United Suvadive Republic
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The United Suvadive Republic (Dhivehi: އެކުވެރި ސުވައިދީބު ޖުމްހޫރިއްޔާ) or Suvadive Islands was a short-lived breakaway nation in the remote Southern Atolls of the Maldive Islands, namely Addu Atoll, Huvadhu Atoll and Fuvammulah.
The name of this nation was originally an ancient name for the three southernmost atolls of the Maldives. Suvadive (Dhivehi: ސުވައިދީބު) is based on the ancient name for Huvadhu Atoll, which is by far the largest in the small southern atoll group. [1]
The Suvadive secession occurred within in the context of the struggle of the Maldives emerging as a modern nation, but still shackled by feudal and autocratic power structures. The alleged causes were the centralistic policies of the government in Malé and the recent independence of both neighboring countries, India and Ceylon. At that time the Maldives had remained a British protectorate. The Suvadives declared independence on January 3, 1959. They capitulated, rejoining the rest of the nation in September 23, 1963.
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[edit] Historical background
[edit] Lack of government-promoted communication
Since ancient times there was a lack of communication between the administrative capital Malé and the most distant atolls (North and South) of the Maldive chain. The government of the Maldive Islands never had a scheduled shipping line that could have provided regular communication with the distant Southern Atolls. Forgotten by the capital, there was not even a regular mail service to this remote end of the country.
The result was a chronic lack of elementary needs in the distant Atolls, such as certain essential food items and clothing and, in case of epidemics, even the medical assistance and medicines urgently required. [2]
In the face of the capital's inability to provide these basic services, the people in the Southern Atolls were left to fend for themselves.
Traditionally, the void left by this lack of necessary trade and communication was filled by affluent merchant families from the three Southern Atolls. Using special large sailships (odi or vedi), they conducted direct external trade with neighboring countries. Thus they used to make a yearly trip to a harbour in Ceylon or South India without involving the capital.
It was certainly easier for the heavy trading ships of Southern Maldives to sail straight across the open ocean to India or Ceylon, where British rule provided a safeguard and a common sense of belonging, than to make difficult navigation northwards through the treacherous reefs of the long atoll chain to sail to the capital. Male' was after all a small trading post compared to harbors like Colombo, Cochin or Tuticorin.
However, in practice this meant that the central government had little control over the import trade conducted within the country. There was no conflict as long as all the countries involved were under the British Empire and so this status quo was maintained until after World War II.
[edit] Imposition of trade restrictions
When the British initiated the process of decolonization in South Asia the situation changed drastically. In 1947 the Maldive government, while still a British protectorate, took the first steps towards independence backed by disgruntled Malé merchants, who wished for a privileged share of the trade with the Southerners. Thus the Maldive Government, with the co-operation of the British authorities, imposed the requirement to carry passports and visas to travel to Sri Lanka and India on the captains and crews of the Southern trading ships, at the time that the British administration was leaving those newly independent former British colonies.
The new travel documents for the Southern Maldivian traders and sailors were to be issued in Malé. However, the government and the traders of the capital aimed to attain control and revenue from this lucrative trade without consulting with a representation of the concerned Southern traders. This unilateral action proved detrimental to the harmony of existing traditions concerning autonomous trade, and it was perceived as contempt in the South.
[edit] Insurrection
British troops were stationed in the islands of Gan and Hithadhoo in Addu atoll since the time of the Second World War. However, the Maldive central government denied the neighboring islanders any chance of bartering with them. Furthermore, after the introduction of the harsh new measures to control the import and export trade, the central government went on to stipulate other measures of control such as poll and land tax.
In addition, the government of the Maldive Islands posted its own militiamen in the atoll to ensure that absolutely no trade was carried out without the government’s knowledge. The arrest and physical assault of a son of a wealthy family (possibly for a breach of one of the new restrictions) by one of these militiamen led to the first revolt in which a mob rose against him. He was given sanctuary by the British until the situation calmed down and when the government prosecuted the alleged conspirators vouching the militiaman's account of events. The men were convicted and reportedly subjected to humiliating forms of punishment such as public flogging.
The Maldivian Government was delaying the ratification of a 100-year lease of the islands Gan and Maamendoo, which greatly distressed the British. Sometime later, under a new agreement with the government, the Addu people were allowed to seek employment in the British facilities, enabling them to obtain a rewarding incomes and lavish goods while relishing the idea of less dependence. In 1957, the sultan appointed Ibrahim Nasir as the prime minister of the sultanate; Nasir ordered the British to cease all construction undertakings in Addu. Local rumour in Male' suggested that this possibly led an already infuriated civilian British contractor posted there to suggest to the unhappy islanders the idea of independence from the central government. However, this is not supported by historical documents.
[edit] Secession of the Suvadives
Among those who were involved in the uprising against the militiamen of the central government was a young, educated and well-respected individual known as Abdullah Afeef, who served as a translator to the British during their post. His local name was Elha Didige Ali Didige Afifu. The new prime minister appointed him as the liaison officer between the British and the locals. Shortly afterwards, in December of 1958, the government announced plans for a new tax on boats. This caused riots throughout the atoll, leading to several attacks on government buildings. Once again, the officials of the Government of the Maldive Islands were forced to retreat to the safety of the British barracks. The fact is that they owed their lives to Afeef, who warned them of the impending unrest. [3]
Four days later, on January 3, 1959 a delegation of the Addu people arrived on Gan and declared their independence to the British. The delegation also insisted that Afeef be their leader. Afeef was chosen to lead the nascent Suvadive government because of British insistence that a trustworthy leader whom they were familiar with be chosen, as a precondition for them being able to back the secession. [4] It is said that Afeef initially refused, and that he accepted the role of becoming the executive head of the new state only under heavy pressure.
The newly-formed republic was born in southernmost Addu Atoll with high expectations. Soon, hoping to share in their neighbor's newly-found independence, the atolls of Huvadu and Fuvahmulah joined Addu to form the United Suvadive Republic. However, the Maldive government reacted by sending a fully-armed gunboat to Huvadhu, commanded by prime minister Ibrahim Nasir himself, and threatened the secessionist leaders and the notables of various islands in that large atoll. Finally, the initial separatist movement in that atoll was suppressed by June 1959.
However, the other two small atolls were spared the Maldive government's reaction. Addu Atoll was protected by British intervention, with the deployment a regiment from Peninsular Malaysia. Lacking a harbor, Fua Mulaku was inaccessible to the attacks of the Maldive government gunboat.
[edit] Abandoned by Britain
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A year later, in 1960, due to the Maldive prime minister's tireless international campaigns, a new accord between the British and Maldivian governments was approved and the former soon announced the termination of their so-called support to the Suvadive separatists. The British, who despite contrary claims made by the Government in Male', had been consistently lukewarm at best in their support of the Suvadives (and who had never formally recognized the country), now fully abandoned the fledgling atoll country to its fate.
By special instructions from the British Government, the Suvadive trading ships in Indian and Ceylonese harbors were seized and not allowed to leave port.[5] As a stringent trade boycott was imposed on the Suvadive Republic, food supplies ran short and there were signs of starvation in Fua Mulaku.
However, the withdrawal of British support did not deter the Suvadive republic. In 1961, Huvadu Atoll seceded again and rejoined the Suvadives in a move locally known as the 'Second Revolt'. This reversion was met with yet again another personal appeal by the Maldive prime minister who, failing to convince the Huvadhu islanders this time, reacted ruthlessly and ferociously.
This led to an attack on the capital island of Huvadhu Atoll because of its 'Second Revolt'. This time another gunboat, named 'Elizabeth Boyer', leased from the Ceylon Navy by prime minister Ibrahim Nasir, anchored off Havaru Thinadhoo on February 4th 1962. Without any attempt at talks, the disembarking soldiers engaged in the systematic and complete destruction of all the houses in Havaru Thinadhoo and the dispersion of all its inhabitants. Most of the rebel leaders were then imprisoned and badly mistreated. Some of them, notables from Huvadhu, died later owing to the injuries they sustained.
The same gunboat with soldiers from Male' sent by the central government went further south to Fua Mulaku and tried to disembark unsuccessfully at Rasgefanno in 1962. But the island people gathered at the beach and threw stones to the soldiers. The soldiers opened fire killing one man.
Without the support of the British, the Suvadive republic was on the brink of collapse.
[edit] Capitulation
The United Suvadive Republic was dismantled by the British authorities without ceremony. On September 22, 1963, a British political agent dictated an ultimatum to the citizens of Maradhoo, for the immediate removal of the Suvadive flag, and to hoist that of the Maldives. This was done the next day, September 23, 1963.
Abdullah Afeef was forced to resign as president of the Suvadive government and was sent into exile to the Seychelles with his immediate family aboard the British warship "HMS Loch Lomond".
The British then announced that they would only employ citizens of the sovereign sultanate of the Maldive Islands as workers at the airbase.
The local Fua Mulaku leaders received the news only two days later. Then the Suvadive flag was taken down from the mast at Ravverige. This flag, a wooden board with a painted Coat-of-Arms, documents and other representative items of the defunct republic were taken to a lonely spot in the Northeast of the island. There a pit was dug at a place above the waterline close to the beach and all items were buried. The spot of the burial was similar to the place that would be chosen for a person having died from a dreaded disease, like leprosy or cholera.
[edit] Summary
The Suvadive secession began in the southernmost atoll of Addu in 1959, but the idea of independence was spread to the communities of Fua'mulah and Huvadhu and resulted in their joining the fledgling nation. The situation ended in 1963 with the Suvadive Islands' government being completely dismantled and the exile of its leader Abdullah Afeef, who was granted asylum in the Seychelles. The atolls participating in the secession were duly restored as a region of the Maldive Islands.
The controversy around the Suvadive still endures and touches sensitive fibres of many Maldivians. The general blame for the secession is put on the scheming British and their fork-tonguedness. This is not only convenient, but it also has a ring of truth, for it would be not the first time that the British have played the role of villain behind the scenes.
On one hand the British gave hopes to the trusting Suvadive islanders, legitimally afflicted by centralism and neglect. But on the other hand the same British later left the Suvadive people in the ditch and made a separate agreement with the government of the Maldive Islands behind the back of the islanders who trusted them fully.
The inhabitants of the neighboring island group, the Chagossian Islanders or Ilois were ditched similarly by the British Government when the USA agreed to pay handsomely to lease the island of Diego Garcia in the British Indian Ocean Territory as long as there would be no 'bothersome natives' close by.
[edit] Economy
During the Second World War the British base in Addu Atoll had acted as a temporary trading point for the Maldives, enabling the Maldivian government to obtain fuel and other necessities throughout the shortages of the war.
After the short-lived independence from the central government, the British presence in Addu gave a measure of prosperity to the Suvadivians. They were provided with employment, health facilities and supplies which helped to alleviate the trade boycott imposed by the government of the Maldive Islands, Ceylon and India on this small breakaway nation.
During the years of the secession, the Suvadive trading boats which had reached the customary harbours in India and Ceylon in their yearly trip, were impounded by the local harbour authorities and their captains and crew were detained. Much needed supplies failed to reach the Suvadive atolls in those years and local islanders remember them as a time of penury, when boats were expected and horizons were scanned in vain.
[edit] References
- The Islands of Maldives. Hasan A. Maniku. Novelty. Male 1983.
- Divehiraajjege Jōgrafīge Vanavaru. Muhammadu Ibrahim Lutfee. G.Sōsanī. Male' 1999.
- Xavier Romero-Frias, The Maldive Islanders, A Study of the Popular Culture of an Ancient Ocean Kingdom. Barcelona 1999, ISBN 84 7254 801 5
- ^ www.maldivesculture.com Suvadive was originally an ancient name for the three southern most atolls.
- ^ www.maldivesroyalfamily.com
- ^ www.maldivesroyalfamily.com Uprising in 1958.
- ^ www.maldivesroyalfamily.com Afeef Didi was forced to take the role of the executive head of the state.
- ^ Xavier Romero-Frias, The Maldive Islanders
