ACCULTURATION AND POLITICAL PARTICIPATION OF MIGRANTS IN ANDAMAN AND NICOBAR ISLANDS

The study is to explore the impact of acculturation on the political participation of migrants in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. People from different parts of mainland (India) migrated towards these Islands and gradually settled at the Islands. Colonial and post colonial migrations happened at the Islands and as a result of such migratory settlement a unique culture is formed among the migrants. Andaman Indian comprises people from almost every Indian state from different regions, ethnic groups, castes and creeds. The paper focused on how the process of acculturation followed by assimilation and integration which has an impact on the political participation of migrants in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Since a person acquires political values, beliefs and preferences through interaction with primary groups say family and secondary groups like friends, social circle etc and as such the acculturation which happened in the Islands has an impact on the political participation of the migrants. Every political system is embedded in a Sociological and Psychological environment giving birth to a political culture. The paper will also focus on the relationship between acculturation and political participation of the migrants. Andaman and Nicobar Islands also gave birth to a political culture based on the perception of the early migrants with the belief that their expectations will be fulfilled through this system. The electoral political base in these Islands is closely intertwined with the categories of settlement, migration policies and area of settlement. Some of the communities having dominance over the electoral political base are Local born, Bengalis, Moplahs, Malayalis, Tamilians, Bhantu, Karen, Ranchis, Punjabis etc. The linguistic dominance of the Islands has also played a vital role in the formation of an electoral political base and this aspect will also be focussed in the paper. This study followed the methodology based on grounded theory. Theoretical sampling method was used for data collection for generating theory. The study engaged the participants in an open-ended exploratory discussion using the tool In-depth interview. The population for this study comprised of migrants living in the Islands for the past forty yeras.