Wikipedia
Lakshadweep (, , Lakshadīb), formerly known as the Laccadive, Minicoy, and Aminidivi Islands , is a group of islands in the Laccadive Sea, off the south western coast of India. The archipelago is a Union Territory and is governed by the Union Government of India. They were also known as Laccadive Islands, although geographically this is only the name of the central subgroup of the group. Lakshadweep comes from "Lakshadweepa", which means "one hundred thousand islands" in Sanskrit as well as many Indian languages like Marathi, Telugu, Malayalam, Tulu, Kannada, Hindi, Tamil and others. The islands form the smallest Union Territory of India: their total surface area is just . The lagoon area covers about , the territorial waters area and the exclusive economic zone area . The region forms a single Indian district with ten sub divisions. Kavaratti serves as the capital of the Union Territory and the region comes under the jurisdiction of Kerala High Court. The islands are the northernmost of the Lakshadweep-Maldives-Chagos group of islands, which are the tops of a vast undersea mountain range, the Chagos-Laccadive Ridge.
As the islands do not have any aboriginal groups, different views have been postulated by the scholars about the history of habitation on these islands. Archaeological evidence support the existence of human settlement in the region around 1500 BC. The islands have long been known to sailors, as indicated by an anonymous reference from the first century AD to the region in Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. The islands were referenced also in the Buddhist Jataka stories of the 6th century BC. The arrival of Muslim missionaries around 7th century led to the advent of Islam in the region. During the medieval period the region was ruled by the Chola dynasty and Kingdom of Cannanore. The Portuguese arrived around 1498 and were upstaged by 1545. The region was then ruled by the Muslim house of Arakkal, followed by Tipu Sultan. On his death in 1799 most of the region passed on to the British and with their departure the Union Territory was formed in 1956.
Ten of the islands are inhabited. At the 2011 Indian census the population of the Union Territory was 64,473. The majority of the indigenous population is Muslim and most of them belong to the Shafi School of the Sunni Sect. The islanders are ethnically similar to the Malayali people of the nearest Indian state of Kerala. Most of the population speaks Malayalam with Mahi (or Mahl) being the most spoken language in Minicoy island. The islands are served by an airport on the Agatti island. The main occupation of the people is fishing and coconut cultivation, with tuna being the main item of export. These are made of coral deposit.
Lakshadweep Lok Sabha constituency (formerly Laccadive, Minicoy And Amindivi Islands Lok Sabha constituency) is a Lok Sabha (lower house of the Indian parliament) constituency, which covers the entire area of the Union Territory of Lakshadweep in India. This seat is reserved for Scheduled Tribes. As of 2014, it is the smallest Lok Sabha constituency by number of voters.
Before its first election in 1967, its member of parliament (MP) was directly appointed by the President of India. Its first MP was K. Nalla Koya Thangal of the Indian National Congress (INC) who served two terms from 1957–67. Its first election in 1967 was won by independent politician, P. M. Sayeed. In the next election in 1971, Sayeed representing the INC was elected unopposed. He went on to win the next eight elections consecutively before being defeated by 71 votes in the 2004 election by P. Pookunhi Koya of the Janata Dal (United) party. In total, Sayeed represented this constituency in the Lok Sabha for ten consecutive terms from 1967 to 2004. In the 2009 election, Sayeed's son, Muhammed Hamdulla Sayeed, won the seat. As of the latest election in 2014, the current MP representing this constituency is Mohammed Faizal P. P. of the Nationalist Congress Party.