The Chetti community's resistance to the condominium and hotel units being built right next to their modest village is not about saving their village alone, but is rather spurred by a genuine concern that they would lose their way of life.

Having arrived in Malacca in the year 1414, their ancestors have lived in this very village through the early Sultanate, British, Portuguese, Japanese and Dutch rule in the state, but, somehow, succeeded in preserving their culture.

Kg Chitty is probably the only place in Malaysia where you can meet a distinctly Malay-looking man with a traditional Indian name, filled with Indian mannerism, but speaks Bahasa Malaysia on an everyday basis.

These are chettis- who embody a mix of both the Malay and Indian culture. Their women adorn the pottu on their foreheads but wear traditional Malay garment, the baju kebaya, as their traditional dress.

As Malaysia becomes increasingly developed, this is one of those rare neighbourhoods, where within a four-acre space, everyone knows each other. Houses are not fenced while some are not even gated.

But for a long time, the village has struggled to keep its identity alive due its small size and an increasingly assimilated social surroundings.

"The village is too small for people who have just started families. Hence many move out," said the Chettis' welfare association president K Supramania Pillay (right).

"We used play kites in this village, now we can't do that because the place is just too small," he said.

Just over 300 Chettis live in the village, at time, with more than one family living in one house.

The community is actively encouraging other Chettis to buy any property in the village that comes up for sale, especially the select few occupied by non-Chettis.

"The Chettis would always get first option when a house comes up for sale. I moved back here several years ago, and my family have been waiting since my grandfather's days to come back here," TS Pillay, another resident, said.

The best indication as to the real size of the community in Malaysia is best seen during their famous annual Mariamman temple festival, where crowd reaches between 4,000 to 7,000 people.

Want bigger village

Now, however, the villagers are afraid that modern skyscrapers and its residents won't take too kindly to the noise that would emanate from their festivals.

"Would they then ask the government to silence the Chettis? Our way of life will be gone," said T Sithambaram Pillay, a young action committee chief.

Although the Chettis are, by religion, Hindus, their practice of the religion and customs still hold their own distinct features, mainly because they still are following orthodox Hinduism practices which were passed down to them from their ancestors centuries ago.

Their temples are adorned with unique domes, that more closely resembles a mosque or a church, while their deities are mostly carved from limestone, an extremely traditional practice.

Some historians have attributed this to the Chettis' lack of grip of the Tamil language, which means they have not assimilated with other Indian communities in the country and evolved their own practice.

But the Chettis take pride in the fact that they culture has been virtually untouched by the waves of modernity- coincidentally, as their village faces a threat of "losing its identity", as Supramania puts it, the community is in its 600th year in this state.

That was why when former Malacca chief minister Ali Rustam announced that the development project would be scrapped, the Chettis were hoping that the state government would acquire the land and pass it on to them.

"We wanted the village to be bigger. We could have built a bigger village, and we could have asked all our community members who have left this village to return here because we have more houses," TS Pillay said.

But now a 22-storey builing, a potential 100 feet road coming through the village threatens to put an end to 600 years of carefully preserved culture by a small community.

As it is, the village is already facing irrigation problems that floods the village during almost every downpour.

One individual, residing in the house that is worst hit by knee-high floods for the past twenty years, is determined to remain, as he was born and brought up in this village.

"I put all my things high up. Even my bed is high up. If it rains heavily, give it two hours, I guarantee you, this will become river cruise," the man known as Raja, aged 60, said while pointing to the drain in front of his house.

Villagers fear the flooding will only get worse when they have skyscrapers as their neighbours.