The lost race in British Malaya: revisiting the problems of south Indian labourers

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article discusses the history of socioeconomic and political exclusion of south Indian labourers in Malaya in relation to the racial policy of the British administration from 1907 until the early 1950s. During these years, Indian labourers were susceptible to Britain’s policy of accommodating the political and economic needs of the Malays and the Chinese. Since colonial racial policy and economic factors interchangeably affected the position of Indian labourers in Malaya, the origins of Britain’s racial preference policy in Malaya are first constructed, followed by how Indian labourers were integrated and subsequently marginalized through and in the capitalist-economic system from 1907. The subsequent sections trace the extent to which they were politically and socioeconomically affected by the colonial politics of racial inequality. The article also discusses how the Japanese occupation period during the Second World War accentuated the position of Indian labourers in postwar Malaya. Following that, the long-term implication of the colonial racial policy on Indian labourers in post-independent Malaya is evaluated.