The

Karen Karen may refer to: * Karen (name), a given name and surname * Karen (slang), a term and meme for a demanding woman displaying certain behaviors People * Karen people, an ethnic group in Myanmar and Thailand ** Karen languages or Karenic l ...

are a nation native to the

Kayin State Kayin State ( my, ကရင်ပြည်နယ်, ; kjp, ဖၠုံခါန်ႋကၞင့်, italics=no; ksw, ကညီကီၢ်စဲၣ်, ), also known by the endonyms Kawthoolei and Karen State, is a state of Myanmar. The ...

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

. They live in the villages of

North and Middle Andaman district North and Middle Andaman district is one of the 3 districts of the Indian Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands located in the Bay of Bengal. Mayabunder town is the district headquarters. The area covered by this district is 3251.85 k ...

the Union Territory of

Andaman and Nicobar Islands The Andaman and Nicobar Islands is a union territory of India consisting of 572 islands, of which 37 are inhabited, at the junction of the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. The territory is about north of Aceh in Indonesia and separated f ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

History

In 1924, Dr. Marshall, the principal of the

Karen Baptist Theological Seminary The Karen Baptist Theological Seminary ( ksw, ပှၤကညီဘျၢထံယွၤဂ့ၢ်ပီညါဖၠၣ်စိမိၢ) is a Baptist theological institute in Seminary Hill, Insein, Yangon, Myanmar. It is affiliated with the ...

visited

Michael Lloyd Ferrar Lieutenant-Colonel Michael Lloyd Ferrar (16 April 1876 – 25 February 1971) was a British Indian army officer and civil servant who worked as a chief commissioner of the Penal Settlement at Port Blair on Andaman Islands and Nicobar Islands. Born ...

, the Chief Commissioner of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Following the visit, Dr. Marshall encouraged the remaining ancestors of the Karen people to settle there. In 1925, the first thirteen families arrived, led by a priest, named Reverend Luige. In 1926, another fifty families arrived and the first Karen village, named Web, was founded on the

Middle Andaman Island Middle Andaman Island is an island of the Andaman Islands. It belongs to the North and Middle Andaman administrative district, part of the Indian union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Geography The island belongs to the Great Andam ...

. The people of Web worked as foresters, which was the original reason the

British government ga, Rialtas a Shoilse gd, Riaghaltas a Mhòrachd , image = HM Government logo.svg , image_size = 220px , image2 = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg , image_size2 = 180px , caption = Royal Arms , date_es ...

had for moving them to the Islands, with the help of the missionaries. The population of the village was about 500 people in 2009. In 2004, the total population of Karen in the Andamans was about 2,000 people, living in eight villages in the

Mayabunder Mayabunder is a town and a tehsil in the northern part of Middle Andaman Island, Andaman Archipelago, India. The name is also spelled Maya Bunder or Maya Bandar. As of 2001, the county had 23,912 inhabitants, of which 3182 were in the town.Gove ...

(Web, Deopur, Law, Lucknow, Karmatang-9 and Karmatang-10) and

Diglipur Diglipur (sometimes spelled Diglipore) is the largest town of North Andaman Island, in the Andaman Archipelago, India. It is located on the southern side of Aerial Bay, at above sea level, north of Port Blair. It is crossed by the Kalpong Ri ...

(Borang and Chipon)

tehsil A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluka, or taluk) is a local unit of administrative division in some countries of South Asia. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its administr ...

s of the

: On 12 December 2005, the government

reserve Reserve or reserves may refer to: Places * Reserve, Kansas, a US city * Reserve, Louisiana, a census-designated place in St. John the Baptist Parish * Reserve, Montana, a census-designated place in Sheridan County * Reserve, New Mexico, a US vi ...

d government jobs and places in higher education for the Karen as one of the

Other Backward Classes The Other Backward Class is a collective term used by the Government of India to classify castes which are educationally or socially backward. It is one of several official classifications of the population of India, along with General castes, S ...

in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Today, the Karen group form a small yet vital community on the island. They are currently trying to attain the status of

Scheduled Tribe The Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) are officially designated groups of people and among the most disadvantaged socio-economic groups in India. The terms are recognized in the Constitution of India and the groups are designa ...

in India, a title which would grant them more special privileges and concessions when compared to under-developed groups within the country. The Karen people believe that in order to respect nature they should avoid spitting or urinating in forests. They promote sustainable harvesting and avoid killing female animals when hunting. They use a variety of forest plants for construction. For example, they make canoes from the trunks of mulberry trees ( ''artocarpus chaplasha'' Roxb.) and use a paste of the

sweet flag ''Acorus calamus'' (also called sweet flag, sway or muskrat root, among many common names) is a species of flowering plant with psychoactive chemicals. It is a tall wetland monocot of the family Acoraceae, in the genus ''Acorus.'' Although us ...

''vanity'' with other aromatic plants as a poultice for colds and headaches. To educate the community, the Government Secondary School (GSS) in Web was established in 1928 by the family of Reverend Luigi. The Karen language was not formally taught for about 50 years and Karen language textbooks were not available. The country's first textbook in the Karen language was published in 2010 after a group of local teachers convinced the district administration to support the initiative. As of 2018, Karen is officially taught as a language till Class V at GSS Web.

References

Ethnic groups in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Other Backward Classes Karen people {{ethno-group-stub