A 1950s map showing the archipelago as the ‘Arabian Sea Islands (Laccadive, Minicoy & Amindive Islands)’ prior to their unification and renaming.
Ever wondered how India’s smallest Union Territory got its name? Until 1956, the Lakshadweep archipelago was known by a different name, and the process behind its renaming holds layers of historical, linguistic, and cultural significance.
The Lakshadweep archipelago became a distinct administrative unit on November 1, 1956. Prior to this, the inhabited islands were divided into three groups:
- The northern group of five islands, collectively known as Amindivi
- The southern group of four islands, referred to as the Laccadives
- The southernmost island of Minicoy
Initially, these islands were under different administrative jurisdictions. The Amindivi group was part of the South Kanara district (now in Karnataka), while the Laccadives and Minicoy were under Malabar (now in Kerala). All were collectively administered under the Madras Presidency until 1956, when they were united as a Union Territory named ‘Laccadive, Minicoy and Amindivi Islands‘.
While the name ‘Lakshadweep’ seems modern, both it and its earlier anglicized version, ‘Laccadives’, are thought to have recent origins. Ancient travelers, geographers, and Arab historians referred to the Lakshadweep and the Maldives archipelago collectively as Dibajat or Divis, meaning islands in Arabic.
The northern group of islands, known as Amindivi, derives its name from Amini, the primary island in the region. According to local tradition, Amini was the first island in Lakshadweep to embrace Islam. The name ‘Amini’ is said to come from the Arabic word Amin, meaning faithful, or Al-Amin, another name for the Prophet Muhammad.
The picturesque coastline of Amini Island, historically significant as the first island in Lakshadweep to embrace Islam and the namesake of the northern Amindivi group.
Minicoy stands out as the most storied island in the Lakshadweep archipelago, following distinct customs, culture, and language closer to the Maldives than the other islands. In Divehi, the local language (also the official language of Maldives), Minicoy is known as ‘Maliku’. This is thought to derive from the Arabic word for king, suggesting the island was considered the “king among islands” due to its beauty.
A more intriguing version of the name’s origin links it to the term for cannibals. According to this story, Minicoy islanders often settled in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, referring to them as Minikaa-raajje due to the local reputation for cannibalism. When a British official asked a Minicoy islander where he was from, the islander answered he was from ‘Maliku‘ but lived in ‘Minikaa-raajje.‘ The British official, misunderstanding this, recorded the island’s name as ‘Minikaa’, which eventually became Minicoy.
Aerial view of Minicoy Island with its distinctive lighthouse, showing the unique geography that earned it the name ‘Maliku’ or ‘king among islands’ due to its beauty.
The word ‘Laccadives‘, later used to refer to the entire chain of islands, likely originated from the records of the Dutch East India Company. In 1743, J.V. Stein Van Gollenesse, in his Memorandum on the Administration of the Malabar Coast, referred to these islands as ‘Lekker-Diva‘. This term later became anglicized as Laccadives in British records. Both Lekker-diva and Laccadives are thought to be corruptions of an earlier local name, Lakshadweep.
A translated (in 1911 by the British) page from J.V. Stein Van Gollenesse’s 1743 ‘Memorandum on the Administration of the Malabar Coast’, containing one of the earliest recorded uses of the term ‘Lekker-Diva‘ which later evolved into ‘Laccadives‘.
In Malayalam and Sanskrit, ‘Laksha‘ means a lakh, or one hundred thousand. One popular version of the island’s name origin, endorsed by sources like Google and Wikipedia, is that it refers to the sheer number of islands in the archipelago. However, this interpretation is considered dubious.
According to N.S. Mannadiar, author of the 1977 Lakshadweep Gazetteer, “The interpretation of the name Lakshadweep as ‘one hundred thousand islands’ is merely based on conjecture”. Mannadiar argued that it is unlikely for an archipelago of only around 30 islands to be named for a number as large as one hundred thousand.
There are three primary stories regarding the origin of the name Lakshadweep:
- The Debt Story: One version claims the Raja of Cannanore (who ruled the southern islands) borrowed large sums of money, measured in lakhs of rupees, from the East India Company to maintain his rule. As a result, the islands came to be known as ‘Lakshadweep’ or ‘Laccadives’ (literally, “islands costing lakhs”).
- The Popular Myth: This widely circulated theory holds that the name refers to the one hundred thousand islands in the archipelago. However, as Mannadiar notes, this interpretation is neither supported by historical records nor by the actual number of islands.
- The Trade Route Theory: Mannadiar’s preferred explanation connects the name to the islands’ historical significance as a landmark for sailors. ‘Laksha’ may be derived from the root word lag, meaning something attached or fixed. In this context, ‘Laksha’ refers to a mark or sign — specifically, a navigational mark used by sailors to aim at when reaching the Malabar coast. Thus, Lakshadweep may have meant ‘the islands to aim for’.
A contemporary map of Lakshadweep showing all inhabited and uninhabited islands united under a single administration and reflecting the stark contrast between the popular myth of ‘one hundred thousand islands’ and the actual number of islands in the archipelago.
Though the name Lakshadweep has its roots in both history and legend, it was not until 1956 that the islands officially adopted this name, uniting the distinct groups of Amindivi, Laccadives, and Minicoy. The next time someone suggests the name simply refers to ‘one hundred thousand islands’, you can confidently explain the more nuanced, and much more fascinating, nomenclature origin of the Lakshadweep Islands.