The renaming of Port Blair to Sri Vijaya Puram in September 2024 was not an anti-colonial move; it was merely another instance of the government’s constant imposition of Sanskrit and Hindi. It just changed an English name to a Sanskrit one, in spite of the fact that neither English nor Sanskrit have ever been spoken natively by the indigenous peoples of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The indigenous languages of Andaman and Nicobar include the Nicobarese languages, Ongan languages, Great Andamanese languages, etc. If Port Blair had to be renamed, it could have been given a name from one of these languages. Worse, the people of Andaman and Nicobar (both indigenous and non-indigenous) didn’t even have a say in this matter; the decision was entirely taken by mainlanders. In the same way, the decision to destroy the Great Nicobar Island for pure economic benefit is being taken entirely by mainlanders, and the Shompen and Nicobarese, who have been living there for thousands of years, have no say in this matter.
