Abstract
Malaysia is a multicultural and multiracial country located in the Southeast Asian region of the world. The diverse Indian community is the third largest ethnic group after the Malays (also known as Bumiputeras) and the Chinese immigrant communities. The major Indian ethnic group is the Tamils, who form approximately ‘eighty percent of the total Indian population’. Given the majority of Tamils among the Indian ethnicity, ‘Tamilness’ is asserted in Malaysia’s culture, religion and political representation. This chapter makes an attempt to map the contribution of Malaysian Tamil community for the persistence of Tamil langauage, literature and cultural identity among the global Tamils in general and the Malaysian Tamil coommunity in particular.
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Notes
- 1.
“Kangani means ‘foreman’ or ‘overseer’ in Tamil in the Malaysian plantations. As per the Kangana system, the already employed kangani on the plantation was sent by his employer to recruit labour from his village”.
- 2.
Phone Interview with Mani Vellaiyan, Ex-president of Malaysian Movement for Tamil culture, dated 15th March 2022.
- 3.
Murugan’ is regarded as the younger son of Lord Shiva, and he is a clan deity of Nattukottai Chettiars of Tamil community.
- 4.
‘Mariamman’ is viewed as a form of Parvati, consort of the supreme God, Lord Shiva.
- 5.
Little tradition means the temple worship is based on village or folk beliefs.
- 6.
Pandaram or Puchari is regarded as a priest either from non-Brahmin caste or lower caste who knows the folk deity’s rituals that are handed over down by the predecessors.
- 7.
‘Great tradition’ is the temple worship based on agamic or Sanskritic rituals.
- 8.
Thai pusam is a “Saivaite festival dedicated to worshiping the deity Lord Murugan. It is held on or near the full moon day in the month of Tai (January–February”).
- 9.
Kavadi consists of “a small wooden pole surmounted by an arch. The devotional pictures are fixed under the arch. The Kavadi may be decorated with peacock feathers, margosa leaves, flowers, and other materials. At the same time, there are different versions as well”.
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Mahalingam, M. (2023). Language, Literature and Cultural Identity: A Narrative from the Malaysian Tamil Diaspora. In: Singh, N., Chapparban, S. (eds) Literature of Girmitiya. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-4621-9_2
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