Abstract
Migration has produced many ethnic minority communities worldwide owing to sea-borne trade, religious evangelicalism, and colonialism. For centuries, these communities have existed alongside other cultures, creating multiethnic societies. However, changes in political, economic, and sociocultural conditions have caused these communities, typically with varying degrees of social alignment and sociocultural adaptation, to re-strategize their inter-ethnic interactions. One such minority community is the “Chitty” of Melaka, a distinct Tamil community that migrated to Melaka, a coastal port city that has flourished in trade and commerce since the late 14th century. This paper investigates the historiography, its hybridity and adaptation, and the concerns of ethnic invisibility faced by this community throughout its 700-year history. Through historical analysis and ethnographic observations, the study finds that the Chitty community has contributed significantly to the sociocultural, economic, and political fabrics of Melaka in different periods of history. Secondly, the Chitty’s hybridity nature enabled them greater dexterity to socioculturally adapt to the changing surroundings and dynamics in Melaka for the last seven centuries. Thirdly, the study finds that due to their marginality in numbers and the mass arrival of new Indian migrants, the ethnic visibility of the Chitty has diminished in the new Malaysian demographic.
Highlights
For many ethnic minority communities, the struggle for recognition and visibility in the midst of living in multiethnic societies has always been challenging
This paper investigates the historiography, its hybridity and adaptation, and the concerns of ethnic invisibility faced by this community throughout its 700-year history
These status relations are often characterized by the nature of power politics relations, socioeconomic structural differences, cultural differences, and how ethnic minorities are factored into the dynamics of group equality, social justice, ethnic harmony, social stability, and political unity [1]
Summary
For many ethnic minority communities, the struggle for recognition and visibility in the midst of living in multiethnic societies has always been challenging. There usually exists a single ethnic community that is more dominant in numbers and status relations with other communities These status relations are often characterized by the nature of power politics relations, socioeconomic structural differences, cultural differences, and how ethnic minorities are factored into the dynamics of group equality, social justice, ethnic harmony, social stability, and political unity [1]. In the post-modernistic and globalized eras, social relations significantly impact the structural, cultural, and behavioral features of modern societies These changes manifest into the development of pluralism and multiculturalism worldwide, where the prior emphasizes some levels of equality between different ethnic identifications, while the latter underlines the significance of the co-existence of those ethnicities. Despite being of the same nationality, most Malaysians see themselves in ethnic terms first, especially concerning their relationship with other
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