Tamil Newspapers in Malaya and the Imagining of Tamil Cultural Identity, 1930 1940
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by ScholarBank@NUS THE POWER OF PRINT: TAMIL NEWSPAPERS IN MALAYA AND THE IMAGINING OF TAMIL CULTURAL IDENTITY, 1930-1940. DINESH SATHISAN B.A. (Hons.), NUS A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE 2008 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This appears to be the most difficult part of the academic exercise. To avoid forgetting to credit people who have helped me in one way or another throughout this study, I started taking down names in my notebook every time I knew someone should be thanked. Oddly, the waiting lounge at the airport at the end of every journey I made appeared most conducive when trying to put together this list. This began in February 2007 in India when I was returning home from a research trip that went very well, and the habit continued all throughout my travels that year. The airports in Dubai, New York, Vermont, London, Paris, Madrid, Copenhagen, Frankfurt and Jakarta saw me scribbling down names in my notebook; names that would just suddenly crop up (just like ideas for the thesis did). I owe an immense debt to my thesis advisor, A/P Timothy Barnard. Tim is an expert of the Malay World and despite the fact that his academic interests lie outside my research area, he was keen on supervising this study. I could knock on his door anytime and he was there to listen to me, read my drafts and send me mobile text messages when he came across something which he thought would interest me. Professor Merle Ricklefs supervised this study when Tim was away on sabbatical in 2007. Merle’s comments on the first draft of my introduction made me critically think about several issues which I only had a surface-level comprehension of when I began this study. Dr Mark Emmanuel deserves special mention because he suggested that I study the Indian community in Malaysia since there was so much to be done in the field that was left undone. Mark is also responsible for getting me interested in Malaysian history having taught me an Honours module on the subject. I am also ii grateful to A/P Michael Feener for comments on my introductory chapter during our Graduate Students’ Seminar as well as for putting me in touch with Dr Annabel Teh Gallop and Torsten Tschacher. From the South Asian Department in NUS, I am highly indebted to A/P Gyanesh Kudaisya for allowing me to do an Independent Study Module under his supervision, despite his very tight schedule. Gyanesh had just become the acting Head of the Department following Professor Peter Reeve’s departure, and was clearly pressed for time but he was highly passionate about my research on E. V. Ramaswamy Naicker. In fact, if not for Gyanesh’s suggestion that I seek additional funding to fly to Chennai to gather primary documents from the archives, I would have missed out on an excellent opportunity to understand the original ideas which came from India to Malaya during the period in question. I also thank Dr S. Thinnappan, who gave me access to some rare magazines in his collection as well as introduced me to his friend, the Head of the Dravidar Kalagam in Tamil Nadu, Dr K. Veeramani. I am also grateful to Torsten Tschacher who gave me some wonderful materials on the Indian press which I had overlooked. In India, I have to thank Dr Veeramani for allowing me to interview him despite his busy schedule and throngs of people waiting to meet with him. His librarian, Mr Govindan and his assistant were very kind and gave me access to Tamil materials which I never knew existed. In London, I thank Dr Annabel Gallop from the Asia, Pacific and Africa Collections at the British Library and her colleagues for assisting me in every way possible to ensure that I had access to materials I required for this study. I also thank iii the staff of Goodenough College Residence in London who made possible my inexpensive stay in one of the most expensive cities in the world. I am grateful as well to Shuyin and Ian for recommending that I stayed at Goodenough. Back home, I appreciate the help of staff from the Lee Kong Chiang Reference Section of the National Library, National Archives of Singapore, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies Library, as well as the Central Library at NUS. I am also grateful for all the help I got from the administrative staff of the History Department, and a special mention must be made of Ms Kelly Lau, the Graduate Student’s Administrative Assistant, who was always willing to help despite being very busy. This thesis also benefited tremendously from comments received during the Graduate Student’s seminar, the Graduate Student’s Department Series which allowed me to present part of this study on 12 March 2008 as well as A/P Maurizio Peleggi’s Cultural History seminar which allowed me to explore some wonderful works of scholarship. My peers, Sheng-Chi, Panu, Aji and Minami have all in one way or another helped me critically think about my thesis. I am glad to have met them in graduate school and they will always have a special place in my heart. Sheng-Chi in particular gave me materials from his very own study of press networks in China and they have become the basis to this study. I also wish to thank Professor Barbara Watson Andaya for taking the trouble to find me a source which I could not locate and for giving me her thoughts on my research. The following people also deserve special mention: A/P Ian Gordon, A/P Bruce Lockhart, Dr Medha Kudaisya, Dr Michael Montesano, Chua Ai Lin, Khairuddin Aljunied, Arun Mahizhnan from the Institute of Policy Studies, iv Sunil Amrith from Birkbeck College, Nandini Chatterjee from King’s College London, Dr S. Nagarajan, Mr A. V. Krishnasamy, President of the Singai Tamil Sangam, Vidya Murthi from the National Museum of Singapore, M. Elias of Sangam Textiles, A/P Thomas DuBois, and Patricia Welch, fellow docent and art enthusiast, for so kindly volunteering to read my drafts. This study was also made possible by 2 grants; the NUS Graduate Student’s Grant as well as the History Department Graduate Fund. For the latter, I thank A/P Albert Lau for awarding me the grant, without which my trip to India and my extended stay in London could not have been made possible. Last but not least, I am very grateful to mum and dad who have always recognised my potential, and have supported me throughout my academic life. While writing this thesis, the shoulder massage I got from mum, her constant popping-in into the study to demand that I take a rest and her wonderful words of encouragement have not gone to waste. I am also very grateful to my beloved sister, Vani, who has been a source of immense joy and who is always supportive of my research. Despite being busy on a research fellowship studying socio-political theatre in Buenos Aires (and having free time taken up by learning Tango, Salsa, and Argentinean Spanish among other things), she read drafts of this thesis and offered valuable insights. Everyone mentioned above has contributed in one way or another to this thesis, but its faults, needless to say, are mine alone. Dinesh Sathisan Singapore 20.06.2008 v TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................... ii Summary ..................................................................................................................... vii List of Tables ............................................................................................................... ix List of Figures ............................................................................................................... x Note on Transliteration ............................................................................................... xii Abbreviations and Short Forms Used in this Study ...................................................xiii CHAPTER I Setting the Scene ......................................................................................................... 1 Literature Review and Methodology ......................................................................... 3 Tamil Journalism and the Newspapers in Study ....................................................... 7 CHAPTER II Newspapers as Instruments of Reform and Change: Imagining the Tamil Diaspora as Modern.................................................................................................. 14 The Five Elements of the Modern Free Press ......................................................... 19 Independent Mouthpiece of the Public Voice: Protecting the Diaspora’s Rights .. 24 The Pursuit of Modernity: General Enlightenment and Progressive Change ........ 31 Boosting the Ego: Recovering the Modern Tamil from Early Histories ................ 37 CHAPTER III The Multiple Levels of Imagined Spaces: The Malayan Tamil Press and the Aryan-Dravidian Schism .......................................................................................... 41 The Politics of ‘Race’: The Aryans versus the Dravidians ..................................... 42 The Anti-Brahmin Agenda in Tamil Nadu and Malaya .......................................... 45 Self-Respect Marriages as an Anti-Brahmin Endeavour........................................ 54 The Politics Surrounding the Tamil-Hindi Language Mêlée .................................. 61 Re-analysing Deepavali, Taipūcam and Tīmiti ...................................................... 70 The Necessity of Generalisations in Constructing the Self-Image