Superior
Ceylonese
THERE HAD BEEN deep-seated antagonism between the Indians
and the Ceylonese here. Not only that these people came from two different
geographical locations but more importantly there was incessant rivalry
between the two for the limited number of white-collar jobs available in
the Straits Settlements and Federation. Besides, quite a large number of
Ceylonese too were employed as supervisors in the plantations and government
departments where the labour force was predominantly Indian Tamils. The
Ceylonese had harboured a despicable opinion of the Indian labouring class
and refused to treat them with any dignity. Tales of Ceylonese tyranny against
the helpless Tamil labourers were commonplace among the Indian community.
The Ceylonese too were greedily protective of whatever they had earned
in this country for the sole benefit of their own community.9 Thus
any effort to forge fraternity with them and expecting them to contribute
for the good of the Indians was a sheer waste of time. As such, not surprisingly,
the Indo-Ceylonese Association went into oblivion after a short while without
achieving much.
It is obvious from the foregoing that the English-educated Indian
middle class in Penang did not seem to have a clear notion of what constituted
Indian identity in this land. While the first two associations exhibited
an inclination towards a narrow perspective based, perhaps, on religion
the last effort tried to broaden the concept of ethnicity by including
the Ceylonese. Partly, it was this confusion that brought about the early
demise of all the three associations. Another notable aspect was the total
absence of Indian Muslim participation in all these efforts. It is not
clear why the Muslims had decided to keep aloof. The Muslims formed an
important segment of the Indian community in Penang right from the early
days. Many of them were wealthy merchants. Their support would have certainly
put these associations in a stronger financial footing and thereby could
have made them more viable. Perhaps the lack of enough exposure and experience
in public life had made these early protagonists to fumble in their pursuits.
Identity Quest during the Inter-War Period
Compared to the period before the First World War the inter-war
period saw a remarkable improvement in the activities of the Penang
Indian middle class. It could not have been due to wartime experience
because unlike the Second World War the first war practically had no
direct impact on the people of Malaya. Even back in India the Indian National
Congress had cooperated well with the British wartime efforts. Gandhi
himself had gone out of his way to help the British literally as a recruiting
agent. Actually, it was the exposure that they got soon after the war that
had brought about the change in them. The political developments in India
immediately after the war had educated the Penang Indian middle class to
a considerable level. One person who benefited quite tremendously from this
exposure was P.K. Nambyar. This could be deciphered from the way he had
conducted himself in public life after this period.
Back in India, Gandhi's involvement in the freedom fight had succeeded
in arousing national consciousness among the Indian masses. They got
into action and stood united as one community against the British. Nationalist
fervour was decipherable from all over the country. As part of their
struggle some of the Indian nationalist took up the cause of the overseas
Indians. This brought them in close contact with some of the local Indians.
Nambyar was among the lucky ones. He managed to forge a close rapport
with a number of these nationalists. Taking advantage of this relationship
Nambyar endeavoured to bring to the attention of the Indian Government
the plight of the Indian labourers in Malaya. In 1922, for instance, he
led a delegation to seek the Indian Government's indulgence to redress
the problems faced by the labourers. It was following this delegation
that the Indian Government enacted the 1922 Indian Immigration Act (Mahajani
1960: 121).
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Nambyar
A more important development of this period was the recognition
by the Malayan Government of the need for Indian representation in the
Straits Settlements Legislative Council. The first ever person to be honoured
with this position was none other than Nambyar himself. He was appointed
to the council in 1923. Making use of this position, in 1923, Nambyar
persuaded the Council to pass the Straits Settlements Labour Ordinance,
which among other things provided for the payment of standard wages and
land allotment for labourers for gardening activities (Mahajani 1960:
122).
All this had naturally groomed Nambyar up into a more able leader.
He once again began to feel the necessity of an association for the
Penang Indians. Thus, in December 1923, with few like-minded people he
initiated the move to form an Indian Association. However, as had happened
earlier, before his idea could be put into form a similar move was mooted
by another group. In April 1924, this group formed an Indian Association
with Hussein Hasanally Abdool Cader as the president. Abdool Cader was
a wealthy merchant. He justified the formation of the association saying
it was not formed to rival Nambyar's aspirations. Yet, it is not clear
why should they rushed to name their association as Indian Association,
having known that that name had already been chosen by Nambyar for his
planned association. However, when Nambyar persisted in registering his
association also as the Penang Indian Association, the other group had
theirs changed to the United Indian Association of Penang (Khoo 1995:
223).
Undeterred by the rivalry from the other association Nambyar
went ahead to make the Penang Indian association a viable one. To avoid
repeating the mistakes of the past, steps seemed to have been taken
to make sure that all the major segments of the Indian society were well
represented in the Association. There were Hindus, Muslims, Christians
and North Indians among the office-bearers. The Association also paid
special attention to the needs of the labouring classes. In 1931, an Indian
Unemployment Committee was set up to render help to unemployed Indians.
Two years later a free dispensary, in honour of Nambyar, was opened to
cater for the medical needs of the poor. During the Depression years of
the 1930s it went to the aid of the retrenched labourers who were left
to fend for themselves. The Association took to task the estate management
and the Malayan Government for the inhumane treatment accorded to these
labourers. It also financially assisted in the repatriation of a number
of them.10
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Ai
Dravidar Sangam
Despite all these, the lower classes, more especially the Tamils,
kept away from the activities of the Penang Indian Association. Although
the membership was opened to all Indians irrespective of caste, class and
creed they never showed much interest towards the Association. Rather they
preferred to function separately. This is not surprising. It was the British
policy of occupational segregation that had created this tendency among
the lower classes.
The British had chosen predominantly the Tamils for their labour
needs and appointed mainly the Malayalees as their immediate superiors,
whether it was in the plantation sector or in the various government
departments. It was not that there were no English-educated Tamils around,
but rather a calculated move by the British to keep the Indian community
perpetually divided. The policy worked well to divide the community into
middle and lower classes. Naturally, the Malayalees predominantly fell
into the middle class while their Tamil brethren dominated the lower class.
The Malayalee supervisors, driven by a false sense of superiority, treated
the labouring class with contempt. This had inseminated deep dislike and
suspicion among the Tamil labourers against the English-educated middle
class, more especially the Malayalees. Consequently, they kept themselves
away from any effort by the middle class even though it was intended to
bring about greater communal cohesion.
Nambyar ought to have been disturbed a little by this trend.
Yet, he decided to help the lower class Indians form and run separate
organisation. In 1926, the Adi Dravidar Sangam and the Penang Maruthuvar
Sangam were established with the full support and assistance of the Penang
Indian Association.11 The Adi Dravidar Sangam was for the uplift
of the lower caste while the Maruthuvar Sangam was to take care the welfare
of the barber caste. The Indian Association did not stop with that. Rather
it continued to provide leadership to these organisations. Nambyar, for
instance remained the patron of the Maruthuvar Sangam until his demise
in 1928. Haridass Pillai was the first president of the Sangam. Nadesom
Pillai succeeded him in 1927. The following year S. Yagambaram Pillai led
it. He held the post until 1933. Narasimmalu Naidu continued as president
from then on until 1940.12
By letting the lower classes to have their own organisations
and rendering leadership the Penang Indian Association had actually
endeavoured to pull these downtrodden classes into the fold of the larger
Indian society. It got to be noted here that although the Maruthuva Sangam
was a caste based organisation and meant for lower caste the members of
the Penang Indian Association, who were supposedly from higher caste, did
not show any inhibition to lead that. Not only the post of the president
but also all other main offices were held by these people from its inception
up to the 1940s. In this way the Penang Indian Association had strove to
bring greater ethnic cohesion among the Indians in Penang irrespective of
their social status.
Nambyar held the presidency of the Indian Association until his
untimely death in 1928. However, he had succeeded in putting the Association
on stronger footing that his demise did not entail its collapse. Nambyar's
son, Dr. N.K. Menon, and son-in-law N. Raghavan, a renowned lawyer, continued
to provide able leadership to the Association. Under their leadership,
in July 1938, the Association acquired its own premises. According to The
Indian (September 18, 1940) the Penang Indian Association was the first
Indian organisation to have its own building. Its president Raghavan owed
this achievement to the cooperation rendered by the Penang community as a
whole. Perhaps it could be safely said that by the close of the third decade
of the twentieth century some semblance of ethnic consciousness became visible
among the Penang Indians. And, it is not to be forgotten that that it was
the tireless effort of the Penang Indian Association.
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Conclusion
The identity quest initiated by the Penang Middle class way back
in 1892 had continued into the 1940s, albeit, without much success.
The formation of the Penang Indian Association in 1924 was a turning
point in this long journey. The Association had created an opportunity
for the middle class Indians to work together for the attainment of greater
communal cohesion. Under the able leadership of Nambyar, Menon and Raghavan
it had made some commendable strides towards creating a common identity
for the Indian community.
These leaders were able to free themselves
of the caste and class inhibition and served the cause of the Indians
effectively. While Nambyar had associated himself with lower castes' endeavours
to organise themselves the latter two had took upon themselves to champion
the cause of the labourers. Menon was vehement in his criticism against
the irresponsible estate management during the Depression years. Raghavan,
however, went to the aid of the estate labourers when they launched labour
strikes in the Klang districts in 1941. Raghavan did
not limit his activities to the Penang Indian Association alone. In fact,
he was instrumental in the formation of the Central Indian Association of
Malaya (CIAM), which was the forerunner of the Malaysian Indian Congress,
in 1936. He was also the second president of that organisation.
These efforts not only succeeded in infusing a sense belonging
into the middle class Indians but also to some extent managed to assuage
the antagonism the labouring class had had against the middle class. They
were willing enough to allow their organisations to be led by the middle
class. Realising the role of the Indian Association in uniting
the community, in 1938, Raghavan made a whirlwind tour of the country
to help establish the association all over the places. By 1941, he managed
to open more than twenty Indian associations with more than seven thousand
members (Stenson 1980: 58-59). It looked for a moment as if Raghavan
was close to achieving the elusive goal of uniting the Indians under
one association - the CIAM. Unfortunately that was not to be. The Second
World War and the Japanese occupation that followed it shattered his hopes.
The activities of the CIAM came to an abrupt end, and it went into oblivion
after the war. That also brought an end to the active role the Penang Indian
Association had aspired to play in the lives of the Indian community. #
(Concluded)
Go to the top
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ENDNOTES
10 See the Penang Indian Association's Diamond Jubilee Celebrations
Souvenir Programme (1984) for more details.
11 The Penang Indian Association had highlighted this as part
of its annual activities. See the Report of the Management Committee presented
at the First Annual General Meeting held on June 28, 1926.
12 See the Penang Maruthuvar Sangam's Golden Jubilee Celebrations
Souvenir Programme (1976) for details.
REFERENCES
Khoo Kay Kim. 1992. The Indian Association Movement in Peninsular
Malaysia: The Early Years. JMBRAS 65 (2): 3-24.
Khoo Kay Kim. 1995. The Quest for Indian Unity and Formal Representation
in Malaya: The 1920s. in Abu Talib Ahmad & Cheah Boon Kheng (eds.).
Isu-Isu Pensejarahan. Pp. 218-249. Penerbit USM: Pulau Pinang.
Stenson, Michael. 1980. Class, Race and Colonialism in West Malaysia:
The Indian Case. Queensland: University of Queensland Press.
Syed Peer Mohammed. 1998. Mannum Manitharkalum (A Discovery of
India & Its People). Mithra Publications: Madras.
Mahajani, Usha. 1960. The Role of Indian Minorities in Burma
and Malaya. Greenwood Press: Connecticut.
Diamond Jubilee Celebrations Souvenir Programme. 1984. The Penang
Indian Association.
Golden Jubilee Celebrations Souvenir Programme. 1976. Penang
Maruthuvar Sangam.
The Indian. September 18, 1940.
Turnbull, C.M. 1972. The Straits Settlements, 1826-67. London:
The Athlone Press.
Suntharalingam, R. 1983. Indian Nationalism: An Historical Analysis.
New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House.
Rajeswary, A. 1981. The Indian Minority and Political Change
in Malaya, 1945-1957. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press.
K. Anbalakan, Penang Indian Middle Class and the Quest for Ethnic
Identity
The Penang Story - International Conference 2002
18-21 April 2002, The City Bayview Hotel, Penang, Malaysia
Organisers: The Penang Heritage Trust & STAR Publications
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