India’s only Muslim-majority islands resist erasure as court halts language purge
Kerala High Court blocks Lakshadweep island administration’s attempt to drop teaching of Arabic and Mahl, part of broader Hindutva push against Muslim identity
NEW DELHI, India (MNTV) — Off the southwestern coast of India, scattered across the Arabian Sea just 200 kilometers from Kerala, lie the Lakshadweep islands — India’s only Muslim-majority territory. With Islam followed by over 96% of its population, Lakshadweep has long maintained its own cultural, linguistic, and religious identity. But under a Hindu nationalist administrator, that identity is now under systematic attack.
This week, the Kerala High Court issued a stay on a controversial order by the Lakshadweep administration to remove Arabic and Mahl — languages deeply embedded in the islands’ Islamic and local heritage — from school curriculum.
According to Clarion India, the court’s intervention came after protests erupted across the islands and a Public Interest Litigation was filed by Ajaz Akbar, a student activist from Kalpeni Island, who argued that the language ban was part of a broader campaign to erase the Muslim character of the territory.
“This is not about a subject in school,” Akbar said. “It’s about who we are — our religion, our history, our identity.”
The administration had ordered Arabic and Mahl to be replaced with Hindi as the third language in schools, despite Mahl being the mother tongue in Minicoy and Arabic serving as the language of Islamic learning and prayer.
The Kerala High Court called the decision “unilateral” and “lacking consultation,” and ruled that the existing language policy would remain in place until further review.
For many in Lakshadweep, this was not an isolated attempt — but a continuation of the policies introduced under Praful Khoda Patel, a BJP leader with close ties to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Hindu supremacist RSS. Since his appointment in 2020, Patel has introduced measures that observers say aim to dismantle the Muslim social fabric of Lakshadweep.
These include banning beef, shutting down government-run dairy farms, removing meat from school meals, demolishing coastal homes and mosques under the guise of regulation, and even proposing the sale of alcohol in a territory where prohibition was long upheld by the Muslim community to preserve religious norms.
The administration defended its language order by citing the National Education Policy 2020, which supports the Three Language Formula. But observers point out that NEP also emphasizes preserving regional languages and respecting cultural contexts — both of which were ignored.
Ajaz Akbar’s petition argued that no study, survey, or consultation preceded the change. The court agreed, calling it an arbitrary move with no factual backing. Across the islands, people responded with marches, placards, and public statements defending the right to retain their languages.
The legal victory, while temporary, has energized the resistance.
“This is about our existence,” said Dr Irfan Ali, a retired educationist from Kavaratti. “We are Indian citizens. But everything we are — our faith, our food, our words — is being targeted.”
With only 64,000 people across 10 inhabited islands, Lakshadweep may be small in size. But its battle reflects a much larger story: the marginalization of Muslims under a state apparatus increasingly shaped by Hindu nationalism.
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