Marginalization of the Indians Part One-1

8/3/2019 Marginalization of the Indians Part One-1

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MARGINALIZATION OF THE INDIANS

PART ONE

First Posted on 30 November 2009

Through these columns I intend to present a picture of the marginalization of

the Indian poor in Malaysia and also try and put forth a coherent explanation

of how it happened. I am going to do this in several parts. I am doing this to

break the myth that what has happened to the Indian poor in the country is

inevitable and is Indian ethnic in its causes. That it all happened because

they lack values, they lack religion, they watch too much Astro, they arebasically violent and such other myths as our current day theoreticians both

within the community as outside the community will have us believe.

Here is the First part.

First some basic information that will help us understand the story that will

be presented a little better.

Basic data of Malaysia

Population by ethnic group Malaysia, 2010

Total Malay Other

Bumiputera

Chinese Indian Others

26,784,96

5

14,749,378 3,197,993 6,520,559 1,969,343 347,692

100% 55.1% 12% 24.3% 7.4% 1.2%

As can be seen from this data Indians form 7.4% of the total population of

Malaysia in a census projection from the Department of Statistics,

Government of Malaysia. The Indians are a minority group, a distinct

minority group.
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During the period since the Independence the per capita Gross Domestic

Product ( GDP), an indicator of the economic progress and status of a

country just like your salary, rose from about RM 2,500 per year in 1960

to RM15,000 in 2008. Quite a performance. The economy changed from

being primarily a commodity producing & agricultural economy (like

production of rubber and palm oil) to a manufacturing orientated economy.

See table below:

% of GDP 1960 2008Agriculture 40 9.7

Manufacturin

g

9 44.6

The Indians were largely involved in the rubber plantations as tappers in a

relatively modern form of agricultural production at the inception of the

nation. Though it is not food, that was produced, it was a cash crop and it

was grown so we call it agriculture. Since then there has been a

tremendous shift in the structure of the economy. The plantation economy

slowly gave way to an industrial economy. Factories started to replace the

rubber estates as the main feature of the economy.

While this was happening Malaysian politics also went through significant

change. The 4 key phases in the development of the politics are the period

1957 1969, 1969 1981. 1981 -2004, 2004 - present. Each of these

phases is characterized by key historical phenomena that both chronicles

what has happened in Malaysian politics as well as explain how it all

happened.


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While these were occurring, the Indian population, a minority to start with,

coupled with the fact that they were in the lowest rung of Malaysian society

experienced significant outward push from the mainstream of all these

developments economic, political and social.

The Indians have not benefited in equal measures as the other communities

in spite of the rapid economic development that the country experienced in

this period. In these columns I will try to set out the various forms of the

push out or marginalization that the Indian poor faced in these various

phases and why this has happened. Essentially we all know what has

happened - but we know them as sporadic and separate events. What I will

attempt to do is to connect all these events, join the dots so to speak, and

draw a big picture for you all to see - hopefully making the truth clearer.

But first let me start with what marginalization means:

In sociology, marginalisation is the social process of becoming or being

made marginal - to be sent to the fringes, out of the mainstream; or to

confine to a lower social standing. make seem unimportant, the

marginalization of the underclass is a clear example. In its most extreme

form, marginalization can exterminate groups.

Many communities experience marginalization. As a result of

marginalization, communities have lost their land, were forced into destitute

areas, lost their traditional sources of income, and were excluded from the

labour markets. Additionally, communities have lost their culture and values

and lost their rights in society .
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Today the Malaysian Indian community is marginalized from Malaysian

society as a result of the development of practices, policies and programs

that only meet the needs of the power elite but not the needs of the

marginalized Indian poor. This marginalization is also significantly

connected to the power elite maintaining and enforcing ways by which we

think and talk about things. The way we have been conditioned by the

information trickling to us, or by way people talk around us, we may even

have difficulty acknowledging that marginalization has occurred to the

Indian community in Malaysia.

This is my task, to make it very clear, what has happened and why it has

happened.

The marginalization experienced by the Indians in Malaysia is multifaceted.

Specifically they can be categorized into:

1) Economic marginalization

To be denied opportunities for participating productively in the

economic development of the nation. To have been pushed out of the

mainstream of economic development.

2) Political marginalization

To be denied equal opportunity to participate in the decision making

processes relating to allocation of the national resource or the social

and economic development of the community. Political clout taken

away by virtue of the political processes of the country. In the

process losing political rights as a citizen and as a minority

community.


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3) Social marginalization

To be cast aside socially as the dreg with the social stereotypes as

labourers, drunks, untrustworthy individuals, black and smelly

fellows,

dependent and always complaining to name a few of the stereotypes

usually associated with being Indian poor in Malaysia. The result of

all this is the blocking of the Indian poor from developing pride as

worthy individuals, and as a community of poor being denied

the opportunities for practicing and developing the salient culture of

the Indians. This becomes a self reinforcing process.

I will discuss each of these aspects of marginalization in the

subsequent parts. I will also discuss the sociological basis of all of

this.

I will try to break the stereotyped explanations offered for the state of

the Indian community and show how through the progress of the

development of Malaysian society, this outcome has occcurred.

It has nothing to do with the Indianness in all of us as current

Discourse will have us believe. It has only to do with the political

economy of the country.

End of Part One

Part two will follow shortly. Stay tuned.

Naragan


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Marginalization of the Indians Part One-1

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