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The Tamil people of Malaysia, or Malaysian Tamil, are a major ethnic group in the country. They originate from South India, primarily from the present-day state of Tamil Nadu. Many of the Tamils in the country are descendants of labourers, convicts and merchants who were either brought to the country, or came on their own, during the later part of the 19th century. The history of Tamils in this country, however, goes back to much earlier times. There are evidence that the Tamils were already around in substantial numbers during the time of the Malacca sultanate, and even earlier. The early Tamils were credited for having introduced Mahayana Buddhism and Hinduism, and later, Islam, to the country. Of the three religions, only the Islamic influence, which was brought in much later, remains being practised by the local population. Nevertheless Hindu and Buddhist ruins such as those at Bujang Valley and various places in Indonesia are attributed to the influence of the Tamil kingdom of the Cholas, which appeared from the 9th century, and became dominant throughout the eastern part of present-day Indian subcontinent, through Myanmar, all the way down the Malay peninsula, Java, Cambodia, and as far as southern Vietnam. By the 13th century, the Chola empire had become fragmented. The Tamils in the western part of the empire developed their own dialect, which became modern Malayalam, while the lands in Southeast Asia embraced Theravada Buddhism and Islam. The Hokkien people in Malaysia call the Tamils Kalinga. This is the same word used by the Malays, who used to refer to them as Orang Keling, and hence we get place names such as Kampung Kling or Masjid Kapitan Keling. The words Kalinga, Kling or Keling are derived from the name of the Indian kingdom of Kalinga, which flourished from circa 265 BC, coinciding with the Chola dynasty. The Kalinga attained a high degree of culture, having developed their own Kalinga script of which later scripts were derived. The Kalinga spread their influence into Southeast Asia as well as Sri Lanka. Many Tamils in Malaysia take offence to being called Kalinga. This is traced to the 19th century, when the British brought many Tamil convicts into the country. Many Tamils harbour the belief that they were called Kalinga due to the kling-kling sound of the chains that bound the feet of the convicts. This disdain for the name Kalinga ran so deep that Kling Street in Singapore had to be renamed Chulia Street, to make it more palatable to the Indian community. Similarly the Kapitan Keling Mosque faces not Keling Street, but Chulia Street in Penang. The name Chulia is derived from the name of the Chola kingdom, and is acceptable by the community. It should be pointed for that the offence taken over the name Kalinga is unintentional, and perhaps misplaced. The name Kalinga has been around long before the first convict step ashore in Malaya, and it points to a glorious and influential chapter in Tamil history. Unfortunately, perhaps some narrow-minded non-Tamils had used the name Kalinga to make fun of the Tamils, and this has resulted in the wholesale disassociation of the community to the name. |
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