Human rights of religious and ethnic minorities in Malaysia, including Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, Indians and Malaysian Chinese, are systematically, officially and legally violated regularly in an institutionalised manner to induce forced conversions and ethnic cleansing to homogenise society to Islam. [13] Furthermore, Chola king Rajendra Chola I sent an expedition to Kadaram (Srivijaya) during the 11th century conquering that country on behalf of one of its rulers who sought his protection and to have established him on the throne. [xxvii]Malaysian Indian Community: Victim of ‘Bumiputera’ Policy’ (2008) byDilipLahiri. “I don’t even know what they wrote (on the form) as I can’t read. Malaysians of Indian descent comprise 7.3per cent of the population, and include Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Christians and Muslims.[i]. www.makkal.org – the website of HINDRAF.6. This was part of the original greater India, Hindu kings and officials ruled these parts for centuries. In other towns and estates, kavadis would be carried for other festivals like Chittirai Paruvam. The overwhelming numbers are of South Indian origin; predominantly Tamil-speaking and a significant number speak Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi and Punjabi. However, Mohan’s family claimed that he had neither converted nor practiced Islam. Although Indians arrived in Malaysia a century ago, many of their descendants still lack formal status. 'Hindu Janajagruti Samiti' (HJS) was established on 7th October 2002 for Education of Dharma, Awakening of Dharma, Protection of Dharma, Protection of the Nation and Uniting Hindus. In addition to this, the stateless Hindus in Malaysia are treated as second class citizens or more appropriately, they have been deprived of citizenship of the country in which they were born by the Malaysian government. (e) 78 percent of the government services are occupied by Malays, while Hindus share only four percent. A number of Malaysian Indian immigrants are found in Australia, and they tended to be highly qualified and speak English fluently and were therefore highly employable. . A number of notable Malays, including Mahathir Mohamad, also have part-Indian ancestry. He explained that Hindus are not against conversion per se but that the community opposed organized conversion campaigns by the Christian churches which are based on undue influence.
A study from 2000 found that the country had lost an ample amount of talented and skilled youth to other more favourable countries as the result of students form the large non-Malay minority language communities being forced to go to university abroad because they did not attend Malay language schools.
[xxxi]. Now members of the council are grappling with new/old issues. The economic state of Malaysian Indians is stratified and the distribution of wealth is uneven. The main patterns of political discrimination are related to voting rights and other political participation rights, arbitrary detention on political grounds, freedom of association and assembly, and freedom of expression. Except for the Christians, the other religious groups do not have many problems with the Muslims, and voicing such problems was the council's original purpose. The Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) was formed in 2007 to address alleged racial discrimination against Indian Malaysians.
Between 2004 and 2007, 96 Hindu temples were demolished in Selangor state alone. They generally pay tribute to the contributions of the Indian community to the nation and are well received by Indians of all faiths. An inscription dated 779 AD has been found in Ligor, Malay Peninsula. An element needed to carry out commercial transactions is a common language understood by all parties involved in early trade. About 1.78 million Malaysian residents (6.3% of the total population) are Hindus, according to 2010 Census of Malaysia. The Malayali, Ceylonese and Christian Tamils may be involved in government and private white-collar work, the Chettiar in money-lending or finance, while the Vellalar and Muslim Tamils may be in various kind of businesses.[16]. When a URL fails to work, you may go to the top level of the sources website and search for the news/article. Fried bitter gourd, banana chips, papadam, rasam, yoghurt and pickles are the usual condiments. If I can’t get a MyKad, my son will have no chance to get one too,” she said. In the New Development Plan (NDP) promulgated in 1991 for out of 5 seats in Malayan Civil Service was reserved for bumiputeras (the legal term for the Malay, note the language; bumi – soil, putera – son!) [5] Incidence of poverty (those in the lowest 40% of the national income distribution) in Malaysia was 27.3% Indians. Her husband was an alcoholic and did not care for the family. Most are descendants of those who migrated from India to Malaysia during the British colonisation of Malaya. India-based channels available in Malaysia are Sun TV, Jaya TV, Chutti TV. But there has been a trickle of these Hindu converts to Christianity back to the Hindu fold. ", Mr. Subramaniam suggested that instead of converting others to one's religion, all the religious groups should confine their efforts to convert the respective members of their own religion into better followers: Christians into better Christians, Sikhs into better Sikhs, etc. It is celebrated in grand style in the temples of, George Town, Ipoh and Kuala Lumpur for three days. The Indian Progressive Front (IPF), another Indian-based party, is affiliated with Barisan Nasional but is not a formal member.
For example, Surendran and his Pakata Rakyat coalition have claimed at least 300,000 Malaysian Indians have been cut out of the nation’s economic, social and educational systems due to “systemic neglect” by the BN federal government and its refusal to issue proper papers and citizenship documents to this group of people.[vii].
For instance, In 1978 KIMMA, the principal pressure group of the erstwhile Indian Muslims distributed pamphlets accusing MIC (Malaysian Indian Congress, the main political party of the Indians in Malaysia) of being anti – Muslim and many Hindu temples were attacked with tacit government support. Most of the times they had been denied audiences in direct violation of international protocol. [xix], Hundreds gathered at the open space behind the Palace of Justice to participate in the 12 December protest. The South Indian Tamils were the majority throughout the country, on the rubber estates and railways, though a significant proportion found employment on the docks in Penang and Singapore.
The Prime Minister is the leader of the majority party in the House of Representatives and is considered to be the most powerful political authority. The discrimination suffered by Hindus is on varied grounds like racial and ethnic inequalities, religious freedom, political rights, civil liberties, and so on. The appam is a favourite breakfast dish in Tamil homes.
The Malaysian Indian community is an important market for the Tamil film industry Kollywood. These undocumented stateless Hindus cannot even fall back on hospital records as proof because they were born at home. (e) The government has launched many media campaigns in this direction. Quoting HINDRAF estimates, he cites a figure of 450,000 Malaysian-born Indians “who have been rendered stateless as they have been denied citizenship status by the Malaysian Government.”[viii], Another interesting fact with regard to this issue is that Malaysia has a staggering 2.5 percent of the total stateless population of the world.[ix]. Most conversions to the Methodist Church are due to the missionary work of that church.
It came through a peculiar colonial twist of faith. Moreover, the 100-year-old historical Temple of Maha Mariyaman was destroyed by the Malaysian authorities in the region of Shah Alam on 30 October 2007. Roti canai, nasi kandar, maggi goreng and pasembur (Mamak rojak) are Indian dishes unique to Malaysia. © 2014 Hindu Janajagruti Samiti - All Rights Reserved, Save traditional Mutts around Puri Jagannath Temple.
Surendran also accused the government of ordering civil servants to deny issuing identification documents to Indians, particularly those from the lower economic strata.“This is a deliberate policy on the part of the government to marginalize and push out Indians from mainstream society,” he said.
Idiyappam is known as putu mayam in Malay and usually sold by mobile motorcycle vendors. A proposal to restructure the council into two tiers, one representing the Christian sects and another the other religions has been bandied around. Hamilton record that Tamil was the common language of commerce in Malaysia and Indonesia during historical times. The Sedition Act, the Official Secrets Act and the Printing Press and Publication Acts have been used to silence, intimidate and punish critics of the government.