Memory, Marine Frontiers, and Market Forces (3N–4D) – IB121
Where history, ecology, and tourism compete for authority.

Conceptual Inquiry Focus:
When places of suffering become sites of tourism and ecological branding, how are memory, environment, and leisure governed, and who benefits from those decisions?

Central Idea
Island territories are shaped by overlapping systems of state authority, historical narrative, environmental regulation, and tourism economies, producing contested control over memory, access, and ecological consequence.

Venue
Port Blair – Andaman & Nicobar Islands
Havelock Island (Swaraj Dweep)
Bay of Bengal Marine Ecosystems
Cellular Jail and Colonial Heritage Sites

Programme Overview

“Memory, Marine Frontiers, and Market Forces: Governing the Andaman Islands” is a Diploma Programme experiential learning journey that positions the Andaman archipelago as a governed space where history, ecology, tourism, and state authority intersect. Rather than framing the islands as sites of patriotic celebration or leisure escape, the programme examines how narratives of freedom, environmental certification, and adventure tourism are constructed, regulated, and economically sustained.

Students engage with the Andaman Islands as governed spaces where memory, ecology, and tourism intersect. At Cellular Jail, they examine how colonial suffering is curated through political storytelling and institutional design, and how remembrance coexists with tourism infrastructure. On Havelock Island and Blue Flag-certified beaches, they analyse how environmental protection operates through regulation, branding, and economic dependence on marine recreation, revealing how fragile ecosystems are both safeguarded and commodified. The programme foregrounds tensions between conservation and consumption, remembrance and leisure, and patriotic narrative and global tourism markets, requiring students to interrogate authority, governance, and the unequal distribution of power and consequence within island territories.

IB Diploma Programme Subject Connections

Individuals and Societies
Students analyse colonial governance, national memory construction, tourism economies, and island administration as systems shaped by political authority and economic interest.

Environmental Systems and Societies
Engagement with marine ecosystems and Blue Flag environmental standards supports analysis of sustainability governance, ecological vulnerability, and human intervention in fragile island systems.

The Arts
Observation of museum curation, light-and-sound performance, and visual symbolism enables analysis of how history is staged and interpreted for public audiences.

Language and Literature
Students examine how narratives of sacrifice, freedom, sustainability, and paradise are constructed and communicated across national and global audiences.

Theory of Knowledge (TOK)
The programme generates real-life tensions around memory, authority, environmental certification, and representation. Students confront questions about who controls historical narrative, how sustainability is validated, and where certainty becomes unstable when commerce intersects with commemoration.

Learning Intent

This programme moves students beyond patriotic appreciation and environmental awareness toward critical examination of how island territories are governed through memory, regulation, and market forces. Students are expected to tolerate contradiction, interrogate authority, and recognise responsibilities that remain intellectually visible yet structurally constrained.

Learning Approach
Inquiry-driven • Concept-based • Experiential • Analytical • Reflective • Interdisciplinary • Systems-focused

IB Learner Profile Focus
Inquirer • Thinker • Open-Minded • Knowledgeable • Reflective • Balanced

Includes
Pre-Tour • On-Tour • Post-Tour Learning Engagements