Cultural Assimilation Among Malays and Indians in Malaysia
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Cultural Assimilation among Malays and Indians in Malaysia Punitha Sivanantham' Kumaran Suberamaniarf Abstract This research is about the cultural elements assimilated within Malays and Indians in Malaysia. The cultural elements are including language, literature, roles and statuses of king, women, poets and Brahmins, beliefs & ideologies and customs & traditions. The scholar Munsyi Abdullah's texts were chosen to identify and analyse the Malays cultural practices because he is the father of Malay modern literature in Malaysia. He had literate his books with historical truths. Besides that, Texts of Tamil classical literature also were chosen to identify and list out the Indians cultural habits. The Tamil classical texts were compiled some 2500 years ago in India and it witnesses the Tamils signified the cultural practices in their daily life. The majority of the Malays in Malaysia recognized as Malay descendants by their mother tongue which is the Malay language. Indians had been visiting Malaya as traders and merchants for over 2000 years, but they did not settle down here as settlers until 19th century. The formation of Malaysia under British colonization with multi races of people encourages a good integration among Malays and Indians and therefore there was a chance for them to adapt and assimilate each other's cultural element. Keywords: Assimilation, cultural elements, Abdullah Munsyi's texts, Tamil classical texts, Malaysia, plural society, beliefs, literatures, statuses, customs. Introduction Malaysia can also be synonymous as a multiracial country which is not only has multi cultures and customs but also specific ethnics with own unique identities. As Charlest said 'Unity has the power to raise up small countries and disunity has the power to break down big countries', therefore Malaysia is recognized as a small country with strong unity which is famous with multi races and cultures. There are more than eighty ethnics in Malaysia and the most popular ethnics are Malays, Chinese and Indians. Malaysia has a variety of customs and languages too. It also I Research tudent, D 'p.utment of Indian Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Malaya. sakti 281.mall.com Associate Professor, Department of Indian Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Malaya. ~kum.\I·<m.llm~tlgmaiJ.com 204 JOURNAL OF INDIAN CULTURE AND CiVILIZATION ruled by twelve major languages and five international races (Ubaithulla, 2001, p. 3). Malaysia is situated in a very strategic position where traders from East and West were strongly interested in trading in the past. Therefore it as an ideal place for traders to trade and prosper. This position encourages more civilians to settle here. The culture of Hinduism and Buddhism was brought in by these civilians. So it is fundamentally regarded as the Malaysian past history where the beliefs of Hind uism and Buddhism can be found in today's Malays lifestyle (Ahmad Jelani Halimi, 2008, p.8). After 1800, it was discovered that in Southeast Asia, the majority of Malays were dwelling in Malaysia. A Malay descendant can be recognized by their mother tongue which is the Malay language. Malay language is one the Austronesian language which is spoken by more than twenty million people and it also closely related to the Indonesian language. The origins of the Malays, the native Malay language, are vague because the ancient history of Southeast Asia has not examined fully. Some theorized that the Malay language is derived from a group of people named Austronesian. They came from Yunnan province and traveled to the South and South-East Asia and occupied in South Asia territory. This happened back in 2500 before Christ, came the second wave, they called as Malay Deuteron. They occupied the coastal areas and wetlands in the Southeast Asian and they are smart in sailing and farming. Recent theories indicate that, the origin place of the Malays was the island of Borneo, and they have spread from there into three groups. The first group was from West and moved toward the North Sumatra. The second group was from Northeast and moved toward the Philippine Islands and Taiwan and a batch downloaded to Sulawesi and East Kalimantan. The last group was from South West of South Sumatra and moved to West Java (Nik Safiah Karim, Farid Muhammad Onn, Hashim Haji Musa, & Abdul Hamid Mahmood, 2010, p. 3). There is another historical acknowledgement which had stated that Malays at first primarily live on the eastern coast of the Malaysian peninsula and in the island of Borneo in Malaya. In the begirming there is also another historical statement stating that the Malays originated from the 'Mulukas' island of Indonesia. In the 17th century there was a relation born between the island and Malaya and it was when the Dutch ruling the islands. At that time in 1681, the Buggies was the first race who entered Selangor from the island. As time past by, the Buggies King became the 'Sultan' of Selangor in Malaya in the year 1699 to 1718. By the year 1960, the descendants of the Sultan became the royal family in Malaya. That is how the Malay became the Buniipuiera of Malaysia now. The Malays were excellent sailors and warriors. They were not only good traders but also good in business and politics (Veerapan, 1988, p. 24). They had the ruling skill and sprit by nature where they have a good ruling reputation among Dutch colonization too. Besides that, Malays also well known for their simplicity, gentleness and courtesy. The constitution of Malaysia stated that the Malays who considered as prince of soil Bunuputer« have political dominance and therefore they must fulfill some residential requirements as must embrace Muslim religion, speak Malay language and pursuant the Malay cul hue (Milner, 2008, p. 2). According to Ariffin Omar, he attempted that at the time of the rise of Malay nationalism was in the early 20th century Before Christ. During the time, the pure Malays wer regarded by s parating the half-bred Malays either from India or Arabia to be recognised a a nation of Malay. At the arne time, R.O.Winstedt quoted in his CULIURAL AssiMILATION AMONG MALAYS AND INDIANS IN MALAYSIA 205 b?ok titled TIle Malays: A Cultural Hisior], which they were in two different groups. Firstly Malays were the indigenous people who lived around the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra. Specifically, the Malays were the natives of the Malay Archipelago, Formosa, the Philippines and several tribes that inhabited the Indo-China region. Generally said, tile original inhabitants of tile Malay Peninsula, except tile Aborigines were r~garded as Malays. In the other hand, based on the Constitution of Malaysia, Malay IS defined as a person who must be a Muslim, speaks the Malay language and follow the Malay lifestyle (Ahmad Jelani Halimi, 2008, p. 8). In the other hand, many Indians came to Malaya as religious and language teachers, craftsmen, businessmen, farmers and so on. This happens 2000to 3000 years before. The traces those they left still can be seen in Malaysian language, traditions, food and in dressing of people's in Malay land (Ubaithulla, 2001, p. 189). Indians were the world's best migrants in their ancient times. Began 250 years before the birth of Christ the Cholas sceptered into the Malay land to conquer and rule Asian countries. In the earlier second century the Indians start their business by trading with other countries. Trading business was successfully done by Indian merchants through the Indian Ocean. Evidences had written by Latin teachers in detail. Besides them, Chinese tourists and history teachers also state about this in their daily records. Proofs also can be seen in the inscription, badges, coins, literature texts, journey and historical books (Ubaithulla, 2001, p. 248). In the year Before Christ 502 to 556, as stated by Veerapan (1988, p. 13)from his extract that there is historical proofs written in 'Liang'. It had stated that in Before Christ 1012, the first person who ruled Kedah was King Rajendra Cholan and therefore he had a special name 'Kadarom Kondan' which means the person who conquered Kedah. He was a powerful and intelligent King who also ruled Nikoba, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and West Malaya at the same time. The archeologist of Malaysia still collects the proofs of the statues of Lord Vinayagn and writings at Bujang Valley in Tamil and San krit languages. During King Rajandra Chelan's time, he had the flag of tiger which has been adapted by Malaysia as a national symbol. In 11th and 12thcentury, it has been proved that Indian merchants and traders had a flourishing bu ine at the Panchur seashore which is situated near to Beruas. In 1743 they also built ship and ports along the eashore which attracted many Dutch traders. According to Kumaran (2011) although there are some historical evidences tated that Indian had been isiting Malaya as traders and merchants for over 2000 y ar , but th did not ttle down here as settlers until 19th century. Indians were migrat d from India t Malaya as cheap labours in 1786 by British colonization wh n th ~, ruled and k p the tate Pinang under their c.ontrol. On Tl" August 1786, Fran i Light t pped in Pinang and rose up the Union Jack flag ad named Pinang 1 land a Prin ) of Wal . The British colonization planned to start the works to in r a' the n mi I'vel of Mala a and therefore the Indians were migrated in hug' gr up as farmer and infrastructure builders. Th~ majority of. Indians Who had migrat d to 1ala a found thorns lves in a mul~~t~n~c, ,work~g-class 'nvir nrn nt.