Port Blair

The harbour takes its name from Archibald Blair, a lieutenant of the East India Company who surveyed it in 1789 and established a short-lived settlement that disease forced the British to abandon within a few years. The islands' older history belongs to the Great Andamanese, whose communities lived along these coasts for thousands of years, and to the ships that avoided the archipelago's reputation for shipwreck and hostile shores.

After the rebellion of 1857 the British returned in 1858 and founded a penal settlement for political prisoners and convicts, choosing the sheltered harbour and putting the headquarters on Ross Island, a tiny islet that was built up with a church, a bakery, tennis courts and officers' bungalows. Convict labour cleared forest, drained ground and built the town, and contact with the settlement brought disease that reduced the Great Andamanese from thousands to a few dozen. The Cellular Jail, finished in 1906, held prisoners in single cells so that they could not communicate, and the name Kala Pani — the black water — came to stand for transportation and exile.

Japan occupied the islands from 1942 to 1945, and in December 1943 Subhas Chandra Bose raised the flag of his Provisional Government of Free India in Port Blair. After independence the town became the capital of a union territory, and the government settled refugees from East Bengal along with migrants from Tamil Nadu, Kerala and elsewhere, so that its population is largely descended from settlers and from the "local-born" families of the penal colony. An earthquake and tsunami struck in December 2004, damaging the coast and jetties. Tourism has grown steadily since, and in 2024 the town was officially renamed Sri Vijaya Puram, though Port Blair remains in common use.

Port Blair is a settler town, and its culture is an assembly of mainland traditions kept up several sea days from their origins. Bengali is heard as often as Tamil or Telugu, Hindi serves as the common language, and temples, mosques, gurdwaras and churches stand within a few streets of each other. Families descended from the convicts of the penal colony, known locally as local-born, form a distinct community with their own sense of the town's history.

That history gives the place a particular weight in Indian national memory. The Cellular Jail is a national memorial rather than only a museum, and many Indian visitors come primarily to see it and to hear the evening light-and-sound account of the prisoners held there; school groups and officials make the same visit. Streets, the airport and public buildings carry the names of independence figures.

The indigenous peoples of the islands live apart under legal protection and are not part of the town's social life: the Jarawa reserve lies to the north, the Onge on Little Andaman, and the Sentinelese reject all contact. Photographing, approaching or attempting to meet them is a criminal offence, and residents take the rules seriously. Everyday life is quiet and early. Festivals follow the settlers' calendars, from Durga Puja and Diwali to Pongal, Eid and Christmas, and dress in town is modest, with swimwear kept to the beaches.

About 140,000 people live in Port Blair, which makes it by far the largest settlement in the territory and home to roughly a third of its people. It is the administrative centre as well, and government service — the territorial administration, the forest and fisheries departments, the navy, the air force and the coast guard, whose presence reflects the islands' position near the Strait of Malacca — provides the largest share of secure employment. Tourism is the growth sector, supporting hotels, dive shops, boat crews, drivers and guides, and fishing and small farming fill out the rest.

Because almost everything is shipped from Chennai or Kolkata, supply is a constant theme of daily life. Prices are higher than on the mainland, shortages follow bad weather, and fuel, cement and vegetables all arrive by sea. Connectivity improved markedly after an undersea cable reached the islands in 2020.

The day starts very early, since the sun rises well before six and often before five in summer, and offices, schools and markets follow it; shops shut early in the evening and the town is quiet by mid-evening. Housing spreads up steep hillsides around the harbour, and new building has pushed into the surrounding forest. The issues residents raise are water supply in the dry months, waste and plastic, pressure on reefs from visitor numbers, and the effect of large infrastructure projects proposed for the islands.

Fish is the foundation of eating in Port Blair, sold fresh at the Junglighat market in the morning and cooked in whatever style the kitchen's family brought with them. Bengali households make fish curries with mustard oil and mustard seed, Tamil and Malayali cooks use coconut, tamarind and curry leaves, and restaurants grill snapper, grouper and tuna with a coating of masala. Prawns, crab and lobster appear on menus aimed at visitors, usually with plain rice or with the flat breads of the north.

Coconut runs through everything. It is drunk green from the shell at roadside stalls, grated into curries and chutneys, and pressed for oil, and island farms add banana, papaya, pineapple, jackfruit and areca nut. Rice is the staple, and the standard cheap meal is a thali: rice, dal, a vegetable, a fried item and a piece of fish or a curd, eaten at midday.

Because the population comes from across India, the bazaar offers south Indian breakfasts of idli, dosa and vada beside Bengali sweets such as rasgulla and sandesh, north Indian vegetarian thalis, and tea shops selling fried snacks through the afternoon. Fresh lime soda, coconut water and sweet milky tea are the everyday drinks; alcohol is sold in licensed shops, bars and hotels but is less prominent than in mainland beach destinations. In the Nicobar Islands, which are closed to visitors, the older island diet of coconut, pandanus, fish and pork persists.