting country, and merits more attention from specialists on South Asia and the Indian Ocean area.
Clarence Maloney is a South Asian specialist and former professor of Anthropology. He has worked for the past 25 years in donor-funded rural development projects in India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. He is now the Team Leader of the Kerala Community Irrigation Project, funded by the Netherlands Foreign Ministry through EuroconsultThe Maldives consist of over 1000 small coral islands stretching over 764 km of the Indian Ocean west of Sri Lanka. The country is populated by roughly 180,000 people who call themselves Devehi(s) ('islanders'), and their language is Divehi, which is also the ethnographic term. These islands are grouped mostly into ring-like coral atols, and since atol is a Devehi word it should be spelled correctly with one l. Seafaring explorers of past centuries fancied that the shape of this chain of atols resembled a garland, and indeed on a map it does look like this. So the Archipelago came by the name mala div (garland island, a common word in Indian languages), and the name should properly be spelled Maladiv, not Maldive.
By Clarence Maloney
The Maldives people are a clear ethnic category, having a unique language derived from Sinhala but grafted on to an earlier Tamil base, and they have a homogeneous cultural tradition. In early medieval times they followed the Sri Lanka type of Buddhism, but in 1153 were converted to Islam by order of their ruler. There is another island located to the north of Maldives territory that belongs culturally to the Maldives, Minicoy (properly, Maliku), which because of events during the colonial period is now held by India as part of its Laksh- advip Island group. Most of the Maldives islands are tiny, less than a mile long, but Minicoy is the largest island populated by Divehi people. The Indian government does not allow foreigners to visit this island.
The Maldives is known in Europe mainly because of its resort hotels and beaches. More than thirty otherwise uninhabited small islands have these hotels. Government policy is to keep Maldivians off these islands, and tourists out of the rest of the country, except for Male the little capital. Male is only 1.5 km long, though there is a slightly larger nearby island, Hulule, which serves as the airport. A few years ago Male was characterized by bright, sunny, sandy, sleepy streets lined with white compound walls and mosques, but now is has some 45,000 people, a severe water problem, and a number of motorcars, although the place is not large enough to get them into fourth gear.
Historical Records
Early references to the Maldives are found in the Commentary on the Bharu Jataka and the Khuddapatha, early Buddhist texts, and the Dipavamsa, the earliest Sinhala epic (4th century BC), and the Mahavamsa (3rd century BC). The country was probably overrun from Kerala in the Sangam Period of South India (1-3 century AD). It is mentioned in the Greek text Periplus (1st century AD), by Pappas of Alexandria (4th century), and several fifth century Greek authors. The islands are mentioned by the Chinese travellers Fa Hsien (5th century) and Hsuan-Tsang (7th century), and in a document of the Tang Dynasty (8th century). The country was conquered by Tamil Pallavas from neighbouring Madras (late 7th century).Islamic records start with an account by Sulaiman the merchant (c. 900 AD), and Al-Mas'udi (916), Abul Hassan the Persian (1026), Al Biruni (1039), and Al-Idrisi (c. 1100). In the meantime, the country was reconquered by the Tamils, namely by Rajaraja Cola (1017). Europeans are on a more familiar territory when they read the account of Marco Polo (1279- 92). Ibn Battuta made two visits and spent a year and a half in the Maldives as an Islamic legal advisor (1343-46).Portuguese accounts begin from about 1500. In the brutal competition for control of ocean routes they invaded the Maldives in 1588, killed the sultan, and established Portuguese rule, but that only lasted for fifteen years. Most interesting is a lengthy three-volume account by François Pyrard of Laval, who was held captive in the Maldives (1602-07) and learned Divehi. It is a gold-mine of original Divehi history, customs, and language.British interest dates from the early 1600s. The Divehis had always managed to remain essentially independent, except for the brief Portuguese occupation, but in 1887 the sultan formally accepted British suzerainty. The only sustained historical work of the Maldives done in the British period was that by H.C.P. Bell, a British antiquarian who studied the Buddhist remains, texts, and coins. The British did not leave an administrative or cultural stamp as they did in India, except for their base in Gan in the south. The Maldives became independent in 1965 and joined the United Nations.
Tamils, Sinhalas, and Arabs
Where did the Divehis come from? Generally, ordinary Divehis mostly know only that their islands were settled from Sri Lanka, that before Islam they were Buddhist, and that their language suggests the same origin. Because of the long dominance of Islamic tradition, they tend to stress Arabic and Muslim cultural influences and overemphasize Arab ancestors. Scholars came from the Islamic centres of learning in Egypt, and the Divehis accepted the Shafi school of Islamic law. They rationalize Divehi culture and behaviour in terms of traits in Arab culture mentioned earlier in old Islamic texts. But for all that, and despite eight centuries of official status, the Islamic tradition is something of a cultural overlay.The influence of medieval Sinhalas is the dominant cultural stream. From roughly the 8th to the 10th century, unwanted kings and their retinues were apparently banished from Sri Lanka to the Maldives, and they brought their culture, language, and religion with them. There are several remains of Buddhist stupas (excavated by Bell), with coins, inscriptions, and various artefacts.What was not known previous to my research in the early 1970s, is that there is a strong underlying layer of Tamil population and culture. So far, most Divehis have not shown themselves interested in accepting this finding, as it does not suit their sense of their presti- gious origins. Be that as it may, the evidence is overwhelming. There is a clear Tamil substratum in the language, which also appears in place names, kin terms, poetry, dance, and religious beliefs. This is actually Tamil-Malayalam, as up to about the 10th century when the Malayalam language acquired a separate identity, what is now Kerala was considered to be part of the Tamil area. There are numerous references in the Tamil Sangam (1-3 century) and medieval literature to kings of Kerala having ships, conducting invasions by sea, and ruling the northern part of Sri Lanka. People of Kerala settled the Lakshadvip Islands, and evidently viewed the Maldives as an extension of them. There is a Maldivian epic about Koimala, who is said to have come from India, bringing with him his royal lineage, landed on a northern atol, and then made Male his capital. The name koi is from Malayalam koya, son of the prince, which is also the name of a high caste group in the Lakshadvip Islands. Koimala has now become a generalized eponymous ancestor of the pre-Muslim Divehis.The medieval settlements from Sri Lanka were strongest in the southern islands, and this gave rise to the Divehi language, Buddhism, and the ideals of kinship. The chronic wars between the Sinhalas and the Tamils which have characterized 2500 years of history in Sri Lanka, probably spilled over to the Maldives, so these settlers from Sri lanka ultimately absorbed all the earlier population into their Divehi culture.
By the 1970s there was only one identifiable separate caste, the Giravaru, who then lived on Hulule Island near Male. They were virtually endogamous, and unlike the other Divehis they cherished marriage as a permanent state. These people said that they were from "Tamilas" though they did not know what that meant. Their former status was rather like the palm-tree tapping lower castes of Kerala, and other Divehis regarded them as impure. They themselves averred that their customs and morals were purer then those of other Divehis. Now the Giravaru have been evicted from Hulule to make room for the expanded airport, and this remnant of Indian caste has nearly disappeared.The Divehi kinship system is partly of Dravidian origin, and bears evidence of some matriliny, like the Nayar and other matrilineal groups of Kerala. Some of the kinship terms are clearly derived from Malayalam. On to this was grafted the royal lineage system of medieval Sinhala immigrants, but the matrilineal background remained evident in the royal lineage. This is an anomaly for an Islamic society, and can only be explained in terms of the cultural history.In religion we find a vibrant underlying system, called fandita, co-existing with the formal politically-linked theological Islamic system which provides the rationale for behavioral and political control. The word fandita comes from the Indic word pandit, and refers to special powers possessed by certain men and women. This belief system encompasses ideas about spirits, ghosts, winds, and lights on the sea, and it allows people to control their health, their enemies, their boats, their fishing catch, and their destiny. The rituals contain a lot of what in India might be called puja and mantravadi (reciting of mantras), besides South Indian ideas about health and healing. This is marvellously islamicized by the institutionalized belief in jinns. The fandita experts engrave charms to be tied around the neck as is done in South India and Sri Lanka, and this is islamicized because they scratch on them marks resembling Arabic script. It is said that the Maldives was converted to Islam because a visiting saint in the 12th century showed the king that his faith had the power to control the most terrible ocean jinn then afflicting the people. The king ordered his subjects to be converted, and the saint rewarded him with the title sultan. But in fact, conversion to Islam was probably motivated more by the strength of Islamic trade and civilization which dominated the Indian Ocean at that time.
The Earliest Settlers?
There are hints of two other early layers of immigration. One is from Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia from where people found their way to settle Madagascar roughly about the time of Christ. Did some of them stop in the Maldives on the way? Probably. There are a number of Southeast Asian traits and artefacts present in the Maldives: crops such as sweet potatoes and taro, dark-coloured fish of Southeast Asia, and "bed-roasting" a custom which compels the mother to rest on a bed with fire under it for ten days after delivery to purify her, which is of Southeast Asian origin. Very early visitors to or settlers in the Maldives were probably Gujaratis. Seafaring from Gujarat began during the Indus civilization. The Jatakas and Puranas show abundant evidence of this maritime trade. The Gujaratis reached and settled Sri Lanka about 500 BC. Some evidence of direct cultural influence from North India can be deduced from the methods of boat-building and silver punch-marked coins (of the Mauryan period) have likewise been found. It is quite possible that intrepid Gujarati seafarers were shipwrecked on these islands, or that Gujarati exiles settled on them as they did on Sri Lanka, before the rise of Tamil-Malayalam sea power in the early Christian era.
Language and Script
Devehi is derived basically from an old form of Sinhala called Elu, which was spoken in Sri Lanka before many Pali and Sanskrit words were added. This dialect must have come ultimately from the Panjab. This supports the interpretation of the Sinhala chronicles that the ancestors of the Sinhalas, and therefore of the Divehis, came from western India, from Gujarat by sea, and not from Bengal. Many Sinhalas prefer the myth that they came from Bengal because of the historical importance of Buddhism, and indeed from the time of the Mauryas (3rd century BC) the sea traffic on the east side increased, and Buddhism came to Sri Lanka via Bengal. Before that, the core of Sinhala settlers came from western India, a claim which is supported by linguistic and cultural features and the specific descriptions in the epics themselves, for instance that Vijaya, the founder of the Sinhalas, visited Bharukaccha (Broach, in Gujarat) in his ship on the voyage down.Dihevi though built up from a Sinhala dialect was grafted on to earlier Tamil speech and has incorporated words from every cultural wind that buffeted the Maldives: Bengali, Malay, Persian, Arabic, Hindi, Portuguese, and English.The Brahmi script dating from Mauryan times, used in the edict inscriptions of King Asoka, gave rise to all indigenous scripts in India. It came by sea to the far southern coasts and gave rise to both the Sinhala and Tamil scripts. Brahmi was an angular script, but it evolved into the rounded medieval Sinhala script. The original Maldives script, called Evala Akuru, was roundish and resembled medieval Sinhala script. A more evolved form, Dives Akuru, is known from the copper-plate grants and tombstones especially from the 14th century, studied by Bell, and it bears the influence of the old Tulu and Grantha scripts of South India and the original script of Lakshadvip. It was used in the southern atols of the Maldives as late as 1835.The modern Divehi script, called Tana, was invented by a unknown person after the Portuguese interlude. He must have been an educated Muslim who also had a knowledge of classical Indian phonetics, as the script combines features of both Arabic and Indian scripts. The basic symbols are Arabic numerals and other letters to which Divehi phonetic values are given, and the script runs right to left. There is a full set of long and short vowels whose marks surround the consonants, the consonants have the inherent vowel 'a' but are marked with a little circle above when mute, and the script lacks aspirated consonants. These are the features derived from South India, probably along with scientific understanding of phonetics. The result is a simple script, suitable to the language and easy to learn. Most Divehis are literate, as they learn to read Islamic texts in little religious schools, and type fonts are available for printing in the script. In the 70s there was a move to replace the Tana script with "English" (Roman) script, but because of its obvious deficiencies for South Asian langu- ages, the official tendency is again to support wider use of the Tana script.
The Society
The Devehi pattern of family organization, marriage, divorce, and kinship grew out of the confluence of historical streams in the Maldives. There have been three conflicting kinship systems: the Dravidian, the North Indian, and the Arab. Most fundamental is the Dravidian: kinship terms classify kin into those marriable and unmarriable with self; cross-cousin marriage is preferred; girls have a puberty ceremony; and matriliny is possible. There are several indications of a former preferential cross-cousin marriage in the Maldives, but in the Arab system now superimposed, any cousin marriage is acceptable. The North Indian system with its patriarchal authority and wider rules of exogamy, was brought by the original Sinhalas to Sri Lanka, but there it was greatly modified by the underlying Dravidian element until it also accepted preferential cross-cousin marriage while it still retained strong lineages for political reasons, and this was brought to the Maldives.The present rules of marriage and family are thought by the Divehis to follow Islamic rules strictly, but these rules are interpreted in unique ways. Most striking is the frequency of divorce. The Maldives has the highest divorce rate (of registered marriages) of any country in the world, according to United Nations statistics. In the 1970s the rate was eighty-five divorces for every 100 marriages. By Islamic law as interpreted in the Maldives, the same man and woman can marry three times, after which they must marry other partners, and then they are free to marry each other another three times. An official notification limited the number maximum to three such cycles, or nine marriages for the same couple. But by giving a gift to charity even this could be relaxed, so some couples have remarried many more times than that. Traditionally there was an element of pride, even piety, in a man having had many marriages. Some individuals claim to have had forty to eighty marriages.Divorce is not so traumatic as in Western societies for either the partner or for their children. Most people live on tiny islands, and all the households know each other well. A man can divorce and remarry and move to a nearby household. His children are still close. They know that he is likely to remarry their mother anyway. This game of marriage is often the most important entertainment in these isolated communities with their somewhat stultifying atmosphere.Social control is exercised through religion. Every island has an Island Chief who is head of the mosque and also represents the government. The Island Chiefs fall under an Atol Chief, who is assisted by gazis who perform ceremonies and uphold Islamic law. Any misbehaviour is reported by the Island Chief to the Atol Chief and to the Department of Justice in Male. This includes theft, drinking liquor, not attending mosque, adultery (though this seldom arises), and even masturbation (by law but not in practice). There are practically no murders.The political system is also special to the Maldives, though there is not enough room to summarize it here. There are a few families who control most assets such as the shipping company, tourist hotels, and real estate in Male. These families tend to control the government. There is a majlis (national assembly) but democratic practices are only slowly gaining ground. A president who identifies an opponent is likely to exile him to an uninhabited island for some years - the commonest form of punishment, which is of ancient origin in the Maldives.
The Future
Maldives is an active and equal member of SAARC (South Indian Association for Regional Co-operation), which is recognition of its fundamental cultural similarity with India and Sri Lanka, although as a practical matter the financial aid proffered from the Arab countries is also accepted.The Maldives government is increasingly worried about crowding on the small islands and the lack of fresh water. On Male the water lens (floating on salt water) has long been polluted with human waste and human burials, and the rainwater catchment is not enough. The Maldives has only 300 sq km of land (and the ocean between), and the population has long outgrown the local produce, mainly fish supplemented by a little agriculture. Traditionally tuna was the main export, in exchange for which rice was imported. The main income now is from the tourist islands, shipping, international aid, and trade as Maldives has declared itself as a free port. Education has expanded very rapidly, and the Divehis, who were so long isolated from the wider world, are quickly adapting to their expanded opportunities. These changes have brought population growth through a decline in infant mortality, and a population shift to Male. The main long-term worry however is the rising level of the ocean, which threatens to obliterate the country within one or two centu- ries.The Maldives is an exceedingly interesting country, and merits more attention from specialists on South Asia and the Indian Ocean area.
Clarence Maloney is a South Asian specialist and former professor of Anthropology. He has worked for the past 25 years in donor-funded rural development projects in India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. He is now the Team Leader of the Kerala Community Irrigation Project, funded by the Netherlands Foreign Ministry through Euroconsult
Posted by Fnoase at 2:35 AM 0 comments Links to this post
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2000
MALDIVES AND ITS BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE
From Thuraakunu to Gan
While I was in school, my career began with enthusiasm and self learned professions. Inspired by the world around me photography and travel to local islands of our beautiful Maldives plays a major role in my life. Originality which comes with the involvement in photography is the greatest aspect of my life. The eagerness to know has kept me reading news, listen and watching different documents especially from National Geographic Channel for hours, which helps in generating great ideas and concept to enhance photography. Sun sand and Sea is the most common 3 symbol to describe Maldives. Maldives or Dhivehi Raahje is local language means chains of 1190islands in sparkling Indian Ocean almost all of them are just one meter above the sea level. Among them only 200 are inhabitant, just over 300,000 in populations scatted around these 200 islands but it’s hard to believe that one third of them lives in one island, Capital Island this refers as most congested piece of land in entire world.
This unique country was knows to travelers even in ancient times. But there are very few records remains of their impression of the country. Due to rapid development in the world it very important to obtain meaningful and accurate information about the places and beautiful people of the country,
thousand ‘Robinson Crusoe’ islands, massive lagoons with different depths and infinite shades of blue and turquoise, dazzling underwater coral gardens; a perfect natural combination for the ideal tropical holiday destination..
Travel and Photography has been the most adventures part of my life. As a hobby I have been traveled through out the Maldives, visiting the islands meeting different people leads to experience difference in Maldivian living style. The challenges and how they used to come over it during day to day life and whole life period as well. So after 10 years of travel now I think this is my turn to compile all those information and photos to an article, (“MALDIVES AND ITS BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE” A PORTRAIT OF MALDIVES) with the help of all those experiences, sweet memories and views I hope insha allah MALDIVES AND ITS BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE will come to a reality.
Posted by Fnoase at 11:31 PM 0 comments Links to this post
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2000
REPUBLIC OF MALDIVES
The Republic of Maldives or Dhivehi Rajje’, (the state of the Islanders) is a group of 1192 small low-lying coral islands in the Indian Ocean spread across the equator approximately 130 km wide and 820 km long, covering an area of 90,000 sq km. Its closest neighbours are India and Sri Lanka. The Laccadives lie to the North and the Chagos Group to the South.
The islands of the Maldivian archipelago are grouped into twenty-six natural rings or atolls. The islands are grouped into twenty atolls for administrative purposes. Only 199 islands are inhabited. The islands are very small, the largest being only a few kilometres in length. All the islands (except the island of Fuvahmulah) are very flat and covered with coconut trees. The climate of the Maldives is tropical; hot and humid.
The present population of the Maldives is 298,991 with a sex ratio of 103 males per 100 females . Approximately one-fourth of the total population live on the capital, Male` which is an island of about one and a half square miles, situated approximately in the centre of the archipelago.
People
Archaeological evidence as well as early references to the Maldives suggests that the Maldives has been inhabited for at least four thousand years. The people of the Maldives are predominantly of Aryan (Arya Vanha) stock.
Albert Gray says “As to its origin, the race which now inhabits the Maldivian archipelago (as well as Maliku or Minicoy islands) and which has occupied it from the earliest time of which we have any record is unquestionably of the same Aryan stock as the Sinhalese. This conclusion is borne out by evidence of language, physical traits, tradition, folklore, manners and customs.”
However, the first settlers of the Maldives were from the North Indian states of Maharashtra, Gujarat and the eastern state of Orissa.
According to Professor Stanley Gardiner who visited the Maldives in 1899, to study the physical characteristics of the Maldivian people, Maldivians showed Aryan, African, Arab as well as Indonesian features. Even today, one can still see the same physical features. Some Maldivians have South Indian features while others have distinctly African features. Some have Arab features while others look Malay or Indonesian. Some have North Indian features while others have European features. So Maldivians can be said to be predominantly Indo-Aryan with an admixture of African, European, Arab, Malay and Indonesian blood.
History
Written sources of Maldivian history which gives a light on the period before its conversion to Islam in 1153 C.E. are very few, and give only a very few information about pre-Islamic history of Maldives. However, various archaeological sites, many of which are ruins of Buddhist temples, bear vivid testimony to the Buddhist past of the Maldives. Proper archaeological excavation, however, has been done only on one site in the Maldives namely the Kuruhinna Tharaagan’du of Kaarhidhoo. A clam shell found this site has been dated to 40 B.C. – C.E. 1157.
It is probable that the Maldives were already known to the Phoenicians. The ancient geographer, Claudius Ptolemaeus, who lived in the 2nd Century C.E., mentions 1378 islands nearby the island of Taprobane (Sri Lanka) which most probably refers to the Maldives and the Laccadives. In his report on the year 362 C.E., Ammanius Marcellinus informs his emperor Julian about “Divae et Serendivae, nationes Indicae…” which are located in the Indian Ocean. He is most certainly referring to the Maldives and Sri Lanka. This reference to the Maldives shows that as early as the year 362 C.E., the Maldives was known as a separate nation.
Although the country managed to preserve her independence for the most part of her long history, lying at the crossroads of the ancient sea trade routes, the Maldives was influenced by sailors and travellers from countries on the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. Mopla pirates from the Malabar Coast incessantly harassed the country. In the 16th century, the Portuguese subjugated and ruled the islands for 15 years (1558-73), before being forced to flee by Muhammad Thakurufaanu Al-A’zam.
The Maldives was a British protectorate from 1887 to 1965. Following independence from Britain in 1965, the sultanate continued till November 11, 1968, when it was abolished and replaced by a republic.
Language
Divehi (or Dhivehi) language, Dhivehi bas or “islanders' language” is the national language of the Maldive islands where it is spoken by a population of two hundred and seventy thousand people. It is also spoken in Minicoy (India) where it is known as Mahal.
Linguists agree that Divehi is an Indo-Aryan language closely related to Sinhalese of Sri Lanka. Divehi represents the southern most Indo-Aryan language and even the southernmost Indo-European language. Together with the closely related Sinhalese, Divehi establishes a special subgroup within the Modern Indo-Aryan languages.
Mr. De Silva proposes that Divehi and Sinhalese must have branched off from a common mother language. He says that “the earliest Indic element in Maldivian (Divehi) is not so much a result of branching off from Sinhalese as a result of a simultaneous separation with Sinhalese from the Indic languages of the mainland of India”.
De Silva is referring to the Dravidian influences seen in the Divehi language such as in the old place names.
De Silva’s theory is supported by the legend of Prince Vijaya as told in the Mahavamsa because if this legend is to be believed, the migration of Indo-Aryan colonists to the Maldives and Sri Lanka from the mainland (India) must have taken place simultaneously. This means that Divehi and Sinhalese must be sister languages that developed from a common Prakrit.
Divehi Writing Systems
The oldest inscription found in the Maldives to date is an inscription on a coral stone found at an archaeological site on the island of Landhoo in Noonu Atoll. This inscription is estimated to be from 8th century C.E. This inscription is written in a script close to the southern Grantha Script.
The oldest paleographically datable inscription found in the Maldives is a Sanskrit inscription of Vajrayana Buddhism dating back to the 9th or 10th century C.E. This inscription is written in an early form of the Nagari script.
Until the late 17th century C.E., Divehi was written in a script called Dhives Akuru (islanders’ letters). In the early 18th century, a new script called Thaana Akuru (Young letters) was introduced into formal writing and eventually replaced the old Dhives script. The earliest writing in Thaana Akuru found so far, dates back to 1703 C.E.
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