bridges vol. 8, December 2005 / Feature Article
by Philipp Steger

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An expert in an unlikely place
Few Austrians would be able to locate the Nicobar Islands on a map of the world. You cannot blame them: After all, Austria’s colonial adventures on the Nicobar Islands are not a subject widely taught in Austrian schools. This apparent lack of interest makes it all the more astonishing that the world’s leading expert on the Nicobarese, the inhabitants of the aforementioned island group, works at the Institute of Social Ecology, a research institute based in Vienna, 5000 miles away from the subjects of his research. But what’s even more amazing is that this researcher, who is originally from India, came all the way to Vienna unaware that there was one very good reason to carry out his research in Vienna.

Dr. Simron Jit Singh, a modest man, would likely bristle at the suggestion that he is the world’s leading expert on one of the two indigenous tribes that live in the Nicobar Islands. But his recently published book on the Nicobar Islands and the cultural choices that the Nicobarese face in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami will certainly establish him as one of the world’s foremost experts on the Nicobarese.