Explained: What's happening in Lakshadweep?
Administrator Praful Patel has effected sweeping legal changes that threaten the cultural and socioeconomic identities of the people.
Protests have erupted on the Lakshadweep Islands, a small union territory off the coast of Kerala, after the administrator, former BJP minister Praful Khoda Patel, issued sweeping legal diktats that threaten the sociocultural and religious identities and practices of the people, the sensitive ecology, and economy. The island is also struggling with a rise in Covid infections after Patel relaxed the quarantine rules.
In this explainer, Meghnad S lays out the questions and concerns about these legal changes and how they would affect the islanders, their identities and their livelihoods.
Watch.
Research assistance by Ritika Chauhan.
Support Independent Media
The media must be free and fair, uninfluenced by corporate or state interests. That's why you, the public, need to pay to keep news free.
Contribute
Free press is a casualty as Lakshadweep’s BJP administrator rips up the rulebook
Power NL-TNM Election Fund
General elections are around the corner, and Newslaundry and The News Minute have ambitious plans together to focus on the issues that really matter to the voter. From political funding to battleground states, media coverage to 10 years of Modi, choose a project you would like to support and power our journalism.
Ground reportage is central to public interest journalism. Only readers like you can make it possible. Will you?