The simple answer to the question is no. India was never in possession of coco island. This myth is often regurgitated in many social media circles, but let us look at the truth about it:
First, where is coco island located?
It is located in the northern extension of the Andaman and Nicobar chain. It consists of three main islands and several small islets. They lie about 250 kilometers south of Burma’s Irrawaddy River delta and are separated from India’s North Andaman Island by the 20-kilometer-wide Coco Channel.
Was it a part of India at any time in history?
No, it was just an isolated island not discovered by anyone but the British, there is no historical record that it was in India’s possessions before the 17th century. It was taken over by the East India Company in the 1700s.
In 1858, a large prison was built at Port Blair on South Andaman Island, mainly to house the thousands of ‘mutineers’ sent there after the 1857 Indian rebellion. A lighthouse was built on Table Island in 1867 to aid navigation in the area. The British lighthouse keeper was murdered by one of his Indian staff in 1877, after an argument over caste issues. Due to the island’s isolation, however, the Chief Commissioner at Port Blair failed to learn of this incident for some weeks. This lack of close supervision prompted the colonial authorities in Calcutta to transfer jurisdiction over the two Coco islands, Table Island, and three small satellite islands, to Rangoon. The prisoners of the 1857 rebellion were then transferred to the Andaman Islands. After 2 Anglo-Burmese wars, this island unofficially became the British administrative capital of lower Burma. After many years of paperwork, coco island which was previously under the control of the East India Company; became part of British Burma. Even though Burma was part of the province of British India; it was always governed as a separate entity from larger British India. [It is similar to British Ceylon which was administered separately from British India]
When Burma separated from India in 1937 and became a self-governing Crown Colony, the Coco Islands remained Burmese territory. After Burma regained its independence from the British in 1948, the Coco Islands passed to the new Union of Burma (now the Union of Myanmar).
Andrew Selth in his paper ‘Burma’s Coco Islands: rumors and realities in the Indian Ocean’ also states that:
The statement by Indian defense minister George Fernandes to BBC in 2003 that PM Nehru donated coco islands to burma in 1950s and thus surrendered a useful asset is incorrect.
Hence, the evidence presented here proves that Nehru didn’t donate the coco islands to Burma and the narrative that he did is a tin foil hat conspiracy.
Source:
- Burma’s Coco Islands: rumors and Realities in the Indian Ocean by Andrew Selth
- Burma’s mythical isles by Andrew Selth
