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Subject: Tamils/Indians in Malaysia (fw)
Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2001 09:40:12 +1100
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From: "Bala Pillai"
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----- Original Message -----
From: k. raveendran
To:
Sent: Wednesday, November 21, 2001 5:04 AM
Subject: [malaysiaindians] a plethora of cultural variety
> Malaysian Indians – a plethora of cultural variety
>
>
> In 1957, the population of British-Malaya was almost evenly divided
between
> the indigenous people and the immigrant communities. Approximately 50
> percent were Malays and aborigines (Orang Asli), 37 percent – Chinese, and
> 12 percent – Indians. By this time, 65 percent of the Indians in
> British-Malaya, were local born.
>
> The 1970 census showed that Bumiputras (who include the Malay and
indigenous
> groups) had made up 55 percent of the population, Chinese – 34 percent,
and
> Indian – 9 percent.
>
> The figures today show that Malays make up to 66 percent of the
population,
> Chinese – 25 percent, and Indians – 7 percent.
>
> The Indians like the Chinese are divided along religious, linguistic and
> cultural lines. This differences are more obvious with the Indians. The
> Malays, are the most homogenous group, as almost all of them are Muslims
and
> they all speak the Malay language. The Indians although predominantly
> Hindus, are divided by caste and sub-ethnic groupings. And of course there
> are the Indian Christians, Indian Muslims, and Indians of other faiths.
>
> The Indians in Malaysia are mainly Tamils (80 percent), who originate from
> the state of Tamil Nadu in southern India. Then, there the Malayalees from
> the state of Kerala at the India's southern tip; Telegus from Andhra
Pradesh
> in Central India; Sikhs from the north in Punjab; Gujeratis from Gujerat;
> Bengalis from Bengal in the north-east of India; and Ceylonese Tamils from
> Sri Lanka.
>
> Although Malayalees worked as plantation workers, quite a number were
> employed as estate clerks and foremen. A handful worked in white-collar
jobs
> in towns. The Malayalees have their own language and written script.
> Although both Tamils and Malayalees celebrate Deepavali as a major
religious
> festival, there are cultural differences between them. For example,
> Malayalees celebrate their harvest festival called ‘Onam' in
> September/October. The Tamil equivalent is ‘Ponggal' held in January.
>
> The Telegus are considered to be more closely linked to the Tamils and do
> not differentiate themselves from the Tamils as Malayalees do. They
> celebrate Deepavali as other Hindus do, with some variations when it comes
> to cultural practises. However, the Telegus have their own language, too,
> which is quite different to Tamil. Many Telegus have last names such as
> Naidu and Rao, which the Tamils don't.
>
> Another group of people, whose ancestral home is in the Indian
> sub-continent, are the Sikhs. They follow the teachings of 10 gurus or
> teachers – the first being Guru Nanak who was born in 1469. The final
living
> Guru, Gobind Singh died in 1708 – he established the Khalsa order (meaning
> 'The Pure'). Every years Sikh celebrate ‘Vaisakhi' as their main religious
> festival, which commemorates the forming of the Khalsa. Many Sikhs, even
in
> Malaysia, stopped celebrating Deepavali (which is a Hindu festival) after
> the Indian army invaded the ‘Golden Temple' in Amritsar, Punjab, in 1984.
> Sikh men have the word ‘Singh' at the end of their names, and women have
the
> word ‘Kaur'.
>
> Besides these groups, there are also the Ceylonese Tamils who are
> descendants of the Jaffnese Tamils of Sri Lanka. There is, of course, also
> the Singhalese community, from Sri Lanka as well. A feature distinguishing
> the Singhalese from the Ceylonese (or more accurately, Jaffanese Tamils),
is
> that the former are predominantly Buddhists, while the latter are mostly
> Hindus. The Ceylonese blend in with the Tamils (of Tamil Nadu) by virtue
of
> similar language and religion. The Ceylonese were brought into
> British-Malaya to work in the civil service – most were employed with the
> railways, public works department and the electricity board. There are
many
> prominent Ceylonese Tamils in Malaysia, the most outstanding being
Malaysian
> billionaire, T Ananda Krishnan.
>
> The Gujeratis are from the northern part of India. They speak Gujerati,
and
> their religion is Jainism. This religion practises the virtue of ‘ahimsa'
or
> non-violence, hence most Gujeratis are strict vegetarians. They celebrate
> Deepavali, too, which in their language is pronounced ‘Dewali'. But, by
> right, according to Gujerati calender their Dewali fall a day after the
> Tamil Deepavali. But for ‘public holidays' purposes everyone celebrates
> Deepavali/Dewali on the same day. Yet another difference with Gujeratis is
> that they celebrate the New Year two days after Deepavali. They also
> celebrate an occasion known as Raksha Banthan – it is a celebrate the
> relationship of brothers and sisters. The Gujeratis have a large temple
> located in Kuala Lumpur – the Laksmi-Narayana temple. Gujeratis normally
> have last names such as Doshi, Kamdar and Shah.
>
> Bengalis in Malaysia are predominantly Hindu. Bengal which is their
> ancestral home, in India, borders Pakistan. Ethnically, the Bengalis are
the
> same as Bangladeshi's. But Bangladeshi (who are, today, in Malaysia as
> migrant workers) are predominantly Muslims. Bengalis celebrate major Hindu
> festivals such as Deepavali and Navarathiri (meaning ‘nine-nights').
Common
> Bengali last names are Chatterji and Bannerji among others.
>
> In conclusion, there many ‘shades' of Indians in Malaysia – and they can
be
> Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and Hindus, to name a few. And they come from a
> multitude of sub-ethnicity.
>
>
>
> source: www.analysismalaysia.com
Bala Pillai
"Networking Minds in Halls Without Walls Since 1995"
Founder, The Asia Pacific Internet Company http://www.apic.net
Founder/Producer, Thamil Innaiyam http://www.tamil.net
Founder/Producer, Malaysia.Net http://www.malaysia.net
Sydney, Australia
