HISTORY | The 'invisible' South Indians

HISTORY: TOLD AS IT IS | South Indians – Tamils, Telegus and Malayalees – who formed about 95 percent of the Indian population in British Malaya (excluding Singapore, now referred to as Peninsular Malaysia) have contributed immensely to the economic and infrastructure development of our nation.

They formed the bulk of the plantation labour force that greatly contributed to the development of Malaya’s rubber industry which became the main revenue earner for several decades beginning from 1916. Additionally, the South Indians also provided invaluable labour for the construction of roads, railways and government buildings.

Regrettably, the contributions of South Indians in the development of the nation’s rubber industry get only scant mention in our history textbooks – about two sentences in the Form 3 textbook. In this regard, one is reminded of NJ Colletta’s moving assertion that “the hands that so diligently tap[ped] thousands of [rubber] trees daily remain hidden from the public eye.”

Worse still, the school history textbooks forget to tell the important, poignant story whereby hundreds of thousands of South Indians lost their lives in helping to open up rugged and uninhabitable jungles for rubber cultivation and to develop the infrastructure of modern Malaya. The South Indians have virtually become “invisible people” and their toil and sacrifices have been largely forgotten.

Taking the cue from Pierre Le Moyne that “truth is the soul of history”, this article seeks to redress the intellectual travesty in our secondary history textbooks by highlighting the significant contributions of the South Indians in the development of our nation’s plantation agriculture and infrastructure. It begins by tracing the modern immigration of South Indians to Malaya since the 1780s.

Modern South Indian labour immigration into Malaya had commenced after the establishment of a British settlement in...