MALDIVES
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Since very
ancient times, the Maldives islands were ruled by kings (Radun) sultans and
occasionally queens (Ranin) sultanas. Historically Maldives has had a strategic
importance because of its location on the major routes of the Indian Ocean.
Maldives' nearest neighbors Sri Lanka and India, have had cultural and
economic ties with Maldives for centuries. In 1558 the Portuguese established a
small garrison with a Viador (Viyazoru), or overseer of a trading warehouse
in the Maldives, which they administered from their main colony in Goa.
Fifteen years later, a local leader named Muhammad Thakurufaanu Al-Azam and
his brother organized a popular revolt and drove the Portuguese out of
Maldives. In the
mid-seventeenth century, the Dutch, who had replaced
the Portuguese as the dominant power in Ceylon, established hegemony over
Maldivian affairs without involving themselves directly in local matters,
which were governed according to centuries-old Islamic customs. However, the
British expelled the Dutch from Ceylon in 1796 and included Maldives as a
British protected area. The status of Maldives as a British protectorate was
officially recorded in an 1887 agreement in which the sultan accepted British
influence over Maldivian external relations and defense. The British had no
presence, however, on the leading island community of Malé. They left the
islanders alone, as had the Dutch, with regard to internal administration to
continue to be regulated by Muslim traditional institutions. During the
British era, which lasted until 1965, Maldives continued to be ruled under a
succession of sultans.[1] It was a period during which the
Sultan's authority and powers were increasingly and decisively taken over by
the Chief Minister, much to the chagrin of the British Governor-General who
continued to deal with the ineffectual Sultan. Consequently, Britain
encouraged the development of a constitutional monarchy, and the first
Constitution was proclaimed in 1932. However, the new arrangements favoured
neither the ageing Sultan nor the Chief Minister, but rather young British-educated
reformists. As a result, angry mobs were instigated against the Constitution
which was publicly torn up. Maldives remained a British crown protectorate
until 1953 when the sultanate was suspended and the First Republic was
declared under the short-lived presidency of Muhammad Amin Didi. In 1954 the
sultanate was restored. In 1956
Maldives granted the British a 100 year lease on Gan, where they had
established an airfield that required them to pay £2,000 a year. |
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Emblem
of the Suvadive Republic In 1957,
however, a new prime minister, Ibrahim Nasir, called for a review of the
agreement in the interest of shortening the lease and increasing the annual
payment. But Nasir was challenged in 1959 by a local separatist movement in
the southern atolls that benefited economically from the British presence on
Gan. The movement cut its ties with the Maldives government and formed an
independent state with Abdullah Afif as president. The short-lived
state (1959-63), was called the United Suvadive Republic. In 1962 Nasir
sent gunboats from Malé with government police on board to eliminate elements
opposed to his rule. One year later the Suvadive republic was overthrown and
Abdulla Afif went into exile to the Seychelles. |
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On July 26,
1965, Maldives gained independence under an agreement signed with the United Kingdom.
The British government retained the use of the Gan and Hitaddu facilities. In
a national referendum in March 1968, Maldivians abolished the sultanate and a
Second Republic was proclaimed in November 1968 |
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The National
Emblem |
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Sultan
Hasan Nur ud-din (1935-’43) On
his fez a crescent-and-star crested with ostrich-feathers |
National
and Merchant Flag 1933 ca-1965 |
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The National
emblem of the Maldives is known from 1960, the time of the Kingdom of the
Maldives (1954-1965) when it appeared on coins. It is inspired by the cap
badge of the sultan consisting of a crescent and star, crowned with a diadem
with three ostrich-feathers as worn by sultan Hasan Nur ud-din (1935-’43) and
king Muhammad Farid I (1954-’69). The emblem
consists of a palmtree charged with a crescent-and-star supported by two
national flags. Below is a
scroll with the name of the country: Al Daulat al Mahldîbîa (State of
the Thousand Islands). In the first
version the flags are green charged with a white crescent, surrounded by a
red bordure and a narrow mast-end bendy of black and white. At the gaining
of independence on 26 july 1965 the flag was changed by replacing the
crescent by a star. On 11 November
1968, when the second republic was proclaimed, the flag was changed again by
removing the narrow mast-end and restoring
the crescent. The emblem was
changed accordingly. Æ
See illustration in the head of this essay. |
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Royal and Presidential Flag |
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Royal
Flag 1954-65 |
Royal
and Presidential Flag 1965-present |
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The crescent
symbolizing the state, the crescent-and-star the head of state. The
presidential seal shows the national emblem surrounded by the name of the
country and ‘president’ in maldive script, separated by five-pointed stars.
Presidential
seal |
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Photo Facebook Emblem of the Maldives
National Defence Force On the flag this emblem is in the middle of two breadths white and black.
Photo Facebook Emblem of the Maldives
Coast Guard |
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Police |
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Photo Facebook Maldive Police Service Arms On the flag this emblem is in the middle of a dark-blue background |
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© Hubert de Vries 2012-01-17