Adrift in the Andaman Sea: Law, Archipelagos and the Making of Maritime Sovereignty.

This article examines the complex history of imperial legal jurisdiction and abandonment in the archipelagic formations of the Bay of Bengal’s Andaman Sea during the nineteenth century, focusing on the English East India Company’s fluctuating claims over offshore islands along the Bengal and Burma coasts prior to the permanent British penal settlement of the Andaman Islands in 1858. It highlights the 1855 Nga Hoong murder trial, where a boat crew accused of murder on a remote island was ultimately released due to jurisdictional ambiguities, illustrating how imperial authorities intermittently abandoned legal control over certain maritime spaces and populations, such as indigenous seafarers and river dacoits. The article situates these legal ambiguities within broader imperial strategies that combined assertions and relinquishments of sovereignty, contrasting the eventual colonization of the Andamans with the earlier neglect of other islands deemed “remote” or “unnavigable.” It also connects this historical legacy to contemporary issues in the Bay of Bengal, including maritime boundary disputes and the ongoing humanitarian crisis involving refugees and asylum seekers navigating these contested and legally complex waters.