A union territory of India, Lakshadweep is often referred to as the Laccadives. The 36 islands make up an archipelago in the Arabian Sea, 200–440 kilometres (120–270 mi) off the Malabar Coast. Although the Laccadive Islands are only a small portion of the archipelago, which has little more than 100 islands, the name Lakshadweep means "one lakh islands" in Sanskrit. The primary and most extensively spoken native language in the region is Malayalam. The islands have a combined surface area of roughly 32 km2, making them the smallest union territory of India (12 sq mi). The territorial waters are 20,000 km2 (7,700 sq mi) larger than the lagoon area of 4,200 km2 (1,600 sq mi), while the exclusive economic zone is 400,000 km2 larger (150,000 sq mi). With 10 subdivisions, the area forms a single Indian district. The Union Territory's capital is Kavaratti, and the Kerala High Court has jurisdiction over the area. The Lakshadweep-Maldives-Chagos group of islands, which are the summits of a huge undersea mountain range known as the Chagos-Lakshadweep Ridge, includes the islands as their most northern member. The Lakshadweep originally had 36 islands, however 35 are still there because the Parali 1 island is submerged in water as a result of sea erosion. The Buddhist Jataka legends from the sixth century BCE made reference of the islands as well. When Muslims arrived in the area in the seventh century, Islam was founded there. The Chera dynasty, the Chola dynasty, and lastly the Kingdom of Kannur dominated the area during the Middle Ages. Around 1498, the Catholic Portuguese people came, but they were driven out by 1545. Following Tipu Sultan, the Muslim house of Arakkal, who served as the Kolathiri Rajas of Kannur's vassals, dominated the province. The majority of the area was given to the British after his death in 1799, and the Union Territory was established in 1956 as a result of their departure. Of the islands, ten are populated. There were 64,473 people living in the Union Territory as of the 2011 Indian Census. The vast majority of indigenous people are. The majority of them are Sunni Muslims who practice the Shafi school. The Malayali people of Kerala, the closest Indian state, are ethnically related to the islanders. Dhivehi is the most common language in Minicoy island, where the majority of the people speaks Malayalam. With the exception of the southernmost island of Minicoy, where the Mahl dialect is spoken, the inhabited islands of the archipelago, particularly the Amindivi and Laccadive Islands, speak the Jeseri dialect. Jeseri was written in Malayalam using the Ponnani script till the British Raj. The culture is almost identical to that of the Mappilas in Kerala, the closest mainland state. On Agatti Island, there is an airport that serves the islands. The primary export product is tuna, and the people's primary sources of income are fishing and coconut farming.
