Xavier Romero Frías

Xavier Romero Frías' books on local legends and traditions have been banned by the government of the Maldives.

After this he lived twelve years in India studying Sanskrit and researching the origins of the Maldivian cultural heritage.

This monograph was published as The Maldive Islanders, A Study of the Popular Culture of an Ancient Ocean Kingdom.

Romero Frías gave lectures at the University of Madras in the 1980s invited by Professor V. Sudarsan, head of the Department of Anthropology.

Since this conflict remains unresolved, there is a widespread feeling of guilt and frustration at being unable to adjust the ancestral cultural heritage to the Islamic ideological pattern.