Place · island cultural landscape · India
Minicoy
The southernmost of the Lakshadweep islands at Minicoy (Malayalam: Maliku), 400 kilometres from Kavaratti and 120 kilometres from the Maldives — the only Lakshadweep island where Mahl (Dhivehi) is spoken rather than Malayalam, with a distinct cultural tradition closer to the Maldives than to Kerala. The island's 10,000 inhabitants are Sunni Shafi'i Muslims, matrilineal in inheritance (closer to the Nair Kerala or Minangkabau Sumatran tradition than mainland Islamic practice), and governed historically through the Boduthurrudu system of 11 elected village elders. The 1885 British lighthouse at Minicoy Point is one of the oldest lighthouses in India. The 1956 integration into India brought the island into the Union; the distinctive matrilineal Dhivehi-Islamic culture complicates mainland-centred narratives of 'Indian Islam'.
- Function
- Religious institution & practice
- Tradition
- Minicoy maritime history
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 8.280, 73.050
Connections (1)
- In the same set asKavaratti / Lakshadweep
Kavaratti and Minicoy are at opposite ends of the Lakshadweep chain and belong to different cultural worlds: Malayalam-speaking and Kerala-facing in the north, Divehi-speaking and Maldives-facing in the south. The break falls on the Nine Degree Channel, which is also the main sailing lane between Malabar and Arabia. The islands are a route, not a periphery.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Minicoy”. K.N. Chaudhuri, Trade and Civilisation in the Indian Ocean; the Cairo Geniza India Book (Goitein and Friedman).
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