Malaysia

Abstract

In the 1940s, Indians made up about 14 per cent of Malaya's population. By 2000, numbering 1.8 million, they represented 7.7 per cent of the total Malaysian population of 21.89 million. Approximately nine-tenths of Indians may be classified as of South Indian origin, with the remaining one-tenth from North India. Indian migration to Malaya was an important dimension of British colonial rule in Asia and coincided with the growth of the international economy in the second half of the 19th century. There were three main migration streams, each of which was associated with specific economic roles. The first and largest stream, the indentured workers, comprised mainly Tamils and Telugus who worked in the plantations, on the construction and maintenance of transportation lines (roads and railways), and at the ports. The second stream, the auxiliaries, consisted predominantly of North Indians who were recruited for the police force and security services, and Malayalis and Jaffna Tamils who were employed in clerical and subordinate civil service occupations. The third stream, the traders, comprised Indian merchants and the Chettiars, a money-lending caste from South India. North Indian migrants were far fewer compared to the other Indian migrant groups and constituted a distinct community. The occupational differentiation between the Indian migrants also had religious overtones and helped to create a distinctive diasporic consciousness among them.