Comparative Studies in Society and History

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In recent days, much international media attention has been paid to the death of a young American missionary killed on 16 November on North Sentinel Island in India’s Andaman Islands. He had unlawfully entered a highly protected area to proselytize the indigenous Sentinelese. For many people, this is the first they have heard of the Andamans, but behind this story is a long history of colonial and postcolonial incursion into and occupation of indigenous lands. In an October 2017 article in Comparative Studies in Society and History, “Developing Terra Nullius: Colonialism, Nationalism, and Indigeneity in the Andaman Islands,” Uditi Sen analyzed this “violent and continuing history of indigenous marginalization.” Cambridge University Press is making this paper available for free download so that interested readers can learn about this history, and place the still unfolding story of the American’s death in its broader context. The paper can be accessed here.