Lakshadweep is a group of islands that forms a union territory of India. The islands lie off the southwestern coast of mainland India in the Arabian Sea.
An Indian union territory has more limited powers than an Indian state. The territory is governed directly by the central government through a lieutenant governor, who is appointed by the president of India.
Lakshadweep is India’s smallest union territory. It has a land area of 12 square miles (32 square kilometers).
- Lakshadweep Land and Climate Facts
- Islands: About 36 islands scattered over 30,000 square miles (78,000 square kilometers) of the Arabian Sea.
- Island size: All islands are small. None of them are wider than 1 mile (1.6 kilometers). Almost every populated island is a coral atoll—a coral reef surrounding a lagoon.
- Populated islands: People live on only 10 of the islands, and most of the population can be found on four of them—Andrott, Kavaratti, Minicoy, and Amini.
- Climate: The islands have a humid tropical climate with warm temperatures year-round and a monsoon season. The territory receives about 65 inches (165 centimeters) of rain every year on average.
The people on Minicoy Island have a similar culture to those of islands of the Maldives to the south. The rest of Lakshadweep’s people are descendants of migrants from the southwestern coast of India. They arrived on the islands sometime before the 600s ce and later converted to Islam. More than 96 percent of the population is Muslim. Hindus and Christians make up most of the rest of the population. Many people speak Jasari (also known as Jeseri), which is not a written language. Some people speak Hindi, Malayalam, and a few other languages. People on Minicoy speak Dhivehi, which is the official language of the Maldives.
The main occupations of Lakshadweep are fishing and the growing and processing of coconuts. Tuna is the primary catch. Coconuts are used to make coconut oil and a fiber called coir. Tourism is growing, but visitors must get a permit to visit the islands. The government closely monitors tourism to avoid negative impacts to the environment.
Little is known about the early history of what is now Lakshadweep. Muslim missionaries visited the islands in the 600s ce, and the islanders eventually converted to Islam. However, the islands were controlled by Hindu dynasties from India’s southwestern coast until the 1100s, when they came under Muslim rule.
Portuguese explorers arrived in 1498. Portuguese traders later built a fort on the islands to control trade, especially in coir. Islanders staged an uprising against the Portuguese in 1545.
Local female rulers called bibis and their husbands ruled the islands until the 1780s. At that time, the ruler of Mysore (now Karnataka) took control of the northern group of islands, the Amindivis. The British took control of the Amindivis in 1799 but let the bibis continue ruling the other islands in exchange for an annual payment. In 1908 all islands came under direct British rule.
The islands became part of India after the country gained independence from the British in 1947. In 1956 the islands were made into a union territory called the Laccadive, Minicoy, and Amindivi Islands. The territory’s name was changed to Lakshadweep in 1973. Population (2011) 64,429.
