The monsoon has the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in its grip. From B-Quarry Beach, I watch a white-bellied sea eagle perched on a dark weathered rock just offshore from Great Nicobar, India’s southernmost island, in the eastern Indian Ocean. It is July 2026. I raise my telephoto lens and bring her into focus; her eyes fixed on the restless sea. The ocean around the bird heaves relentlessly, each wave crashing against the black rocks before exploding into white spray and pulling back. My mind drifts back to 2011, when I first arrived here as a researcher and fell under the spell of this remote island — its soaring rainforests, tranquil beaches, incredible wildlife, and the generosity of the Nicobarese who opened their doors to me. Forgotten What began as a field visit deepened into a long-term anthropological engagement. Over time, the Nicobar archipelago — a protected tribal reserve and the ancestral homeland of the Shompen and the Nicobarese — became the centre of my research. Living and working here taught me how deeply Indigenous lives are woven into the forests and seascapes, and how profoundly they are shaped by the expanding reach of the modern state. The tropical sun is...

The President's grandiose evening with Xi Jinping was big on pomp, but light on progress

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