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The Self-Respect Movement and Tamil Politics of Belonging in Interwar British Malaya, 1929–1939*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2015

DARINEE ALAGIRISAMY
DARINEE ALAGIRISAMY*
Affiliation:
Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom Email: da347@cam.ac.uk; darinee_alagirisamy@yahoo.com
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Abstract

This article explores ideas of belonging that gained prominence among Indian Tamils in interwar British Malaya by revisiting a transnational dialogue that has been under-represented in the community's history. Through an analysis of the developments that unfolded during and in the decade following Periyar E. V. Ramasamy's first visit to Malaya in 1929, it positions the diaspora within the politics of a reform movement that had a profound impact on Tamil cultural and political consciousness in two colonial societies. Having originated in the former Madras Presidency, the Self-Respect movement entered Malaya at a time when both societies were engulfed in momentous change. Led by the middle class, the movement's subsequent ‘Malayanization’ raised salient questions of political allegiance as it was adapted, challenged, and ultimately reapplied to India in the interest of defending the Tamil homeland. Through an analysis of the contentious loyalties that Malayan Self-Respecters encouraged, and the responses that surfaced in the process, this article will demonstrate that the movement opened up critical new discursive spaces through which the diaspora engaged with its ‘home’ and ‘host’ societies.

Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 50 , Issue 5 , September 2016 , pp. 1547 - 1575
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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Footnotes

*

I would like to record my deepest gratitude to David Washbrook for his guidance as supervisor of my MPhil thesis, on which this article is based. My thanks also to V. Kalaichelvam of Singapore's Periyar Community Service (PCS) for his generous help, and to Tim Harper and Shakthi Manickavasagam for their comments on earlier versions of this article.

References

1 Interview with V. Kalaichelvam, chairman of the PCS, Singapore, 1 March 2012.

2 E. V. Ramasamy Naicker dropped his caste title in 1923 and was subsequently addressed as E. V. Ramasamy, ‘Periyar’ E. V. Ramasamy, or simply as ‘Periyar’, meaning ‘great leader’.

3 Interview by Mediacorp, Singapore (2011), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsyubZr5O5k, [accessed 22 December 2014].

4 Kudi Arasu, 2 May 1925. Periyar walked out of the general session of the Tamilnadu Congress Kanchipuram conference in November 1925 when his proposal for non-Brahmin representation in the legislature and public services was rejected in the interest of national unity. Veeramani, K. (2005). Collected Works of Periyar E. V. R., 3rd edition, Periyar Propaganda Institute, Chennai, pp. 110–120 Google Scholar.

5 Anandhi, S. (2008). ‘Women's Question in the Dravidian Movement’, in Sarkar, S. and Sarkar, T., Women and Social Reform in Modern India: A Reader, Indiana University Press, Indiana, p. 394 Google Scholar. These weddings did away with the use of the Sanskrit language. Instead, they were officiated by community elders in the Tamil language.

6 Colonial scholars of philology first articulated the notion of a distinctive Dravidian cultural and racial identity. In their writings, Saiva Vellala intellectuals subsequently elaborated on these theories to resurrect a powerful pre-Aryan Tamil civilization. For the origins of the Dravidian race theory, see for example, Barnett, M. R. (1976). Politics of Cultural Nationalism in South India, Princeton University Press, Princeton, pp. 17–20 Google Scholar, and Arooran, Nambi (1980). Tamil Renaissance and Dravidian Nationalism 1905–1944, Koodal Publishers, Madurai, pp. 280–300 Google Scholar.

7 For a history of the Self-Respect movement and the development of Dravidian politics, see, for example, Hardgrave, R. L. (1965). The Dravidian Movement, Popular Prakashan, Bombay Google Scholar; Barnett, Politics of Cultural Nationalism; Washbrook, D. A. (1977). The Emergence of Provincial Politics in South India: The Madras Presidency, 1870–1920, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Google Scholar; Ramaswamy, S. (1997). Passions of the Tongue: Language Devotion in Tamil India, 1891 –1970, University of California Press, California Google Scholar; and Subramanian, N. (1999). Ethnicity and Populist Mobilisation in Tamil Nadu: Political Parties, Citizens and Democracy in South India, Oxford University Press, Delhi Google Scholar; Oxford.

8 Pandian, M. S. S. (1993). “Denationalising” the Past: “Nation”, in E. V. Ramasamy's Political Discourse, Economic and Political Weekly, 28:42, pp. 2282–2287 Google Scholar, especially p. 2282.

9 Fakhri, S. M. A. K. (2001). Mobility of Tradition and Framework-building for the Study of Transnational Indian Communities: The Story of Tamil Migration to and the Dravidian Movement in Southeast Asia, National University of Singapore, Singapore, p. 13 Google Scholar.

10 Periyar's speech at the Malayan Indian Association in Singapore, 26 December 1929, quoted in Veeramani, K. (2012). Maleciya Sinkappuril Periyar [Periyar in Malaysia and Singapore], Periyar Self-Respect Propaganda Institute, Chennai, pp. 28–29 Google Scholar. Besides Self-Respect publications from the Madras Presidency and Malayan Tamil and English press reports, this article has relied on material from K. Veeramani's compilation of the personal correspondence and speeches that were recorded during Periyar's visits to Malaya as the main sources of documentation of events. Unless otherwise stated, all the translations used in this study are by the author.

11 Tῑmiti, the South Indian Hindu practice of fire-walking, subsequently became a key target of Self-Respect reform in Malaya. Kudi Arasu, 3 April 1927.

12 Kudi Arasu, 20 November 1927.

13 Malacca Guardian, 23 December 1929.

14 Brown, R. A. (1981). Indian Minority and Political Change in Malaya, 1945–1957, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 4–5 Google Scholar.

15 Arasaratnam, S. (1970). Indians in Malaysia and Singapore, Oxford University Press, London, p. 128 Google Scholar.

16 Sathisan, D. (2009). Speaking for the Diaspora: Tamil Newspapers in Malaya and Singapore as Instruments of Modernity, Protection, Reform and Change, 1930–1940, The Heritage Journal, 4, pp. 74–96 Google Scholar. See also Sathisan, D. (2008). ‘The Power of Print: Tamil Newspapers in Malaya and the Imaginings of Tamil Cultural Identity, 1930–1940’, Unpublished MA thesis, National University of Singapore, Singapore. For a discussion of the reformist endeavours that were undertaken by, and on behalf of the Tamil community over the course of the twentieth century, see Belle, C. V. (2008). ‘Forgotten Malaysians? Indians and Malaysian Society’, in Raghuram, P., Sahoo, A. K., Maharaj, B. and Sangha, D. (eds), Tracing an Indian Diaspora: Contexts, Memories, Representations, Sage Publications, New Delhi, pp. 52–74 Google Scholar.

17 Sathisan's argument follows a wide arc, discussing many aspects of Self-Respect reform in Malaya, from the Murasu’s coverage of the reform wedding to anti-Hindi agitation in India. However, his focus is primarily on the evolution of the Tamil press, with a tendency to overemphasize the role played by the Murasu's editor, G. Sarangapany, in coordinating the movement. Sathisan has made a valuable contribution in arguing that the Tamil public sphere in Malaya in this period ‘was highly complex with multiple spheres of imagining’. See Sathisan, ‘The Power of Print’, p. 121. This article extends his analysis through an exploration of the adaptations that the Self-Respect movement underwent following Periyar’s encounters with the Malayan Tamil public, with specific reference to issues of belonging that surfaced during the leader’s visit and its aftermath.

18 Solomon, J. (2012). The Decline of Pan-Indian Identity and the Development of Tamil Cultural Separatism in Singapore, 1856–1965, South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 35:2, pp. 257–281 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, especially p. 269.

19 Aiyar, S. (2011). Anticolonial Homelands across the Indian Ocean; Politics of the Indian Diaspora in Kenya, ca. 1930–1950, The American Historical Review, 116:4, pp. 987–1013 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

20 ‘Satyagraha’ is a Sanskrit compound word comprising ‘satya’ (truth) and ‘agraha’ (adherence or insistence). It may be said to refer to a brand of non-violent politics deployed by Gandhi. See, for instance, Rai, Ajay Shankar (2000). Gandhian Satyagraha: An Analytical and Critical Approach, Concept, New Delhi, pp. 35–36.

21 Appadurai, A. (1996). Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalisation, University of Minnesota Press, Minnesota, p. 4 Google Scholar.

22 Appadurai, Modernity at Large, p. 33.

23 Appadurai, A. (1990). Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy, Sage Publications, London, p. 6 Google Scholar.

24 Appadurai, Modernity at Large, pp. 33–37.

25 Ibid. Appadurai's conceptualization of ideoscapes consisting of Enlightenment ideas, terms, and values is directly applicable to the Self-Respect movement, which demanded rights and representation for the marginalized. In the Madras Presidency, the movement called for reform along these lines and attacked the ideology of the Indian state, as represented by the Congress Party, as oppressive and regressive.

26 Ibid, p. 35.

27 Ibid.

28 Tamil settlement in Malaya received an important fillip with the Indian Emigration Act of 1922 and the Great Depression. For a detailed discussion of the history of Tamil migration and settlement in Malaya, see Guilmoto, C. Z. (1993). The Tamil Migration Cycle, 1830–1950, Economic and Political Weekly, 28:3, 4, pp. 111–120 Google Scholar.

29 Brown, Indian Minority, pp. 6–8. Besides Tamils, the Indian diaspora in British Malaya included North Indians and other South Indian communities such as the Telugus and Malayalees. While Tamil labourers made up the vast majority of Indians in Malaya, the public life of the Indian diaspora was directed from the urban centres of Singapore, Penang, and Malacca.

30 Ramasamy, R. (1984). Caste Consciousness Among Indian Tamils in Malaysia, Pelanduk Publications, Selangor, p. 21 Google Scholar.

31 Kangani refers to a foreman on the plantations. Jain, R. K. (1993). Tamilian Labour and Malayan Plantations, Economic and Political Weekly, 28:43, pp. 2363–2370 Google Scholar. See also Willford, A. C. (2006). Cage of Freedom: Tamil Identity and the Ethnic Fetish in Malaysia, University of Michigan Press, Michigan, p. 17 Google Scholar.

32 As late as the 1930s, appeals were being made to wealthy Tamil groups such as the Chettiars to ‘throw open their Subramanian temples in order that the untouchables might not be further ostracised’. Malacca Guardian, 10 July 1933.

33 Amrith, S. (2009). Tamil Diasporas Across the Bay of Bengal, The American Historical Review, 114:3, pp. 547–572.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

34 See, for example, Malacca Guardian, 9 September 1929.

35 Roff, W. R. (1993). The Origins of Malay Nationalism, Oxford University Press, Oxford, p. 235 Google Scholar.

36 N. P. Kaliappan, quoted in Veeramani, Periyar in Malaysia and Singapore, p. 59.

37 Karunanandam, K. (1979). Tantai: valkai varalaaru [Periyar: A Biography], Tamil Kudiyarasu Publishers, Chennai, p. 90. Periyar was accompanied by his wife and several prominent Self-Respect activists from the Madras Presidency.

38 More than a thousand people were estimated to have greeted Periyar in Penang. During his stay, the leader addressed public meetings in Singapore, Johor Bahru, Kuala Lumpur, Perak, Seremban, Kedah, and Malacca. Veeramani, Periyar in Malaysia and Singapore, p. 9.

39 The Straits Times, 26 December 1929.

40 An individual who adhered to Gandhi’s principle of non-violent protest.

41 The Straits Times, 14 January 1930.

42 A. C. Suppaiah, quoted in Veeramani, Periyar in Malaysia and Singapore, p. 66. See also Sathisan, ‘The Power of Print’, pp. 55–56.

43 Ibid.

44 Periyar, Speech at the Tamils’ Reform Conference in Ipoh, 21 December 1929, quoted in Veeramani, Periyar in Malaysia and Singapore, p. 21.

45 Quoted in Veeramani, Periyar in Malaysia and Singapore, p. 18.

46 Ibid, pp. 27–28.

47 Maideen, K., Speech at a general meeting in Malacca, 30 December 1929, quoted in Veeramani, Periyar in Malaysia and Singapore, pp. 37–38.

48 Stenson, M. (1980). Class, Race and Colonialism in West Malaysia: the Indian Case, University of Queensland Press, Queensland, p. 75 Google Scholar. The Tamil Muslim leadership was critically concerned with seeking inclusion in Malayan Indian representative politics—a concern that had translated into their active involvement in Indian public life even prior to the advent of the Self-Respect movement. The speeches of Tamil Muslims at Self-Respect events frequently alluded to the importance of Hindu-Muslim unity in Malaya.

49 For a detailed discussion of the conferences and meetings that the Self-Respect Movement inspired in the Madras Presidency, see Anandhi, S. (1991). Women's Question in the Dravidian Movement, 1925–1948, Social Scientist, 19:5, 6, pp. 24–41 Google Scholar.

50 Chidambaranar, S. (1975). Tamilar talaivar E.Ve.Ra.! [Tamils’ Leader—E.V.R!], Periyar Propaganda Institute, Tiruchi, p. 28 Google Scholar. Chidambaranar was among those who accompanied Periyar to Malaya.

51 Kudi Arasu, 15 December 1929.

52 Periyar, Speech at the Malayan Indian Association in Singapore, 26 December 1929, quoted in Veeramani, Periyar in Malaysia and Singapore, p. 32. See also Fakhri, Mobility of Tradition, p. 12. (Fakhri's translation of the original text has been used here.)

53 Mishra, S. (2006). Diaspora Criticism, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, p. 17 Google Scholar. Katherine Mayo was an American feminist and journalist whose book, Mother India (1927), deplored the condition of Indian women as a function of archaic social customs. Mayo’s work thus earned the ire of Indian traditionalists, to whom it represented a Western attack on Indian civilization. See, for instance, Forbes, G. (1996). Women in Modern India, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p. 85–86 Google Scholar.

54 Periyar, Speech at the Malayan Indian Association Conference in Singapore, 26 December 1929, quoted in Veeramani, Periyar in Malaysia and Singapore, p. 34. See also Scalmer, S. (2011). Gandhi in the West: The Mahatma and the Rise of Radical Protest, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p. 31 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

55 Periyar, Speech at a general meeting in Singapore, 27 December 1929, quoted in Veeramani, Periyar in Malaysia and Singapore, pp. 35–36.

56 Muhammad, Y., Speech at the Tamils’ Reform Conference in Ipoh, 22 December 1929, quoted in Veeramani, Periyar in Malaysia and Singapore, p. 21.

57 The Straits Times, 26 December 1929.

58 Chaturvedi, S. (2005). Diaspora in India's Geopolitical Visions: Linkages, Categories and Contestations, Asian Affairs, 32:3, pp. 141–168 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

59 Periyar, quoted in Veeramani, Periyar in Malaysia and Singapore, p. 30.

60 Fakhri, Mobility of Tradition, p. 13.

61 Resolutions passed at the Tamils’ Conference in Ipoh, quoted in Veeramani, Periyar in Malaysia and Singapore, pp. 23–24.

62 Ibid.

63 Amrith, S. (2010). Indians Overseas? Governing Tamil Migration to Malaya 1870–1941, Past and Present, 208:1, pp. 231–261 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, especially p. 252.

64 Periyar's memoirs recount incidents where crowds of labourers followed the convoy that he travelled in, kissed the ground that he walked on, and threw flowers and fruits as a means of expressing respect. In one such incident in Tampan, a woman had demanded that Periyar grant her daughter the boon of childbirth. A reluctant Periyar finally had to oblige in order to send her away. Quoted in Veeramani, Periyar in Malaysia and Singapore, pp. 38–39.

65 Sökefeld, M. (2006). Mobilising in Transnational Space: A Social Movement Approach to the Formation of Diaspora, Global Networks, 6:3, pp. 265–284 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, especially p. 280.

66 Malacca Guardian, 10 July 1933.

67 Aiyer, K. A. N. (1932). Indian Problems in Malaya, The Indian Office, Kuala Lumpur, p. 22 Google Scholar.

68 Times of Malaya, 14 December 1936. Sastri's report proved disappointing as it proposed only minor improvements to the living and working conditions of Indian labourers.

69 See The Indian, 6 March 1937, and The Indian, 12 June 1937, respectively.

70 Hardgrave, Dravidian Movement, pp. 14–15.

71 Tamil Murasu, 3 April 1939.

72 Barnett, Politics of Cultural Nationalism, p. 53.

73 Tamil Murasu, 19 November 1936. The organization was actually founded as the Ahampadiyar Sangam (Untouchables Association) in 1929. See also Sinha, Vineeta (2011). Religion-State Encounters in Hindu Domains: From the Straits Settlements to Singapore, Springer, Dordrecht, p. 212 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

74 Nadar, O. R., Speech at a Tamil Reform Association preparatory meeting in Singapore, 13 July 1930, quoted in Veeramani, Periyar in Malaysia and Singapore, p. 222.

75 The Tamil Murasu was started by K. Sarangapany in 1935. Sathisan, Speaking for the Diaspora, p. 3.

76 Ibid, p. 79.

77 Sathisan, ‘The Power of Print’, p. 90.

78 The Straits Times, 8 April 1931.

79 Ibid.

80 Tamil Murasu, 19 November 1936.

81 Tamil Murasu, 5 December 1936.

82 Ibid.

83 Ghouse, M., Speech at the Adi-Dravida Mahajan Association in Taiping, 19 July 1930, quoted in Veeramani, Periyar in Malaysia and Singapore, p. 231.

84 Tamil Murasu, 2 June 1938.

85 Tamil Murasu, 19 September 1936.

86 Amrith, Tamil Diasporas across the Bay of Bengal, p. 4.

87 Tamil Murasu, 21 December 1936.

88 Tamil Murasu, 28 December 1937.

89 Tamil Murasu, 2 June 1938.

90 Tamil Murasu, 15 August 1936. See also Sathisan, ‘The Power of Print’, pp. 28–29.

91 Tamil Murasu, 2 August 1938.

92 Solomon, The Decline of Pan-Indian Identity, p. 271.

93 Tamil Murasu, 16 May 1936.

94 Ibid.

95 This means that an individual's duty depended on his or her caste rank (varna) and stage of life (ashrama) or hereditary occupational specialization based on caste. Tamil Murasu, 9 June 1936.

96 Cheah, B. K. (1992). From PKI to Comintern: the Apprenticeship of the Malayan Communist Party, Cornell Southeast Asia Program, Cornell, p. 37 Google Scholar. Colonial attention was directed more towards formal Indian representative bodies, like the Central Indian Association of Malaya. Moreover, the radicalization of Chinese politics in the course of the 1930s appears to have constituted a more serious consideration for British interests in Malaya.

97 Tamil Murasu, 3 April 1939.

98 Tamil Murasu, 25 March 1939.

99 Ibid.

100 Tamil Murasu, 7 August 1937.

101 Ibid.

102 Tamil Murasu, 12 December 1938. The Poona Agreement of September 1932 yielded increased representation for the lowest castes, although Ambedkar's demand for separate electorates had been successfully opposed by Gandhi. For a more detailed discussion, see Jaffrelot, C. (2005). Dr. Ambekdar and Untouchability: Analyzing and Fighting Caste, C. Hurst and Co., London, pp. 59–60 Google Scholar.

103 Tamil Murasu, 3 April 1939.

104 Ibid.

105 Appadurai, Modernity at Large, p. 36.

106 Sathisan, ‘The Power of Print’, p. 70.

107 Solomon, The Decline of Pan-Indian Identity, p. 272. See also Willford, Cage of Freedom, p. 149.

108 Tamil Murasu, 5 May 1936.

109 Tamil Murasu, 4 January 1939.

110 Sathisan, Speaking for the Diaspora, pp. 91–92.

111 Tamil Murasu, 21 July 1938.

112 Ibid.

113 Tamil Murasu, 20 June 1938. Sathisan, ‘The Power of Print’, pp.53–54; 67. As part of a discussion of the anti-Hindi agitation's impact on the press activism of the Murasu and Nesan, Sathisan points out the ‘inherent paradox’ in the Murasu's position in that it promoted Urdu instead of Hindi as the national language of India. However, this was more a function of Malayan Self-Respect than a paradox. Although unequivocal in their support of Tamil for Tamils, regardless of whether they resided in India, Malaya or elsewhere in the world, Malayan Self-Respecters did not perceive any contradiction in promoting Urdu as the lesser of two evils for non-Tamil India.

114 Tamil Murasu, 6 December 1937.

115 Tamil Murasu, 8 July 1938.

116 Ibid.

117 Tamil Murasu, 3 August 1938.

118 Tamil Murasu, 10 August 1938.

119 Appadurai, Modernity at Large, p. 34.

120 Tamil Murasu, 4 January 1939.

121 Ibid.

122 Tamil Murasu, 25 May 1939.

123 Appadurai, Disjuncture and Difference, p. 297.

124 Tamil Murasu, 17 October 1936. See also Sathisan, ‘The Power of Print’, pp. 63–65, for a discussion of the Murasu’s position on Tamil education in Malaya.

125 Malacca Guardian, 4 December 1936.

126 Sathisan, ‘The Power of Print’, p. 30.

127 Malacca Guardian, 30 August 1937.

128 Ibid.

129 Clifford, J. (1994). Diasporas, Cultural Anthropology, 9:3, pp. 302–338 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

130 Nehru, quoted in Ongkili, J. P. (1985). Nation-building in Malaysia, 1946–1971, Oxford University Press, Oxford, p. 275 Google Scholar.

131 Brown, Indian Minority, p. 2.

132 Appadurai, Disjuncture and Difference, p. 301.

133 Boyd, M. (1989). Family and Personal Networks in International Migration: Recent Developments and New Agendas, International Migration Review, 23:3, pp. 638–670 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed, especially p. 641.

134 Brown, Indian Minority, p. 35.

135 Solomon suggests that despite the Tamil Reform Association's efforts at leading Adi-Dravidas in resisting caste labelling, there were demands by conservative segments of Tamil society for the ‘Untouchables’ to retain their identity within the fold of Malayan Indian society. Solomon, The Decline of Pan-Indian Identity, pp. 270–271.

136 Willford, Cage of Freedom, pp. 43–44.