Main Bhi Bharat - Tribes of Andamans: Great Andamanese

Main Bhi Bharat is the first ever TV programme in India on the tribes. This programme deals with the issues related to the culture, identity, lifestyle and livelihood of the tribals. A small group of 58 people referred to as Great Andamanese today are all that remain of the ten original tribes that were spread out all over the Great Andaman Island. The tribes of South Andaman were the people who first came into conflict with the colonial authority in the penal settlement founded in 1858. As the settlement spread out northwards to middle and north Andaman, conflict intensified. It was as late as 1968 that the Andaman administration took up the resettlement of the surviving individuals of the tribes in a systematic way at Strait Island. RSTV team in this programme examines the policies to preserve the culture and identity of this tribe and also tries to understand the challenge of survival for the Great Andamanese people. Anchor: Shyam Sunder