Evidencia Empírica Internacional

ETHNIC GROUP 1871 1881 1891 1901 1911 Chinese 104,615 174,327 222,969 274,207 369,843 Eurasians 5,772 6,904 6,991 7,623 8,072 Europeans 2,429 3,483 4,422 4,484 7,368 Indians 33,390 41,268 52,637 56,645 82,055 Malays 159,453 194,042 210,387 214,538 240,206 Others 2,438 3,360 _15,499 14,752 14,531

Source: H.Marriot, ’’Population of the Straits Settlements and Malay Peninsula during the last Century,”

JSBRAS, No. 62 (December, 1912), 35; E.M.Merewether, Report on the Census of the Straits Settlements.

1891 (Singapore. 1892), pi 1; J.R.Innes. Report on the Census of the Straits Settlements. 1901

(Singapore , 1901)", p. 1.

In 1887, Governor Sir Frederick Weld, of the Straits Settlements, said:

I am ... anxious for political reasons that the great preponderance of the Chinese over any other race in these Settlements, and to a less marked degree in some of the Native States under our administration, should be counterbalanced as much as possible by the influx of Indian and other nationalities ....1

1 C.0.273/45. Sir Frederick A.Weld, Governor, S.S., to

Sir H.T.Holland (created Lord Knutsford, 1888), Secretary of State for the Colonies, no. 397, 24 September 1887.

An increased volume of Indian immigration, "under proper safeguards", Sir Frederick asserted, would be of mutual advantage to both planters and labourers.1 23 The planters, he added, would get the labour they needed for current cultivation and future expansion; and from a humanitarian aspect, the immigrants, by diligent and industrious

application of their labour, would be enabled to "live in comfort and prosperity under favourable conditions, and in a congenial climate."

Thus, the demand for Indian labourers was expected to serve a dual purpose. They were needed as a bolster to the sugar industry, and as a countervailing political

expedient to off-set the numerical preponderance of the Chinese. As J.Norman Parmer rightly observed: "From

Weld’s administration onward, the Indians were cast in the P

role of a counterpoise to the Chinese." By importing large numbers of Indians, the British would be multiplying the population and dividing it at the same time. It was hardly likely that the Chinese and the Indians, differing ethnically, religiously and culturally, and generally

following divergent economic pursuits, would unite against the British. Furthermore, as the Labour Commission of 1890

observed, the Indians were British subjects, accustomed to British rule, and docile.-^ This latter aspect of the Indian characteristic was confirmed by the Sanderson

1 Ibid.

2 J.Norman Parmer, Colonial Labor Policy and Administration (New York, I960), p. 19*

Committee who wrote:

All the evidence which we have received goes to show that the Indian indentured labourer, though resentful of anything which he considers injustice, is, if properly treated, perfectly, docile and easily managed ....1

It has been said that the Indian immigrants in the Straits were not generally recalcitrant because they lacked the

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"self-reliance and capacity" of their Chinese counterparts.

The Indians

Indian indentured labour migration to the Straits Settlements could be described as another link in the long historical chain that bound India and Malaya. India’s contact with the Malay world, it is widely believed,

probably preceded the commencement of the Christian era.^ This connection between the two countries was inevitable because of their relative geographical situation. Out­

stretched from the body of mainland Asia, they strategically imposed themselves athwart the sea-routes of the east-west trading systems.

India’s role as an intermediary for western goods heading for the east, and for eastern cargoes aiming at western markets afforded her merchants the opportunity of

learning the secrets of international trade. With the

1 Sanderson, Report on Emigration. C5192, p. 22. 2 Vlieland, "Population of Malay Peninsula", p. 67. 3 K.A.Nilakanta Sastri, "The Beginnings of Intercourse

between India and China," Indian Historical Quarterly. XIV (1938), 380-87; D.G.E.Hall, A History of South-East Asia (London, 1955)> p. 23; Arasaratnam,Indians, p. 1.

F i g . 2• T h e S i t u a t i o n o f I n d i a a n d Ma l ay a

establishment of trading routes, Indian merchants, emboldened by a spirit of adventure and goaded by their economic needs, sailed to distant trading stations.'*' The Bay of Bengal

soon became a ’’highway of communication” for traders, and, in their wake, for scholars and religious missionaries. It was thus that Indian navigators sailing due east came to discover the advantages of making landfall at Kedah on the Malay Peninsula from where they utilized the monsoon to return home.

The region surrounding the lofty and distinctive Kedah Peak soon became an important trading centre for

Indian merchants. The necessary organization of trade there gave rise to the settlement of a number of Indians, mainly Tamils from South India. When Francis Light founded Penang

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in 1786, he reported that the greater portion of the South Indians at Kedah had been inhabitants of long standing, and

2 that some of them had been born there.

With the establishment of Penang by the British, there was a gradual change in the role of Indians in Malaya. Until around that time, the supply by Indians of merchandise

on their own initiative was predominant; afterwards, they immigrated primarily as labourers.^

In 1790, Light attributed the production of great quantities of fruits, coconuts, pepper, gambier and sugar-cane to the labour of Chinese, Malays, Siamese, Burmese, British

1 D.Devahuti, India and Ancient Malaya (Singapore, 1965), p. 9» 2 T.Braddell, "Notices of Pinang,” JIA (New Series) V (1850), 9. 3 Arasaratnam, Indians. p. 1.

settlers and immigrants from South India.^ Four years later, he wrote :

The second class of our inhabitants consists of the Chooliars [Chulias] or people from the several ports on the Coast of Coromandel [i.e. the east coast of Madras Presidency]

they are all shopkeepers and Coolies, about one thousand are settled here, some with families, the vessels from the coast bring over annually 1,500 or 2,000 men, who by traffic and various kinds of labour obtain a few dollars with which they return to their homes and are succeeded by others.2

From the beginning of the nineteenth century, references to Indian labourers in the Straits were quite

frequent. George Leith, writing during his Lieutenant- Governorship of Penang (1800-3), mentioned Indian ’’coolies" customarily working one, two or three years on certain

estates, and then returning to Madras Presidency.^ In 1820, John Crawfurd, Resident of Singapore (1823-26), wrote of Indians employed on Penang estates on a "day-labour" (as opposed to piece-work) basis.^ Writing in 1835, James Low, the Superintendent of Province Wellesley, mentioned Indians working on "hire" on sugar and other estates in the Province.y Joseph Balestier, the first American Consul in Singapore,

and a pioneer sugar planter of the late 1830s, said many

1 H.P.Clodd, Malaya’s First British Pioneer: The Life of Francis Light (London. 1948), p. 61.

2 T .Braddell, "Notices of Pinang," JIA, V, No. 1 (1851), 9. 3 Leith, Prince of Wales Island, p. 80.

4 Crawfurd, History of Indian Archipelago. I, p. 134* 5 Low, Dissertation, p. 9«

labourers came from South India and "let themselves out on the estates".^

There is also the testimony of C.W.S.Kynnersley, a Straits magistrate whose duties brought him into close contact with Indian labourers for more than thirty years during the second half of the nineteenth century. In the discussion following a paper delivered by A.W.S.O’Sullivan, Indian Immigration Agent and subsequently Assistant Colonial Secretary, Straits Settlements, Kynnersley said that in 1844 a gang of ninety-seven Indian labourers was brought into

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the Straits from Calcutta. This importation, he added, was in the form of an experiment, and was necessitated by the demand for suitable labourers to work on expanding European sugar estates in Province Wellesley.

Finally, the last known major reference to Indian labourers in the Straits before regulated indenture began in 1872 was made by G.W.Earl, author, voyager and adventurer. In 1862, he wrote that the Straits Settlements had been

the "favourite resort" of many South Indians; they arrived at Penang in August and September (the height of the monsoon season) in "queer looking brigs and barks" mainly from

the South Indian ports of Cuddalore, Karikal, Nagore and Negapatam.^ The majority of these labourers, Earl added,

1 Balestier, "State of Agriculture", pp. 142-43«

2 A.W.S.0 ’Sullivan, "The Relations between South India and the Straits Settlements," in Noctes Orientales: Being a Selection of Essays read before the Straits Philosophical Society between the years 1893 and 1910 (Singapore, 1913),

pp. 185-86.

3 G.W.Earl, "Industrial Pursuits, Sources of Labour and Markets for Produce," JIA, VTI (1862), 178-79.

Madras Presidency N D I A Calcutta 0 Bombay Madras ARABIAN Cuddalore BENGAL Karikal Nagore Negapatam CEYLON Miles

Fig. 3- The South Indian Ports of Departure during Pre-regulated Indenture

were employed on the sugar and coconut estates in Province Wellesley.

The term "labourers” ought to be defined. Many persons from Madras Presidency emigrated to the Straits not only to labour in the restricted sense of the word, but also to work at trades. Thus, fishermen, barbers, domestic servants, horsekeepers, goldsmiths, etc. came to earn a livelihood in the colony. These were termed "free" labourers, and were distinguished from those indentured in this respect: whereas the former emigrated on their own account, the latter were recruited largely through the inducement of a cash advance, in addition to having their passage and subsistence paid. They then entered into a contractual agreement — an indenture — not merely to

labour, but to repay all expenses incurred in their emigration. In this study, unless otherwise stated, the term "labourers" refers to the indentured Tamils of Madras Presidency who were engaged in this manner to work on the European-owned sugar estates in Province Wellesley.

Tamil Suitability for Sugar Cultivation

Of the Tamils’ suitability for sugar-cane cultivation, there was a divergence of opinion. Some planters in the

West Indies criticized the Tamils’ inability to acclimatize as quickly as the North Indians.^ In the Straits, however,the Tamils would find themselves in a climate basically not very different from their own. In Madras Presidency, the daily

average temperature ranged between extremes of 70 and 91 degrees Fahrenheit.^ In Province Wellesley, the mean

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