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Book review:
The Maldives Islanders - a study of the popular culture of an ancient ocean kingdom
by Xavier Romero Frias
Published by Nova Ethnographia Indica, Barcelona, Spain
Reviewed by Michael O'Shea and Majid Abdul-Wahhab

For the last 20 years, the Maldivian islands in the central Indian Ocean have been very successfully marketed as an exclusive tropical tourist destination. However, English language books examining the detailed history and culture of this independent atoll nation are few and only occasionally available, even in university libraries.

Until the publication of this learned new book by Xavier Romero-Frias, the most incisive examination of Maldivian culture was a 400 year old account of a forced stay in the capital island Malé, written by shipwrecked Frenchman Pyrard de Laval. Pyrard's experiences were fascinating, but limited almost solely to Malé-based encounters; mainly with the King's court and the traders who serviced it.

Only two major books about the Maldives have appeared in English in the last hundred years. The result of a twenty year partnership between Sri Lankan-based British archaeologist H.C.P. Bell and his Sri Lankan assistant W. L. de Silva, The Maldive Islands, published in 1940, ran the gauntlet of war-time and then cold war censorship as Addu atoll at the southern tip of Maldives became a strategic part of Great Britain's air and naval presence in the Indian Ocean. The book became an expensive collector's item, until a facsimile copy was quietly published in Maldives in the mid-1980s.

Eminent South Asian scholar and anthropologist Clarence Maloney wrote People of the Maldive Islands during the late 1970s. His work was much more independent and objective than Bell and de Silva's, especially in its judgment of the Maldivian psyche. Later research has validated many of Maloney's clever speculations surrounding Maldives' historical origins, but his cultural understanding seems to have been hampered by lack of cooperation from the Maldivian intellectual elite.

Romero-Frias' The Maldive Islanders completely redefines the basis of scholarship about the Maldives. He spent 12 years in the Maldives achieving complete fluency in Dhivehi, the Maldivian language. He has immersed himself in Dhivehi culture, and unlike previous foreign scholars, his studies are firmly based in the oral traditions of the atolls.

He examines the ancient stories of Maldives, and argues convincingly that their foreign inspiration is drawn largely from the Indian sub-continent. For western readers familiar with the islands' geographical location (southwest of India), this revelation is hardly surprising, but many Maldivians will find the book deeply confronting.

The reasons for this unease may be difficult for a foreigner to grasp. The small Maldivian intelligentsia has often imitated the cultural traditions of Arabia. Their views were most strongly represented among Maldivian judges and magistrates; particularly in the capital island Malé. But the Maldivian royal court and island people usually defined these Islamic traditions in their own idiosyncratic way, preferring to blend them with uniquely Maldivian customs and beliefs.

However for the last 20 years Maldivians have undergone intense cultural brainwashing under the guidance of the all-powerful President Maumoon Gayyoom regime and its view that Maldivian culture should be portrayed as a form of Islam. His nepotistic administration, which built on the modernising foundations laid by the former ruler Ibrahim Nasir, has delivered real economic progress to previously impoverished Maldivians, and the worth of many Malé families is now measured in millions of dollars. This wealth is concentrated almost exclusively in Malé, and the capital has become one of the most crowded places on earth. But the intense centralisation, and the associated neglect of other islands, has many negative effects on family life as people move to the capital for work and education.

Gayyoom has turned himself into a cult figure, a type of Maldivian island god, from whom all benefits (and fears) flow. Malé's National Council of Linguistics and Historical Research rewards only those who kow-tow to the President, and actively suppresses any independent thought. As Romero-Frias explains: 'The imposition of the Islamic way of life has been acute since 1978, when a government hostile to Dhivehi lifestyle and traditions (which it sees as a deviation from Islam), came to power. Its policies have been successful owing to the non-existence of institutions that could effectively protect the local traditional heritage. This lack makes Maldivian people extremely vulnerable to the predatory whims of their leaders.' It should also be understood that there is a fear among Muslim Maldivians that resisting Arabisation and refusing to condemn independent Dhivehi culture is blasphemous against Allah.

In his book Romero-Frias provides many English translations of Maldivian stories and then examines them in the light of his research at universities in India, Sri Lanka and Europe. His arguments are firmly based on the texts, and the findings are closely argued and compelling.

The first section, 'An Oceanic Civilization', begins by explaining the lifestyles and perspectives of ordinary Maldive islanders. Here the reader becomes aware of Romero-Frias' extraordinary understanding and empathy for the common people. Maldivian scholarship has been (and usually still is) restricted to the concerns and perspectives of the ruling elite in Malé and their foreign associates.

The author examines the early history myths and cycles of Islamic conversion, and then moves on to the Maldivian romance and adventure epic Dhon Hiyala and Ali Fulhu, a text used to teach Dhivehi to the country's school students. In part, the story functions as an instruction manual for Islamic life and death rituals. But Romero-Frias shows the tale's structure also has a close affinity with India's classic Hindu drama, The Ramayana. This first chapter ends with a sobering account of the effect of an epidemic on the equatorial island of Fua Mulaku.

The second section, 'The Island Mother', is an examination of the role of women and female island gods in Dhivehi culture. Romero-Frias explains the links between beliefs in female spirits and the ancient Dhivehi goddesses of the sea and islands. Their original derivation from southern and northern India, and relationship to the traditional matriarchal Dhivehi social system is also discussed. In this chapter the author begins his explanation of the complex role of the awesome male sorcerers, known locally as fanditha men, whose social status oscillates between that of hero and despised evil magician. These dual roles are still apparent. For example a fanditha man was exiled for casting spells to influence the 2001 football finals in Malé.

It is in the third section, 'At the Threshold of the Spirit World', that Romero-Frias takes the reader into the tantric component of the superstitions that permeate Maldivian society. He agrees with other South Asian scholars that tantric Buddhism was comfortable with the ancient Dravidian beliefs of Maldivians, and hence, in the first millennium it was this form of Buddhism that found acceptance in the islands. Later in the book, the author reveals how the words for tantric philosophical concepts still remain in Dhivehi astrology, though their original meanings are completely forgotten.

In the final chapter, 'A Showdown of Doctrines', the author fearlessly tackles the question of Islamisation of Dhivehi culture. Romero-Frias has no sympathy with attempts to rewrite the atolls' cultural history to satisfy what the present Maldivian government perceives as acceptable. The author argues that origins of this censorship are in the superstitious belief that Arab visitors to Maldives had a mystical power due to their knowledge of Arabic, the Quran, and claims of their close kinship to the holy prophet, Muhammad. Here, Romero-Frias sometimes leaves the oral traditions and illustrates his argument using Maldivian historical documents.

This book cannot be recommended too highly. For Maldivians who want to understand the history of their culture, for foreigners who are curious about this enigmatic atoll nation, and for scholars of South Asia, The Maldive Islanders by Romero-Frias is the best book ever published about Maldives in the English language.



Reviewers:
Michael O'Shea has a BA and Master of Letters in History, and is an editor of Maldives Culture, an internet site devoted to Maldivian cultural and political affairs: www.maldivesculture.com

Majid Abdul-Wahhab has a BA and Diploma of Education. Born in Maldives, he is now a citizen and resident of New Zealand where he works as a teacher specialising in Business and Computer studies. He is editor of the leading Maldivian history website: www.maldivesroyalfamily.com

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