North Sentinel Island: Are the Sentinelese as Violent as Pop Culture Has Made Them Look?

In fact, John Allen Chau, who was killed by the Sentinelese in 2018 managed to escape his fate twice by retreating from the shore. The death could have been very well avoided if repeated attempts to interact with the islanders were not made. The tragedy that followed is definitely irrevocable and saddening.

It has to be noted that in the 1880s, Maurice Vidal Portman, a British officer, landed on the island with armed men and captured four Sentinelese children and two elderly. The older two succumbed soon after reaching a British penal colony, and the children grew sick as well. Alarmed, Portman dropped them back on the island. Nobody knows if the children carried back new microbes to the island and more people fell sick. Most researchers believe that this was one of the most alarming precedents that the outsiders set for the Sentinelese.

Not just them, anyone would be wary of outsiders if something of this order follows; remember how the world shut down and countries sealed their borders when COVID-19 hit us.

Mr Triloknath Pandit’s opinion on the matter sheds more light on the matter. He has pioneered a number of expeditions to the North Sentinel Island in the past, and is probably the most insightful person when it comes to the tribe. In interviews following John’s death, Mr Pandit expressed surprise that things went this far. 

In an interview with The Print, Mr Pandit says, “they are peace loving people… Our languages might be different, but we understood them perfectly, they didn’t want us here…”. He goes on to say that the Sentinelese express their desire to be left alone very clearly, often grimacing at his team during their expeditions. 

Mr Pandit, based on his expeditions to North Sentinel Island told the Indian Express, “If we tried to venture into their territory without respecting their wishes or got too close for comfort, they would turn their backs on us and sit down on their haunches, as if to defecate. That was meant to be an insult. If we didn’t pay heed and stop, they would shoot arrows as a last resort.”

Should the Sentinelese be contacted?

If you look at the happenings rationally, the Sentinelese are more guarded than they are violent. The closest any outsider could go to the North Sentinel habitants is Mr Pandit and his team, when the Sentinelese showed up to collect coconuts from the crew. This was in 1991 and the only time when the tribe lowered their weapons. It has to be noted that Mr Pandit and his crew were allowed this proximity after decades of efforts and trust-building exercises. Even then, the tribe made it clear that they do not want more interaction or anything else to do with the outside world. 

It would be foolish to assume that they have no knowledge of the outside world; barely some kilometers away, there are islands with thriving tourism industries, luxury cruises, plush resorts, water sports, buzzing ports and more. A good number of daily flights could not have escaped the attention of the Sentinelese, and I can write the same about the increasing remains that most tourists usually leave behind.There is no chance that the island does not get washed up with plastic bottles and more every now and then.

Clearly, they are in no dire need of outside help or interference and unlike the world outside of the North Sentinel Island, the Sentinelese have somehow mastered the skills of sustainably existing with nature. For all that we know, the world might have more than just a few things to learn from them instead of the purported claims of making them “more civilised”.

Perhaps the answer is to respect the choice of the North Sentinels, with the hope that they would continue to survive and thrive as they have for thousands of years, all by themselves. They want the world to stay away, and it’s best that we do.