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Malaysians of Indian descent in Penang

Ethnic community

  • 10 min read
  • 6 chapters

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Through Chola dynasty, South India and Punjabis

Lab · Class 6–9The Chola Empire

History

Already in the 1790s, Francis Light mentions Chulias (that is, people from the Coromandel Coast of India) as shopkeepers and farm labourers in Penang. Light estimated that about two thousand men came to work in this manner each year. however, in contrast to the Chinese, these labourers did not create a permanent settlement in Penang. They would, rather, work long enough to save money and then return to their families in south India. This group of migrants comprised the ‘Adi Dravidas,’ a group of impoverished labourers originating in the hinterlands of the Tamil country and Andhra Desa who, facing insufficient work in their homeland, went abroad for survival.

The Malabars, also known as Malabaris, who were predominantly Muslims were brought in to Penang as convict labourers. They were known to build the roads and government buildings in Penang. The migration of the Malabaris to Penang led to the existence of places such as Kampung Kaka and Kampung Malabar in Penang.

Another class of Indian migrants was a class of people hailing from the Kaveri delta areas (from the Sivaganga district of Madras) known as ‘Nattukottai Chettiars’ who were by occupation money-lenders. Their presence in Penang and elsewhere where plantations sprang up aided merchants, miners, and planters, as these Chettiars were advancing required working capital in the absence of any effective banks. Light also encouraged migration by the Chettiar community as part of his plan to create a cash economy on Penang.

Unlike the Tamil migrants, Telugu migrants from the northern Coromandel Coast came to Penang as families. For this reason, many did not leave when their work terms expired, but rather continued working on plantations or as merchants. Over 1,500,000 south Indians who worked in Malayan plantations, more than three-fourths returned to India, nearly all of them Tamil. Later migrants include Gujaratis (mostly Jains with Muslims and Parsees, with pockets of Hindus), Punjabis (mostly Sikh with significant Hindu minorities), Malayalees, Bengalis, Sindhis as well as Marwaris and Ceylonese Tamils.

As a result of the occupation of Malaysia, the Japanese killed about 150,000+ Indian Tamils of Malaysia and Burma in Burma within a period of time after arriving for slave labour work of constructing the Myanmar rail.

Beginning with Light, Penang boasted a tradition of religious and ethnic tolerance. All races could practice their respective religious faith and social stability in a multi-racial society was thus achieved.

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