Post-tsunami Socio-cultural Changes among the Nicobarese: An Ethnography of the Nicobarese of the Southern Nicobar Islands.

The paper traces the impact of welfare and development on the Nicobarese not only in terms of economic and social domination, but in relation to its influence on cultural meanings and practices. The paper elaborates on how the Nicobarese ‘rationality’, namely, their sense of a set of institutions, their actions, perception about the world and themselves (which were an integral part of their culture), have been influenced by the post-tsunami development programmes. The paper also reflects on the changes in the Nicobarese subjectivities and the construction of new subjectivities on the lines of symbolic ideology inherent in the welfare and development work that has influenced unprecedented socio-cultural changes among them.