Sri Lanka Genealogy Website
Borneo Bulletin
SATURDAY, AUGUST 4, 2001
Malays in Sri Lanka
By B. A. Hussainmiya, Ph.D
Malays in Sri Lanka series - Part 1
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Sri Lanka, hailed as the pearl of the Indian Ocean, is in the throes of a
long drawn out ethnic conflict between the majority Sinhalese population and
the minority Tamils who form nearly 70 per cent and 20 per cent respectively of
the population.
However, the
island nation does not belong to only these communities as highlighted in the
international press coverage. The island is blessed with an interesting
cultural mosaic that has enriched its history and civilisation in the past.
Known in the
ancient times to the Arabs as the Serendib, and Taprobane for the Greeks, the
mango-shaped island of some 25,000 square miles of natural beauty has been a
home for a mosaic of several ethnic minorities.
Some are
indigenous people like the Veddas, others were lured to the island by trade
like the Arab-Moors, while some others such as Chetties Borahs and Memons
settled during the colonial period beginning from the 16th century.
Not the least
interesting of these is the Malay community, now totalling about 80,000 people
out of a total population of about 18 million. This article deals with this
colourful community, especially the cultural contributions of the Malays to
both Sri Lanka and the larger Malay-speaking world.
The Early
Contacts
Unlike Indians
and Chinese Diaspora, the Malays did not engage in mass scale migration in search
of a livelihood. They roamed freely within the Nusantara region of
Malay-Indonesian archipelago. In the early Christian era there is evidence of
some sea-faring activities by the Malays whose ancestors sailed to and settled
in as far West as Madagascar in the Indian Ocean.
It is likely that
the original sea-farers also touched down in the southern coast in Sri Lanka
situated centrally in the sea lanes linking the east and the west. The sea
coast town of Hambantota (a Sinhalese variant of Sampan and Tota standing for
landing bay) probably had welcomed the Sampan-sailing Malays who settled and
merged with the ancient Sri Lankan population.
Medieval Sri
Lankan historical chronicles record an invasion by a Javaka 'Malay' ruler
Chandrabahanu from the Nakhon Sri Dhammarat or better known as Pattani who was
keen to possess a relic of Lord Buddha revered by the Sinhalese rulers.
Chandrabhanu not only defeated the Polonnaruwa Kingdom, but also established
his own Java kingdom in the North of Sri Lanka which forms the present day
Jaffna region. The Pandyan Ruler in South India killed the son of Chandrabhanu
according to the Kudumiya Malai inscription, and that ended the brief episode
of Malay monarchic rule in Sri Lanka in the early 13th century.
The Origins
The ancestors of
the present day Malay community of Sri Lanka arrived mostly during the period
of the Dutch colonial rule. The Dutch had ousted the Portuguese from the
coastal regions of the island in the middle of the 17th century.
The
Malay/Javanese soldiers served in the regular army of the Dutch led by the
princely class of Malay/Javanese families. Aside from these soldiers, the early
Sri Lankan Malay population was comprised significantly of the Javanese/Malay
ruling class who were exiled to the island by the Dutch in Java.
An important
Javanese ruler thus banished to the island in 1707 was Susunan Mangkurat Mas
who lived in Sri Lanka with a large retinue of royal families. A host of other
rulers from the Dutch East Indies, presently Indonesia, spent their time in Sri
Lanka as political exiles.
The list is a
long one from Rajas and nobles from as far as Goa in Celebes, Tidore, Ternate,
Bacan, Kupang, Timur and other spice islands. There were so many political
exiles in Sri Lanka that in the Indonesian language the word 'disailankan', or
to be sent to Ceylon came to mean banishment. The other place of exile was the
Cape Town in South Africa where a similar Malay community emerged in later
years.
When the British
fought the Dutch in 1796, the Malay soldiers in the latter's service provided
stiff and brave resistance. The bravery and discipline of the Malay troops
appealed to the British who decided to retain their services and formed a full
battalion in Sri Lanka. Thus was born the Malay regiment of Sri Lanka, the
first ever Malay regiment to be formed and receive Queen's colours in 1802.
Later the name
was changed to the Ceylon Rifle Regiment composed of the Malay majority, some
Indian Sepoys and some Kaffirs. During the 19th century, Malay life in Sri Lanka
was dominated by the military that became their family occupation until the
Regiment was disbanded in 1873.
The original
Malay population of Sri Lanka consisted of diverse East Indian nationalities,
preponderantly of Javanese origin, while others belonged to Sundanese, Bugis,
Madurese, Minangkabaus, Amboinese, Balinese, Tidorese, Spice Islanders, and not
the least the Malays themselves.
In Dutch records
they are referred to as Oosterlingen, or Easterners. Most of them already
formed their own kampongs outside the fort of Batavia (now Jakarta) founded by
the Dutch Governor Cohen in 1619. When the Dutch fought wars in Sri Lanka and
in the Malabar coast these kampongs became depopulated due to heavy recruitment
to serve in the Dutch army.
Though the Batavians spoke different dialects within their own communities, they used a common lingua franca, namely the Batavia Malay, or Pasar Melayu to interact among themselves. Besides, they were bound by the common Islamic religious bond. Based on these two strong markers of identity, a strong localised Malay community emerged in Sri Lanka with its own culture and characteristics. It is this community which the British came across when they occupied Lanka in 1796.
The British not only
'martialised' the Malays like the Gurkhas to serve in their native army, but
also took firm steps to strengthen the numbers of Malays in Sri Lanka by
inviting Malay families from the areas in the Peninsular Malaya which were
under their control.
In 1802, the
Sultan of Kedah had sent a contingent of his Malay subjects to serve in Sri
Lanka who were also joined by a number of Malays from Penang, Malacca and
Singapore. Reinforced by new blood from Malaya, the Sri Lankan Malay community
truly gained roots in Sri Lanka and was thoroughly indigenous with its own
culture and language.
Borneo Bulletin
SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2001
Malay heroism in Sri Lanka
By B. A. Hussainmiya, Ph. D
Malays in Sri Lanka Series
- Part 2
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The
transformation of the Sri Lankan Malay community into a martial race became
more complete under the British rule than under the Dutch who surrendered their
coastal possessions in 1796. Strangely enough, while the soldierly capabilities
of Malays in Sri Lanka came in for their praise, the British treated the Malays
in the peninsular as unfit for military duties. Similarly in Sri Lanka, they
considered the indigenous Sinhalese as unsuitable to bear arms and preferred to
employ the Malays.
The first
Governor of British Ceylon, Frederic North (1798-1805) made elaborate plans to
establish the Malay Regiment, modelled on the Sepoy Regiments of India. The
Malays were dressed for the first time in scarlet and white uniform of a
regular regiment of infantry on line. Special military schools were founded to
teach them and their children to be proficient in both Malay and English. A
special library for the soldiers lent books, publications and manuscripts in
Malay. The regiment also had its own Malay chaplain to perform their religious
rites. In short the Malays enjoyed full facilities to practice Islam and their
culture.
More Malays were
encouraged to immigrate to Sri Lanka with their families and paid bounty money.
Aristocratic Malay families were especially welcomed, enjoying higher ranks in
service depending on the number of their followers they brought along.
Several exiled
Malay princes had held commissions in the Army. For example, three out of five
male children of the Makassarese King of Gowa, Batara Gowa Amas Madina II, from
Southern Celebes who was exiled to the island in 1767 by the Dutch, had joined
the regiment. His eldest son Captain Abdullah fought valiantly and died during
the British-Polygar Wars in South India in 1800. His younger brothers Princes
Karaeng (a Makassarese title for nobility) Mohd. Nuruddin and Karaeng Mohd.
Saifuddin were both captains in the Ceylon Malay Regiment.
Aside from the
colonial army, the Malays also found employment with the local Rajas. The
Malays served the Cochin Raja in the Malabar coast of India who later were
recruited by the British for service in Sri Lanka in 1799. More importantly,
the last independent Ruler in Kandy in the central hilly region of Sri Lanka
also had his own Malay army, known as Padikara Peruwa (paid levies) originally
formed by the last Sinhalese Kandyan Ruler Kirthi Sri Rajasinghe (1747-82). In
1800, there were nearly 400 of them. They ran away from the Dutch oppression
into Kandy and welcomed at the Kandyan court, some of whom became the King's
bodyguards. Their chief was decorated with the highest title of Muhandiram,
(like Pehins of Brunei) reserved for local chieftains. A half brother of the
Bugis Princes, known as Sangunglo, who escaped to the central hills and
described as 'fat tall prince' by a contemporary British account, was the
Commander of the Malay Army in the Kandyan Kingdom.
During the first
British-Kandyan war of 1803, British sources reveal an interesting but a
heart-rending saga of sibling bravery and princely honour involving the
Malay-Bugis princes. When Kapitan Nuruddin and his brother Saifuddin led the
British-Malay army into the heart of Kandy to fight the Sinhalese troops, their
half brother Prince Sangunglo in the enemy ranks tried to lure them to join the
Kandyans, and vice versa. Both parties refused the offers but remained loyal to
their masters, the British and the Kandyan kings respectively. The Malay royal
brothers fought each other as enemies in the service of their kings.
The brave
Sangunglo, the Kandyan Malay commander created havoc by his daring exploits
against the British enemies who advanced into the heart of Kandyan capital
during the first British-Kandyan war. He fought bravely, engaging in hand to
hand combat with his own brothers. Sangunglo lost his life in the battle at the
hands of the British commander, Major Davy. The enraged Kandyan forces
massacred and annihilated the British troops and brought victory to the Kandyan
King, Sri Wickrema Rajasinghe.
Following the
British defeat in Kandy, their Malay commanders Princes Captain Nuruddin and
Saifuddin were captured and brought before the Kandyan king. During the
audience the royal brothers refused to prostrate themselves in front of the
King in the manner of customary obeisance. Ignoring their temerity, the Kandyan
king offered them the position as his own commanders and to become princes
among his Malay subjects. The princely brothers refused the offer, explaining that
they had taken an oath to the King of England, and the acceptance of such an
offer was tantamount to treachery. The Kandyan king gave them time to
reconsider. After three weeks in prison the Malay princes refused to budge even
under torture.
The enraged king
put them to death and threw their bodies into the forest to be devoured by wild
boars. The ill treatment of their princes and the denial of decent Muslim
burials to the Malay martyrs sent a chilling message to the King's Malay
subjects who had served and fought for him loyally. Governor North was
especially aggrieved to learn about the sacrifice and martyrdom of the Nuruddin
brothers, and set up a special Malay committee to compensate the widows of the
slain soldiers.
The Kandyan king
was becoming notoriously paranoid and engaged in cruel acts against his own
people. During the second war in 1815, his discontented Malay subjects decided
to turn the tables on him. The role played by the Malays in the Kandyan wars
certainly did tilt the balance of power. The British could not win the first
war, due to the Malay backing to the Kandyan king. During the second war he
lost their support and the war. The centuries old Sri Lankan monarchic rule
ended with him and the British became masters of whole of Sri Lanka in 1815.
Now they had the entire Malay population in the island to serve them.
Borneo
Bulletin
SATURDAY, AUGUST
18, 2001
What lured Malays to Sri
Lanka?
By B. A. Hussainmiya
Malays in Sri Lanka Series Part 3
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There were some
good reasons for the Malay migration to Sri Lanka until the early half of the nineteenth
century. They moved not just as individuals, but brought along their families
and children by uprooting themselves from their indigenous environment.
No other Eastern
community did so in such numbers. For instance, when the British administrators
enticed the Chinese into Sri Lanka to take advantage of their industriousness,
only very few of them could be attracted, and those who did were confined to
dentistry.
The Chinese
sought good fortunes in Singapore, Malaya and even Brunei.
Malays, on the
other hand, found affinity with Sri Lanka owing to climate, promise of good
living and guarantees to practise Islam and their traditional ways of life.
During Dutch
times (1656-1796), they came as sailors, storekeepers and in other minor
occupations. However, many had been conscripted to fight the Dutch wars in the
colonies when the entire 'Malay/Javanese' villages surrounding the Dutch Fort
of Batavia became depopulated to fill the army.
Malays who came
to Sri Lanka under the British patronage did so voluntarily, except in rare
cases of being 'Shanghaied'.
The roaming Malay
families of the Archipelago searching for better livelihood in the Straits
Settlements were easily netted in to work in Sri Lanka.
Unsettled
conditions in the early 19th century Nusantara region made life for the
ordinary Malays miserable compounded by internecine wars, colonial inroads and
rapacious chieftains who squeezed everything out of their subjects. Those who
dared sought solace elsewhere.
The Malay
settlers expected to find peace and wealth, albeit by joining the military in
Sri Lanka, considered the new El Dorado. As a local Malay folk song indicated
"the Malays came to Sri Lanka in order to purchase two elephants for a
price of one cent"! But soon they discovered the deception while in the
island when they were offered the British one-cent coins that carried the
imprint of elephants on both sides!
At any rate, the
Malay recruits to the army received generous terms of enlistment in the
beginning. For example, when first joining the men received bounty money, a sum
of (Spanish) Rix dollars 21 and Pice 34 besides the monthly pay of 3 Rix
dollars and 74 Pice. Their wives and children also received additional bounty
monies.
When the men become
unfit for service because of injury or old age they were placed in an invalid
establishment and thus assured a comfortable maintenance during the remainder
of their life. Those who fell in battle had their families placed under
protection of the Government. Their children could take their fathers' places
and good education awaited them in the regimental schools.
At the beginning
of the nineteenth century, the hapless Malays who led miserable lives under
some of the rapacious Malay Rajas must have found these terms very attractive,
especially the prospects of earning cash remunerations and a degree of social
security.
They were
recruited in special depots set up in Penang and Singapore. Additionally, the
British Governors sent special naval missions to comb the East for suitable
Malays. In 1803 Lieutenant Rofsi's mission to Prince of Wales Island received
the blessings of the Sultan of Kedah who sent nearly 300 of his subjects to Sri
Lanka.
The second
governor, Thomas Maitland (1805-1811) became prejudiced against the Malays
treating them as scapegoats for the defeat of the British in the 1st British-
Kandyan War of 1803. His attempts to abolish the Malay Regiment failed due to
resistance from the community and the military officials.
Nonetheless, in
1808 he forcibly repatriated more than 300 Malay royal exiles and their
families to their original homes, as they were a pecuniary burden on the
government. Thus the community lost its cream.
Some relatives
and the descendants of royals who married other local Muslim-Moors did stay
behind. And that reinforces the claims of some present-day Malay families to
royal lineages.
The next governor
Robert Brownrigg (1812-1818), having an eye on annexing the last Sinhalese
Kingdom of Kandy, boosted the numbers of the Malay settlers. In 1813, his agent
Captain de Bussche visited Lieutenant Governor Stamford Raffles in Java
requesting help to enlist Javanese soldiers.
A reluctant
Raffles argued that "the Javanese were needed more for agricultural
pursuits than for becoming soldiers." Yet, he contacted his friend the
Raja of Madura. As a result, 412 fine soldiers (accompanied by 214 women and
208 children), mostly Sumanapers from the island of Madura left to Sri Lanka
from the Javanese port of Surabaya. They remained by far the best quality
recruits in the Ceylon Malay Regiment, followed in 1816 by a further batch of
228 Javanese from Semarang and Gresik off the northern coast of Java. This was
the largest groups to arrive and integrate well into the existing Malay community.
Thereafter until about 1850 there were irregular arrivals annually an averaging
of about 30 or so Malays from the Straits Settlements.
A soldier earned
8 pence a day in 1815, which increased only by a penny in 50 years. Rising
prices of commodities shrink the soldier's income, making the profession less
attractive. Hence few Malays volunteered to go to Sri Lanka after 1840s.
During the hard
times when the Regiment faced closure owing to a dwindling number of recruits,
Captain Tranchell of Ceylon Rifle Regiment came all the way to Brunei in
1856-57 in the hope of recruiting Malays from Kampong Ayer, who were the last
to leave their homes for greener pastures.
The obliging
Brunei Sultan Abdul Mumin ordered his harbour master Pengiran Shahbandar to assist
the English Captain who succeeded in collecting only seven Malays from his
entire tour of East including Labuan, Pahang, Trengganu and Kelantan.
As a pungent
British officer put it: "This expedition and the expenditure compared with
the net proceeds of it must show these four or five Malay recruits to be about
the most expensive in the British army."
Another writer
commented that "the old Malay birds.picking up corn worth a dollar or so
on their own feeding grounds were not to be caught with the chaff of nine pence
per diem from the soil of Ceylon." And that was the beginning of the end
to Malay migration to Sri Lanka.
Borneo
Bulletin
SATURDAY, AUGUST
25, 2001
Islam and learning among Malays
By B. A. Hussainmiya
Malays in Sri Lanka Series
Part 4
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The Sri Lankan
Malays are among the strongest adherents of Islam on an island where a 70% of the
population are Buddhists while others follow Hinduism and Christianity. Unlike
the South African Malays who underwent religious crisis during 18th and 19th
centuries as a result of settling in a remote part of the world where Islam was
hardly known, the Sri Lankan Malays, lived among a strong Muslim community in
the island -the Moors - whose ancestry dates back to the early days of Islam.
The Muslim Moors,
an ubiquitous minority of nearly 8% of the current population in the island
numbering more than one and half million people, have lived throughout the
island with major concentration is in the Eastern province.
The Moors are
mainly the offspring of Arab and South Indian Muslims who speak Tamil as their
mother tongue. The Portuguese who first met the dark Muslim 'Mouros' of
Mauritania in the African coast in the early sixteenth century, applied the
term pejoratively to other Eastern Muslims, including the Moros of the
Phillippines.
The Arab and
Persian ancestors of the Moors had dominated the entire maritime route from the
Red Sea and the Persian Gulf to Canton in China. Many of them married into
local communities forming settlements in the port cities of Malabar and Mabar
Coasts in the southern India. Their descendants moved to Sri Lanka virtually dominating
the island trade. Seeking commercial prosperity, the Sinhalese kings offered
them settlement privileges.
A tenth century
Arabic Text, Ajaib al Hind, (Marvel of India) composed by Ibn Shahriyar, says
that the Sinhalese King Aggabodhi III sent a fact finding mission to Arabia
during the time of the Prophet to know more about his teachings. After
hazardous ocean travel, the delegation reached Arabia only during the reign of
Caliph Omar (654-664). The Arabs had been attracted to the resplendent island,
known as Serandib or Seilan, well-known for its gem-riches and serenity.
Another major attraction was the Adam's Peak where Prophet Adam is believed to
have set foot as attested in medieval Arabic writings. The renowned Muslim
traveller Ibn Batuta who visited Sri Lanka in the 14th century to see the
Adam's Peak, lists other Muslim visitors from the 10th century. Such was the
esteem in which Sri Lanka was held among the Arab West and through them in the
Malay East.
The presence of Moor
- Muslims in large numbers certainly proved a great boon to the newly arrived
Malays. More importantly, the island was also a centre of Islamic learning
where celebrated religious teachers and Islamic mystics attracted traders and
intellectuals. For instance, Shaikh Nuruddin ar Raniri, the Gujerati scholar
who founded Malay-Islam in the court of Alauddin Ri'ayat Shah of Aceh in the
island of Sumatra in the 17th century perfected his knowledge of Islam during
his sojourn in Sri Lanka as attested by the text Tuhfah-e-Serandib, (Ar. Key to
Serandib). Various Javanese chronicles make references to Islamic activities in
Sri Lanka. Professor M. C. Ricklefs, leading expert on Javanese history, points
out that the Javanese exiles who learnt Islam in Sri Lanka carried high esteem
in their own country. For example, Radin Adipati Natakusuma, the Javanese chief
minister who was banished to Ceylon in 1743, after his return to Java in 1768
was made chief of Islamic officials in the court of Jogyakarta. Likewise, Pengeran
Wirakusuma, born in Sri Lanka to a leading Javanese noble and acquired Islamic
knowledge in the island, became the leader of another Islamic group in 1781 and
then the religious advisor at the Jogyakarata court.
Babad Mangkubumi,
the famous Javanese chronicle mentions that in the 18th century the Javanese
exiles became spiritual pupils to two Ceylonese Muslim Sufi masters namely
Sayyid Musa Ngidrus, and Ibrahim Asmara. It further narrates the experience of
the wife of Pengeran Natakusuma describing her husband's religious experiences
in Ceylon. She told King Pakubuwana III that the royal exiles, became the
students of the above Sufi masters, "whose magical powers achieved
wonderous things." As the story goes, at the great recitations of the Quran
each Friday, Javanese fruits and delicacies were "magically transported to
Sri Lanka". She also related how the merchants and ship-captains from such
far away places as Surat, Bengal, and Selangor sat at the feet of these
teachers in Colombo.
Despite the
legendary overtones of these tales, the Dutch records testify that such
religious gatherings did take place in Sri Lanka albeit banned by the Dutch
government who feared the power of Islam. They tried to prevent the gatherings
in their maritime territories by imposing severe punishment on those involved -
the [Muslim]'yogis' and 'heathen mendicants'- by chaining them for life.
Indeed the recent
discovery of Malay manuscripts in Sri Lanka shows the existence of dozens of
significant Islamic/Malay Kitabs, scriptures and works of Islamic
jurisprudence. These include the famous works of Sirat al Mustaqim and Bustan
As Salatin, by Syaikh Nuruddin ar-Raniri and other well-known Malay-Islamic
writers such as Samad al- Palembani, Shamusuddin al-Pasai, Dawud al-Pattani and
so on. The local Malays also avidly read Islamic epics such as Hikayat Muhammad
Hanafiyyah and Hikayat Amir Hamza. Some rare Malay-Islamic texts, some written
by the local Malays Ulamas found only in Sri Lanka. Almost certainly some of
these texts did form part of the library belonging to Javanese-Malay royal
exiles from the 17th century.
The Malays,
patronised by the British, built their own mosques in the military cantonments
of Colombo, Kandy, Badulla, Kurunegalle, and Hambantota so that they could conduct
their sermons in their own language. However, they could also congregate in
mosques in the Moor areas. Occasionally there had been disputes among the
congregations about belongingness to mosques of certain social groups.
The strength of
Islamic practices among the community has contributed at times to an
exaggerated claim that most saints, (Walis) in Sri Lanka have hailed from the
Malay community. Particularly famous are the tombs of Saint Tuan Bagus
Balangkaya buried at the Colombo grand mosque and Pengiran Adipati at the
Kehelwatte Peer Saibo mosque in Colombo. Tombs of Malay saints abound in other
Malay localities in the island as well. Whatever the case may be, it remains
the fact that the strength of Malay Islam in Sri Lanka has been reinforced by
their co-religionists, the majority Tamil-speaking Moors, who shared their
resources, mosques and religious texts with their Malay brethren.
SATURDAY,
SEPTEMBER 1, 2001
Elite and cultured Malays[1]
By B. A. Hussainmiya
Malays in Sri Lanka Series
Part 5
A leading elite Malay family of Sri
Lanka, Hon. M.K. Saldin, the first
Malay Legislative Councillor, (Centre( his children and sons-in-laws.
By the early 19th
century the original Malay community (the "Ceylon Malays") that had
gradually formed during the previous century had firmly established itself
within Sri Lankan society. Many of them came from cultured families around the
Archipelago.
Their descendants
had been driven by the ambition that often activates migrants and supported by
closely-knit kinship groups. They rose to elite status taking advantage of the
educational opportunities offered by the regimental schools and occupied high
ranks in the Regiment.
As a British
officer remarked in 1839, "the non-commissioned officers of the Ceylon
Rifle Regiment are to a man almost all Ceylon Malays for which service the
foreigners (i.e. the later Malay immigrants from the Peninsula) have not the
smartness nor intelligence."
As this quote
shows, the fate of the Malay recruits who came during the early 19th century
from Malaya is a different story. They were mostly half-hearted and desperate
job-seekers who roamed in the Straits Settlements only to be lured by the few
dollars offered as bounty money on enlistment.
On one occasion
in 1841 onboard the ship 'Baroque la Fellies', the Malay recruits waiting to be
transported from Singapore to Sri Lanka even murdered the Sri Lankan Malay
recruitment officer and escaped with the bounty money.
In a few rare
cases unscrupulous sergeants even 'shanghaied' their recruits, i.e. drugging
and transporting men without their agreement. Nonetheless these later
immigrants were far less sophisticated and motivated than the early ones and
ended up as low achievers. Many did not take advantage of regimental education
and remained at the rank of private.
These later
immigrants never really assimilated into Sri Lankan Malay society, even though
many married local women. The established elite Malays looked down upon them
and often treated them as simpletons. Being less established and privileged
than the older Malay community, some tried to return to their home country.
Thus in the 1860s a return movement began when the regiment offered them
repatriation, though some of them decided at the last minute to remain with
their families in Sri Lanka.
There is no
better way to sum up these events than by reproducing verbatim an account from
the 1865 biography of J.T. Thompson, government surveyor of Singapore, that
chronicles the sad tale of a Peninsular Malay recruit to Sri Lanka.
"Oamut was a true Malay; and, I was more in contact with him than
with any other person for a whole year, I will describe him as well as I am
able. ..Oamut might stand about five feet four inches. He dressed in the usual
manner of Malaya, viz., in the sarong (olaid), salvar (trousers), and baju
(coat). On his head he wore a Bugis handkerchief; and on his feet he wore
sandals. By his aide was a kris, with which he never parted for a moment. At a
distance he might have been taken for a Scottish highlander; when near, his
copper-coloured skin, black twinkling eyes, Mongolian physiognomy, proved that
he was a Malay. He was independent in his tone, but respectful in his manners;
and, during my long intercourse with him, he neither betrayed a tincture of low
breeding, nor a sign of loose and improper thoughts.
"Indeed his sense was delicate and keen: his ideas had a tone of
high standard. He was unmindful of money or any other object than what was
necessary to maintain himself and family. He gradually commanded my friendship.
I felt I could not but respect him. His conversation was intelligent on the
affairs of the surrounding states, his information was deep in the characteristics
of his own race; and his descriptions of past and passing events interesting
and instructive. Yet he could neither read nor write - a defect he bewailed
with much sorrow. His age might have been forty-seven to fifty. In our many
rambles and rides together, he used to relate the history of his own life; and
as an illustration of these social incidents I will put down what I can
remember.
"...He was born near Bukit Tingah, on the Juru river; he once
pointed out to me the remnant of his father's coconut grove, standing in the
midst of a plain of lalang (high grass) close to the mangrove jungle. Now only
three trees served as a mark of the spot - circumstance which drew a sigh from
the Malay; for these melancholy remembrances brought back the memory of a doting
father and fond mother, as he knew them in his sunshine of childhood. But he
soon turned aside: grave thoughts crossed his brow; for time had dispersed the
members of that family, and scattered them to and fro.
"Oamut was a wild young man, and wanted to see the world; so, in a
moment of unguardedness, he was caught in the meshes of an enlisting sergeant
of the Ceylon Rifle Corps. Dosed with narcotics, and before seeing either
father or mother, he was carried on board a ship bound for a long foreign
service."
"'It is not wonderful,' said Oamut to me, 'that an amok takes
place; for the bereft and frenzied youths see the land of their love still in
view and are maddened at the parting.' An amok did not occur on this occasion;
Oamut was borne off; and he landed safely in Ceylon, was drilled and stiffened
into the shape of a British soldier. He was also sent to school, but could
never learn the difference between a and b; he however progressed so far in
English as to speak it, parrot-like; but what he said was better understood by
himself than by his white friends.
"While in Ceylon he assisted in the reduction of the hill tribes [a
reference to 1848 Kandy rebellion]; and on one occasion stuck by his wounded
captain for three days. He concealed him in the jungle, and bore him out in
safety.
"This gave Oamut a step; but he was bodo (unlearned), so could not
be made a sergeant. He served for twenty-seven years, after which he yearned to
return to his native land. He got his discharge without pension (the reason for
this I could never satisfactorily learn). So he returned penniless to Polo
Pinang to find father and mother, sisters and brothers, gone. The very posts of
his father's house had rotted away."
SATURDAY,
SEPTEMBER 15, 2001
Life after the Regiment
By B. A. Hussainmiya
Malays of Sri Lanka Series
Part 6
A Malay in the fire-brigade uniform (seated) flanked
by sons in jail-guard uniform in the 1920s.
The Malays in Sri
Lanka gradually began to shun military service, the mainstay of their
sustenance, after 1850.
Nearly one third
of the Ceylon Rifle Regiment (CRR) positions, some 500 out of 1600 positions
fell vacant by 1860. Unable to enlist Malays from the Peninsula, the military
authorities extended their search in vain for recruits from as far as the Cape
of Good Hope among the Hottentos, Sepoys of Mysore, Arraccanese from Burma, and
even Bajaus from Borneo.
Malay antipathy
to military profession arose due to several reasons. First, they resented the
fact that some non-Malay Companies of Indian Sepoys and African Kaffirs were
attached to the Malay battalion when the CRR was restructured. Second, Malays
were no longer engaged in combat duties, but in civilian pursuits like guard
duties and providing security services in government offices.
As all resistance
to British rule in Sri Lanka ended after 1848, there were no more wars to
fight.
Malays also disliked
foreign service when six companies were sent to garrison Hong Kong from 1847 to
1854. Many died in the insalubrious conditions in Hong Kong. Labuan also
received a contingent of Sri Lankan Malay soldiers from 1869 to1871 which they
did not mind. They appeared to have fraternised with Malays of Brunei who lived
not far away. (Some soldiers went to collect Malay manuscripts from Brunei.)
Many opted for
early retirement under the new military regulations of 1847 that allowed
soldiers to retire after 10 years of service instead of being recruited for
life. The pensioners were welcomed in the expanding Police Department. With
regiment experience, a number of them also filled fire-brigade services as well
as security related employment such as jail-guards in the country's Prisons.
With the
expansion in plantations of export crops such as coffee, tea, cocoa and rubber
under colonial stimulus, increased job opportunities became available in the
estate sector.
While another
class of immigrants - the Indian Tamils from Tamil Nadu - flocked in as estate
labourers, Malays with rudimentary English education availed themselves of the
opportunities for supervisory roles in the hill country estates and office jobs
in the European agency houses.
In 1873, the
Ceylon Rifle Regiment, the principal arm of the British colonial military
establishment was disbanded due to operational reasons. Governor Sir William
Gregory justified the action as Sri Lanka enjoyed times of peace and prosperity
that had reduced the need for any substantial native military force.
The governor also
justified the decision by reference to Tamil population in northern Jaffna
region whom he opined were by nature a docile people more prone to agricultural
pursuits and not capable of bearing arms to require any policing by the army.
Later the history would prove otherwise as armed Tamil youths, the Liberation
Tigers of Sri Lanka did build one of the ferocious guerrilla fighting force the
world has ever seen!
After the
Regiment, it was the Ceylon Police Department that absorbed most number of
Malays. In 1879 they formed nearly one third of the force, some 493 out of
strength of 1692 men. The police took over the civilian duties of the disbanded
CRR, and the Malays moved into the vacated barracks of the CRR soldiers built
in outstations like Badulla, Kurunegalle and Trincomalee where the Malays
continued their own kampong life. The Fire-Brigade and Prison services also
provided steady sources of employment to the Malays.
The disbandment
of the CRR in 1873 indeed ended a most remarkable era in the history of the
community. Apart from acting as their major employer, the CRR contributed in
other significant ways by reinforcing social cum cultural cohesion among the
Malays who lived in large clusters in the cantonments. In contrast, the Malays
who entered other occupations became scattered in isolated parts of the island,
although a substantial civilian Malay population, known as Priman (Malay
Freemen) lived in the major towns of Colombo and Kandy.
The disbandment
of the CRR also meant loss of other facilities which countenanced educational
and cultural life of the community. For example, the Regimental schools which
provided valuable free education for Malay children had to be closed down along
with the CRR library which housed Malay books and manuscripts.
It was the CRR
that had linked the community with their Malay fatherland. Local Malays who
went on recruitment duty to Malaya refreshed ties with their long-lost cousins.
They brought back Malay educational and literary material, which helped in
keeping alive in Sri Lanka a vibrant indigenous Malay literary tradition during
most part of the 19th century. The colophon of a Sri Lankan Malay manuscript
described how a CRR Sergeant Shamsuddin, while on duty in Singapore in 1847,
spent time in the Malay royal Kampung Gelam to copy down famous Malay literary
works which he brought back to Sri Lanka. Such opportunities vanished once the
Regiment was disbanded.
The military men,
as distinguished pensioners, no longer enjoyed elite or privileged status in
the community. Civilians took over the management of Malay regimental mosques
in the cantonments, especially in Colombo's Slave Island and Kandy's Bogambara
wards.The documents of the period indicate emerging conflicts, tensions and
legal disputes between the civilians on the one side and proud soldiers on the
other who insisted on their special status for elitism.
The literary life of the Malays suffered most following the disbandment of the Regiment. Malay language had been taught as a compulsory subject in the regimental schools. In the new occupations there was hardly any need for the Malays to pursue their vernacular. As a result the indigenous literary activities slowly faded away when Malays could no longer read Jawi script, known among them as Gundul.
Furthermore, it
became difficult to sustain a refined Malay lingo, a hall mark of the Malay
literati.The Malay language spoken in the community became increasingly
creolised by having veered away from language spoken in Malaysia and Indonesia.
In the absence of
the Regiment, the community was thus forced to fend for itself to survive as a
separate and identifiable community amidst great odds. If not for the Regiment,
the Sri Lankan Malays would have embraced the same fate of identity loss that
took place among the nominal Malays of South Africa.