CHAPTER 2 (c)

INDIAN

INSPIRING CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE MINDS

 MALAYSIAN INDIAN

Malaysian Indians are a group of

Malaysians largely descended from
those who migrated from southern India
during the British colonization of
Malaya.
INSPIRING CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE MINDS
 HISTORY
There is evidence of the existence of
Indianized kingdoms such as Gangga
Negara, Old Kedah, Srivijaya since
approximately 1500 years ago.
Early contact between the kingdoms of
Tamilakkam and the Malay peninsula
had been very close during the regimes
of the Pallava Kings (from the 4th to the
9th Century C.E.) and Chola kings (from
the 9th to the 13th Century C.E.).

INSPIRING CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE MINDS

 HISTORY
The trade relations the Tamil merchants
had with the ports of Malaya led to the
emergence of Indianized kingdoms like
Kadaram (Old Kedah) and
Langkasugam.
Chola king Rajendra Chola I sent an
expedition to Kadaram (Sri Vijaya)
during the 11th century conquering that
country on behalf of one of its rulers
who sought his protection and to have
established him on the throne.
INSPIRING CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE MINDS
 HISTORY
The Cholas had a powerful merchant
and naval fleet in the Indian Ocean and
the Bay of Bengal.
3 kinds of craft are distinguished by the
author of the Periplus light coasting
boats for local traffic, larger vessels of a
more complicated structure and greater
carrying capacity, and lastly the big
ocean-going vessels that made the
voyages to Malaya, Sumatra, and the
Ganges.
INSPIRING CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE MINDS
 CHOLA EMPIRE

INSPIRING CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE MINDS

 INSCRIPTIONS

A good number of Tamil inscriptions as

well as Hindu and Buddhist icons
emanating from South India have been
found in Southeast Asia (and even in
parts of south China).
An inscription dated 779 A.D. has been
found in Ligor, Malaya peninsula.
This refers to the trade relationship
between the Tamil country and Malaya.

INSPIRING CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE MINDS

 INSCRIPTIONS

In ancient Kedah there is an inscription

found by Dr. Quaritch Wales.
It is and inscribed stone bar, rectangular
in shape, bears the ye-dharmma
formula in South Indian characters of
the fourth century A.D., thus proclaiming
the Budhist character of the shrine near
the find-spot (site I) of which only the
basement survives.

INSPIRING CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE MINDS

 INSCRIPTIONS

The inscriptions are on three faces in

Pallava script, or Vatteluttu rounded
writing of the sixth century A.D.
In another area in Kedah there was
another inscription found in Sanskrit
dated 1086 A.D. has been found.
This was left by Kulothunka Chola I (of
the Chola empire, Tamil country).
This too shows the commercial contacts
the Chola Empire had with Malaya.
INSPIRING CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE MINDS
 INSCRIPTIONS

All these inscriptions, both Tamil and

Sanskrit ones, relate to the activities of
the people and rulers of the Tamil
country of South India.
The Tamil inscriptions are at least 4
centuries posterior to the Sanskrit
inscriptions, from which the early Tamils
themselves were patronizers of the
Sanskrit language.

INSPIRING CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE MINDS

 TAMIL WORDS IN MALAY

A very essential cultural element needed

to carry out commercial transactions is a
common language understood by all
parties involved in early trade.
Historians such as J.V. Sebastian, K.T.
Thirunavukkarasu, and A.W. Hamilton
record that Tamil was the common
language of commerce in Malaysia and
Indonesia during historical times.
The maritime Tamil significance in
Sumatran and Malay Peninsula.
INSPIRING CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE MINDS
 TAMIL WORDS IN MALAY

Trading continued for centuries and

borrowings into Malay from Tamil increased
between the 15th and 19th centuries due to
their commercial activities.
In the 17th century, the Dutch East India
Company was obliged to use Tamil as part
of its correspondence.
In Malacca and other seaports up to the
19th century, book-keeping and
accountancy was still largely Tamil.

INSPIRING CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE MINDS

 INDIAN MIGRATION
The overwhelming majority of migrants from
India were ethnic Tamil and from British
Presidency of Madras.
In 1947 they represented approximately
85% of the total Indian population in Malaya
and Singapore.
Other South Indians, mainly Malayalees,
formed a further 14% in 1947, and the
remainder of the Indian community was
accounted for by North Indians, principally
Punjabis, Bengalis, Gujaratis, and Sindhis.
INSPIRING CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE MINDS
 MAP OF INDIA

INSPIRING CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE MINDS

 LARGE SCALE MIGRATION

British acquisition of Penang, Melaka and

Singapore - the Straits Settlements from 1786
to 1824 started a steady inflow of Indian
labourers, traders, sepoys and convicts
engaged in construction, commercial
agriculture, defence and commerce.
But large scale migration of Indians from the
subcontinent to Malaysia followed the
extension of British formal rule to the West
coast Malay states from the 1870s onwards as
British brought the Indians as workers to work
in the rubber plantations.
INSPIRING CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE MINDS
 LARGE SCALE MIGRATION

The Indian population in pre-independent

Malaya and Singapore was predominantly
adult males who were single with family
back in India and Sri Lanka.
Hence the population fluctuated frequently
with the immigration and exodus of people.
As early as 1901 the Indian population in
the Straits Settlements and the Federated
Malay States was approximately 120,000.

INSPIRING CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE MINDS

 LARGE SCALE MIGRATION

By 1931 there were 640,000 Indians in

Malaya and Singapore and interestingly
they even outnumbered the native Malays
in the state of Selangor that year.
The population was virtually stagnant until
1947 due to many leaving for Burma during
the Japanese occupation as recruits for the
Indian National Army and "Indentured
Japanese labors" for the Death Railway.

INSPIRING CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE MINDS

 LARGE SCALE MIGRATION
At the time of Independence in 1957 it
stood at a little over 820,000.
In this last year Indians accounted for
approximately 8 to 12% of the total
population of Malaysia.
There has also been a significant influx of
Indian nationals into Singapore and
Malaysia in recent years to work in
construction, engineering, restaurants, IT
and finance with many taking up permanent
residence in Singapore where they account
for nearly a quarter of the Indian population.
INSPIRING CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE MINDS
 OCCUPATIONAL DIVISIONS

A vast majority of people from the Indian

sub-continent brought over were the
Tamils.
They were predominantly estate workers,
the majority being employed on rubber
estates, though a significant minority
worked in Government public works
departments.

INSPIRING CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE MINDS

 TAMIL

INSPIRING CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE MINDS

 OCCUPATIONAL DIVISIONS

The North Indians, with the exception of

the Sikhs, were mainly merchants and
businessmen.
For example, the Gujaratis and Sindhis
owned some of the most important textile
firms in Malaya and Singapore.
The Sikhs were either in the police or
employed as watchmen.

INSPIRING CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE MINDS

 PUNJABI

INSPIRING CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE MINDS

 OCCUPATIONAL DIVISIONS

The North Indians, with the exception of

the Sikhs, were mainly merchants and
businessmen.
For example, the Gujaratis and Sindhis
owned some of the most important textile
firms in Malaya and Singapore.
The Sikhs were either in the police or
employed as watchmen.

INSPIRING CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE MINDS

 GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION

The close correspondence between the

ethnic and occupational divisions of the
South Asian community was inevitably
reflected in the community's geographical
distribution in Malaya.
The South Indian Tamils were
concentrated mainly in Perak, Selangor,
and Negeri Sembilan, on the rubber
estates and railways, though a significant
proportion found employment on the docks
in Penang and Singapore.
INSPIRING CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE MINDS
 GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION

The Malayalees were located predominantly

in Lower Perak, Kuala Lumpur, parts of
Negeri Sembilan, and Johor Bahru,
The business communities, the Gujaratis,
Sindhis, Chettiars, and Tamil Muslims, were
concentrated in the urban areas, principally
Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Ipoh, and Singapore.
The Ceylon Tamils were also mainly an urban
community, though some were found in rural
areas working as staff on the estates.

INSPIRING CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE MINDS

 RELIGIONS AND FAITHS

In Malaysia are a number of religions and faiths

practiced by a majority of Malaysians such as
Islam primarily amongst the Malays, Buddhism
amongst the Chinese, Hinduism amongst the
Indians, and Christianity amongst the Chinese,
Indians, Kristang people, and Eurasians of
British descent.
In the Indian communities which compose of
Tamils,Telugus, Malayalees, Punjabis, Gujaratis,
and Sindhis reside a number of faiths.
INSPIRING CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE MINDS
 RELIGIONS AND FAITHS

Islam found its way to the Malayan Peninsula as

well as the Archipelago of Indonesia not from
Arabia, but from southern India, specifically,
Tamil country.
The early Indians married into leading
Indonesian families and brought Hindu ideas of
kingship, just as more than a thousand years
later the Tamil Muslims married into the families
of the Sultans and Bendaharas of Malacca.

INSPIRING CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE MINDS

 RELIGIONS AND FAITHS

Malays came to know about Islam through the

Muslim merchants of south India and not through
Arab missionaries.
Furthermore Islam had reached South India,
particularly Tamil country in the 8th century A.D.,
while the state of Gujurat received Islam during
the early 14th century, as a result of the invasion
of the Delhi sultanate.
Muslim traders of the Coromandel Coast are said
to have been even politically influential in
historical Malaya.
INSPIRING CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE MINDS
 RELIGIONS AND FAITHS

During the coming of Islam to Malaysia was the

early decline of Hinduism and Buddhism.
The practice of Hinduism began to rise during
the second wave of people from the Indian
subcontinent during British rule.
Hinduism is the most practised religion amongst
the Tamils comprising of the both the major
Hindu and Tamil pantheon of deities.
Tamils of both Indian and Sri Lankan
backgrounds practice Hinduism.
INSPIRING CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE MINDS
 RELIGIONS AND FAITHS
Telugus predominantly belong to the Vaisnavite
branch of Hinduism, with a minority among them
belonging to Christianity and Islam.
Amongst the North Indians are the Gujarati,
Sindhi, Bengali, and Punjabi Hindus
Christianity is prevalent and growing amongst
the Tamil people in many denominations.
In Malaysia, most of the Christians are
Methodist, Pentecostal, Lutheran, Brethren, and
Catholic. Amongst the Malayalee community
Catholicism is strong.
INSPIRING CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE MINDS
 RELIGIONS AND FAITHS

Islam is the religion of roughly 10% of Malaysian

Indians with a population of roughly 200,000.
Sikhism is practiced amongst the Punjabis. (The
majority of Punjabis are Muslims in South Asia
with significant Sikh and Hindu populations.)

INSPIRING CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE MINDS

 RELIGIONS AND FAITHS

Islam is the religion of roughly 10% of Malaysian

Indians with a population of roughly 200,000.
Sikhism is practiced amongst the Punjabis. (The
majority of Punjabis are Muslims in South Asia
with significant Sikh and Hindu populations.)

INSPIRING CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE MINDS

Selling cloths
Colours and
diagrams
Indian Dance
1. Roti Canai
2. Briyani Rice
3. Tandoori Chicken
4. Rojak
Making roti canai
Indian Wedding
Tapping rubber
Traditional way
of selling milk
Ways to repent
Early 28th Indians
Brigade
Indians working at
railway lines
Q and A?