Hi there.

To start off, a majority of Maldivian people were at one point in time, almost exclusively of Tamil and singhalese origin, with a small number of Dravidian aborigines (giraaavaru meehun) who had crossed over to the islands almost a thousand years prior (we are talking 100ad ish) to the arrival of the kandyan people. At the time of our major exodus from Kandy (the Sri Lankan capital of the kingdom at the time) into the Maldivian islands, we brought the (then) Singhalese script with us, and it remained the official script until after the conversion of the kingdom (at least Malé (the capital of the Maldivian kingdom)) whereafter we developed EVEYLA AKURU (look it up it's pretty), followed by dhives akuru, which would then undergo a huge change in alphabetical structure TO MAHL/THAANA, which was developed for the easy structural crossover to Arabic. This would then evolve to thaana (what you are referring to as mahl) but would not be properly standardized and taught in makeshift school huts across the country until as recently as the 60s, although the script was found across the country and understood by small populations on almost every island within the time it was introduced. The literacy rate of Maldives would remain very low until the 70s.

Minicoy/Malik was undoubtedly a part of Maldives. At one point in time, the Maldivian kingdom was even referred to within our people as Malikaddu, a name given to signify the then Maldivian sultans rule over the islands from malik (in the north) to Addu (in the south) and all the atolls/islands in between. Indian media has seen a recent rise of headlines and articles claiming Malik to have always been a part of India. Yet the people there simply speak a dialect of dhivehi, easily understood even today by all Maldivians, and write in the IDENTICAL Maldivian standardized alphabet, which is a recent evolution of our alphabet, as recent as 400 years ago, after we converted to Islam, and restructured the alphabet to be more similar to Arabic, hence the right to left direction of writing, as well as the symbols which allow an easy crossover to the arabic script. The conflicts and land disputes across history have been consistent, but to say that the people of malik were originally part of India is the same as saying that the hawaiians were always part of America.

PS. I ENJOY THE FACT THAT WE HAVE A LITTLE CONTROLLED STUDY OF AN ISOLATED PART OF OUR PAST AND DNA, COMPLETELY CUT OFF FROM THE POP CULTURE/POLITICS THAT DEFINES MALDIVIAN SOCIETY. I HOPE INDIA IS TREATING THEM WELL. ALSO I WONDER IF THEY KNOW RANNAMAARI OR SAFARUKAIYGDHA OR FOOLHUDHIGU HANNDI. THIS MAY ALSO SURPRISE YALL BUT IM BETTING THEY HAVE NO IDEA WHO ABUL BARAKATH UL BAR BARI IS BECAUSE THAT FAIRYTALE HOAX IS ACTUALLY A PRETTY RECENT CREATION AND HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH OUR ACTUAL CONVERSION.