Malaysian Malayalees, also known as Malayalee Malaysians, are people of Malayali descent who were born in or immigrated to Malaysia from the Malayalam speaking regions of Kerala. They are the second largest Indian ethnic group, making up approximately 15% of the Malaysian Indian population. The bulk of Malaysian Malayali migration began during the British Raj, when the British facilitated the migration of Indian workers to work in plantations, but unlike the majority Tamils, the vast majority of the Malayalis were recruited as supervisors (called mandur) in the oil palm estates that followed the kangani system, and some were into trading and small businesses with a significant proportion of them running groceries or restaurants. Over 90% of the Malayalee population in Malaysia are Malaysian citizens.
History Before 19th century Despite their similar spellings in the Latin script, Malay and Malayali are believed to be false cognates: the former comes from the Malay (Austronesian) word "melaju" meaning "accelerate", describing the flow of a river in Sumatra that eventually gave its name to the Malay people, while the latter comes from the Malayalam (Dravidian) words "mala alam" meaning "mountain region".
The people of the Malay Peninsula begin receiving influences of South India around the 4th century, mainly through trading. However, the arrival of Alfonso de Albuquerque along with 800 Portuguese and 600 Malabari fighting men from Cochin during the Capture of Malacca in 1511 had the earliest records that clearly state the arrival of Malayalees in the Malay Peninsula.
When Penang was founded by Francis Light in 1786, many notable government buildings and roads were built by convict labourers from Malabar. Thus, the migration of these labourers led to the existence of areas such as Kampung Kaka and Kampung Malabar in the Penang Island. Many Indian Muslim merchants in Penang were Malabaris.
19th and 20th centuries
Malayalees in Malaysia can be divided into three major groups based on their occupation. The majority of the Malayalees were Hindu labourers from Palakkad and Kannur, as the British Government decided to bring in labourers from the Madras Presidency. Back then, most of the towns in the Madras Presidency were well connected by roads, railways and ports, thus making it easy for labourers to travel. Before the independence of India, the Malabar region was a part of the Madras Presidency.
Around the 1930s, many Malayalee labourers migrated to Malaya to work in estates through the kangani system. Most of the labourers from Palakkad travelled on the Rajula Ship from Madras, and labourers from the Malabar coastline travelled from the Cannanore Port. The Straits Settlements, Port Swettenham and Port Dickson were the major ports where the Malayalees landed in Malaya. Estates around areas such as Padang Rengas, Sitiawan, Labu, Bahau and all over the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia had Malayalee labourers.
Most of the educated Malayalees who came to Malaya were Hindus and Christians from Cochin and Travancore. As they were educated and could understand a little Tamil, having them as clerks in the estates helped the communication barrier between the estate managers and the labourers.
Many Muslims from the Malabar region migrated to Malaya as merchants, businessmen and traders. They were known for owning restaurants, grocery shops and medicine shops. It is believed that a large number of Malabari Muslims had migrated to Penang and Malacca even before the British invaded Malaya. In British Malaya, the traders from Malabar travelled from ports in Cannanore and Calicut to Penang and Malacca.
Language
Malayalam dialects spoken in Malaysia Malayalees migrated from Travancore, Cochin and the Malabar regions to Malaya. A very small number of them were from districts such as Wayanad and Idukki. Thus, many dialects of Malayalam were spoken in Malaya initially. As many labourers were from Palakkad and Kannur, dialects from these areas were prominent among the Malayalee labourers. The Malayalam dialects spoken in Malappuram, Kozhikode, Kannur and Kasargod were spoken by the Malabari Muslims in Malaya. The Arabi Malayalam was used as a medium for religious classes among the Malabars, and the Malayali Christians in Malaya spoke dialects from Cochin. However, today those dialects are used only by a very small number of people because many of them tend to use Standard Malayalam.
Education Malayalam medium schools were established in estates where Malayalees were the majority, around the 1920s in order to provide primary education for Malayalee children. Setting up a school for the Malayalees was one of the condition set by the Malayalee Kanganis to bring labourers into Malaya. However, the financial status of the Malayalee clerks and merchants enabled them to enrol their children to English medium schools. During World War II, these Malayalam medium schools closed due to the Japanese occupation in Malaya. The schools were later opened until the Independence of Malaya (1957).
In 1939, the Singapore Malayalee Hindu Samajam provided Malayalam classes at night for the younger generation in order to create a chance for the youths to learn Malayalam. In 1946, a Malayalam school was established in Segamat, with an enrollment of 80 students. The school was also approved by the Johor State Education Department. Estates in Padang Rengas, Labu, and Johor Bahru were known to have Malayalam medium schools in existence before the Independence of Malaya.
After the Independence of Malaya, many of these schools were shut down permanently. Some schools were converted to Tamil medium schools, to provide education for all Indians. The Malayalam medium schools converted into Tamil medium schools includes SJKT Ladang Gapis, Padang Rengas and SJKT Masai, Masai. Around the early 1970s, the Malayalee Associations in Peninsular Malaysia provided Malayalam classes to preserve the language. The classes were held for children and adults based on the Standard Malayalam. However, the syllabi for all Malayalam classes conducted in Malaysia were not streamlined. Today, Malayalam classes are still being provided by numerous Malayalee Associations throughout Peninsular Malaysia.
The Kerala Bandhu was published as a weekly newspaper in Batu Pahat, Johore around the 1920s. The newspaper was later printed in Singapore due to the high population of Malayalees there and renamed as Malaysia Malayali around the early 1970s. It was published as a daily newspaper in Singapore till December, 1988.
In 1931, the first Malayalee reading room in Malaya was founded in Jelf Road (Regat Tun Perak), Ipoh. The reading room provided newspapers, magazines, and Malayalam books for general reading. The reading room was also a place of discussion and a place to conduct Malayali cultural events.
Status The Tamil language has been a prominent language and a lingua franca among the Indians in Malaysia. This is because the Tamils make up approximately 75% of the entire Indian population in Malaysia (the majority of the population in the Madras Presidency). The Tamil language has a firm hold in education, society and politics.
As Tamil has been known to represent the Indian community, specifically South Indian community, other Indian languages have lost the opportunity to be prominent in education, society, politics and media including Malayalam. In order to be unified, the Malayalees and Telugus had agreed to Tamil being a language to represent the Indians, though some North Indians were against it. The Punjabi language represented a part of the North Indian communities. Tamil language were applied mainly in education, being a subject available to be examined in the Malaysian Public Exams (although the population of the Punjabis is approximately 2/3rd of the population of the Malayalees in Malaysia).
Today, Malayalam is only used as a spoken language at home and for formal purpose pertaining to some events held by the Malayalee Associations. There are no local radio channels, television channels and political parties representing the Malayalees, or its language. However, Malayalam television programs are broadcast by local television channels, and Malayalam songs are played on the National Indian Radio Channel (Minnal FM).
Language shift Many Malaysian Malayalees, especially the youths who are either the third or fourth generation are not that fluent in speaking Malayalam. This is because of a shift occurring from Malayalam to Tamil among the Malayalee youths. Most of the Malayalee Christians and Hindus who are highly educated tend to use Tamil as their first languages. Some of them use English as their mother tongue too. Many Malayalees also who belong to families of medium education background practice speaking Tamil as their first language and they enroll their children into Tamil medium schools. Malabari Muslim youths today are more comfortable in speaking Bahasa Malaysia than their mother tongue.
Population
Population in the British Malaya
Population of Malayalees and Indians in Malaya (1921–1957) Year Population of Malayalees Population of Indians Percentage of Malayalees among Indians (%) 1921 17,190 470,180 3.66 1931 34,898 621,847 5.61 1947 44,889 599,616 7.49 1957 72,971 820,270 8.90 1970 69,345 940,707 7.37
The Malayalees form the second largest Indian ethnic group in Malaysia. Based on the census conducted by the British Government in 1957, the percentage of the population of Malayalees in Malaya was 0.98 to the total population of Malaya. The sex ratio of the Malayalees was lowest in 1957, with about 480 females only to every 1,000 males.
Although census were recorded for the Malayalees in Malaya, it is inaccurate because the figures only covered Malayalees who migrated on ships from the ports in the Malabar coastline. The children of the Malayalees who migrated to Malaya from the Madras Port (mostly labourers) were registered as Tamils in their birth certificate. This led to the actual population of Malayalees in Malaya being unknown, but definitely more than the figure from the census conducted by the British government.
Population in Malaysia Population of Malayalees and Indians in Malaysia (1957–2000) Year Population of Malayalees Population of Indians Percentage of Malayalees among Indians (%) 1957 51,118 735,077 3.7 1970 44,199 933,197 4.7 1980 34,864 1,087,483 3.2 1991 44,266 1,316,190 3.37 2000 35,809 1,594,155 2.25
The population of the Malayalis have been recorded by the Malaysian government. However, the record has been inaccurate due to some mistakenly Malayalis addressing themselves as Tamils, and some being classified into the "Orang India Muslim/ Malabari" category.
There are also 13,392 emigrants from Kerala, which accounts 0.6% of the overall immigrants to Malaysia, according to Kerala Migration Survey Report, 2011.
Estimated population
The population of the Malayalees in Malaysia was estimated to be 228,900 in 2020. This figure is based on people who have full and partial Malayali descent. However, this figure is not accurate based on the system of the Malaysian Government because of the segregation of the Malayalee Muslims as a separate Indian ethnic category (Orang India Muslim/Malabari). Thus, this decreases the number of Malayalees in the census records of Malaysia. The estimated population of Malayalees excluding the Malabari Muslim population is approximately 189,660.
The mix marriages among the Malayalees and other Indian ethnic groups have increased the number of people with partial Malayali descent among the Malaysian Indians. Thus, the percentage of Malayalees among the Indians is estimated to increase to 10 in 2020.
Estimated population of Malayalees in Malaysia based on religions (2020) Religion Population Percentage based on total number of Malayalees in Malaysia (%) Hindus 172,407 75.26 Islam 39,351 17.19 Christian 17,142 7.5 Others 115 0.05
Culture