Books From Jaffna to El Dorado The visitors who stayed

WE OWE A HUGE DEBT TO THE JAFFNA TAMILS. It was Jaffna, in far away Ceylon,  that supplied the lower ranks of the civil service in 19th century Malaya. The expanding economy and the proliferation of government admininistration and private enterprise demanded a continuous supply of English educated labour. The British sought them in educated Ceylon; and they came, to the the four states of Perak, Selangor, Negri Sembilan and Pahang. They supervised the building of railways and roads and were the clerical and supervisory staff on the estates. From 1885 to 1920s all lower appointments in the railways from clerk to station master remained their monopoly.   Their dominance is probably due to their dogged determination to lift themselves to higher levels. In "Sojourners to Citizens", Prof Rajakrishnan describes the 18th century spirit of self sacrifice in the acquisition of education; parents, brothers and sisters undergoing hardships at their homes in order that at least one member of the family may receive an English education. This is reminiscent of the Chinese propensity to sacrifice all to equip their children for the paper chase. Educated Jaffna was the "vast factory" that produced an abundant supply of educated men for the government service. There were two categories of newcomers: one of assisted immigration and the other of unassisted immigration, and the latter gradually increased. Then came the lawyers and with them the change of the Ceylon Tamil image as "a class of mere railways servanrts and quill drivers in government offices". The enrolment of Malays in English schools from 800 in 1923 to 2,464 in 1933 in the FMS began the decline of the dominance of the Jaffna Tamils in the clerical service.

Those who came before 1900 were birds of passage who worked here then retired to their native village in Jaffna. By 1911 there were 8000 Ceylonese here; by 1931 16,786, by 1947 out of 19,802 only 10,222 were Ceylon born.  In 1947 only one out of 8 lived outside the FMS. Those born locally in the third and fourth decades of this century were localised in their general orientation but maintained communal distinctness and cultural characteristics Prof Rajakrishnan notices the upward mobility from predominantly lower middle class in pre war Malaya to upper middle class status in post war Malaya, whatever that means. Prof Rajakrishnan calls them the pioneers of the Malayan middle class. They provided the continuity of bureaucracy, exercising supervision and control in terms of discipline which gave them a sense of pride and importance. Prof Rajakrishnan's pioneering book is extremely useful. Its little 250 pages are packed with useful information such as salaries; and the references are a useful guide to those wanting to do research. The book has appendix of Notes, a guide to some of the personalities of the Ceylon Tamil world in Malaya, a list which includes the judge, Macintyre, the journalist Saravanamuttu, Thuraisingam, and Seenevasagam - father and son, DR, but strangely, not SP, the elder son and brilliant lawyer and effective leader of the PPP and of the Ipoh Municipality. "Sojourners to Citizens - Sri Lankan Tamils in Malaysia" 1885 - 1965 by Rajakrishnan Ramasamy Assoc. Prof. Dept of Indian Studies University of Malaya 1988 250 pp

The BOOKSHOP, Chow Thye Road, stocks Penang Sketchbook as well as books previously reviewed in The Penang File such as : Tan Sooi Beng: Bangsawan; Machiko Katayama; The Philosophy of Ikebana; Dato J J Raj Jr: The War Years and After; Lim Kean Siew: The Eye Over the Golden Sands; Lim Kean Siew:  Blood on the Golden Sands;  Malaysia Nature Society, Penang branch: Nature Trails of Penang Island. Lim Kean Siew:  The Beauty of Chinese Tixing Teapots and the Finer Art of Tea Drinking ; Said Zahari: Dark Clouds at Dawn; Eric Lawlor ; Friends of the Botonical Gardens: ;  T N Harper: The End of the Empire and the Making of Malaya.  (Telephone 228 2252)

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___________________ The Penang File Issue 20