The Maldives: New Stresses in an Old Nation

Abstract

AMONG ALL INDEPENDENT countries in Asia the Republic of Maldives may well be the least known. Few scholars or journalists have noticed it. No American lives there and no Maldivian, not even a student, resides in the United States. Yet this country is of considerable interest, both intrinsically and because it is astride lines of communication in the Indian Ocean. The Maldives consists of 1009 little islands stretching 470 miles down the Arabian Sea, dipping slightly south of the equator. The population is 130,000 and total land area only 115 square miles, so that it must be ranked among the world's most densely populated countries. But the Maldivians have always lived off the sea as much as the land. The country has been culturally and economically distinctive for over two millennia, and almost always politically independent. It joined the United Nations in 1965, but sends delegations to New York only occasionally because of the cost. The only foreign embassy it maintains is in Colombo, 400 miles to the northeast. The U.S. ambassador to Sri Lanka is also accredited to the Maldives. This plethora of islands and islets is grouped into a double string of atols, great rings of living coral that grow outward as their centers subside, leaving lagoons some of which are up to 40 miles across. The vast coral reefs, hidden just below the surface, have been the doom of hundreds of noble ships plying the Indian Ocean. Ancient mariners likened the atol rims, having a few channels allowing access to the lagoons, to fortress walls. The islands are but little platforms of coral sand, lying around the rims or inside the atols; most are a quarter mile to one mile long and rather narrow; a couple islands are as much as three miles long. Rainfall is over 100 inches per year so fresh water is