The 'typical' Malaysian Indian

The ‘typical’ Malaysian Indian

Part II of II: An Explanation

Treading along the lines of racism, can we consider it possible that these ‘negatives’ can be accounted for by the genetic composition of Malaysians of Indian ethnicity? Surely not; a phenotype of any given individual is utterly impossible to predict even if given a fixed genome. I believe that the genome of the Indian population is in no way defective or even inferior to of any other race population in this world, and there are many outstanding Indian individuals who can testify to that claim. This underlines the importance of nurture over nature within the varying environments one is subjected to. Therefore if these stereotypes on Malaysian Indians are true, they indefinitely must be of a direct consequence of a complex environmental-nurture component revolving around the majority of Malaysian Indians.

The role of religion and culture are hugely traditional and are of grave importance to many Malaysian Indians. These have been embedded deep into the nurture of most members of the Malaysian Indian community in Malaysia. Unfortunately, a by-product of this traditionalism is the concomitant conservatism that exists amongst the Malaysian Indian community. Globalisation has increased the boundaries of social interaction and allowed the influx of different cultural and religious elements. In order to survive within the era of globalisation with a mind to protect one’s own traditionalistic values, one can only do so by adopting a conservative mindset.

I hypothesize that many conservative Malaysian Indian families are unwilling to actively engage in social mobilization as this largely remains the only way they know to impose and instil their cultural and religious beliefs into their children and simultaneously warding of cultural ‘pollution’. Whilst this often guarantees the traditional continuum that by large the conservative Malaysian Indian hopes for, it comes at a cost of falling behind their contemporaries. The end-result is a closed-community who is naïve to the evolution of modern society and ultimately the reality that surrounds them.

The conservatism of Malaysian Indians can account for (to a certain degree) their marginalization in Malaysia. They have failed to evolve sufficiently to allow the community to thrive. Taking this into context of stereotyping, many Malaysian Indians now have failed to keep up with their counterparts of other ethnicities, and now struggle to even ‘fit-in’ leading to alienation when thrown into the fray of a mixed group. Therefore, their only option of maintaining viability within the mixed group is via forming a ‘clique’ and hence the ‘out-group’.

However the Malaysian Indian conservatism in not the sole contributory factor to basis of these negative stereotypes. Years of living under difficult discriminatory conditions have lead to the inability of the general Malaysian Indian community to engage in modernization effectively.

The Economist in an issue on February 2003 published that 60% of urban squatters and 41% of beggars in Malaysia are Indian. Economically, the national equity holdings of Malaysian Indians are significantly low relative to the proportion of the Malaysian Indian population in Malaysia, and there is much reason to believe that there is a huge intra-group variation in individual earnings as demonstrated by Perumal (1979) and Snodgrass (1980) which showed that the median earning of Malaysian Indian household decreased from RM228 (1957/58) to RM192 (1970) and was lower that the mean income of the Malaysian Indian population; a phenomena not observed with the other races in Malaysia. Critics may rightly observe that the household earnings of Malaysian Indians were at the time higher than of the Malays. But this was prior to the implementation of the NEP, and assuming these trends continued combined with the policies of the NEP, there is every reason to believe that the Malaysian Indian population is relatively ‘poorer’ now.

The level of education amongst Malaysian Indians is also on a decline. The employment of Malaysian Indians in most occupational fields, namely professional and technical workers declined between the periods 1970 to 1995. University intake percentages of Malaysian Indian students have also experienced a drop from 10% in 1970 to 5.2% in 2003. Malaysian Indians students also have the highest dropout rates in the country when compared to the other races (although literacy rates are still highest amongst Indians at 89% according to a UN report in 2002).

There are numerous other statistics to quote to prove the marginalization of Malaysian Indians as a direct consequence of discriminatory national policies and inappropriate distribution of opportunities and wealth. But I believe that I have underlined that with simply the two examples I have provided above: education and economics. Without any active intervention, via means of extrapolation there is no doubt that these figures will continue to deteriorate and by no means of choice, the average Malaysian Indian will find himself excluded from the general population as an ‘out-group’, which ties in nicely with the theories I proposed regarding the origin of stereotypes of the ‘typical’ Malaysian Indian.

The more difficult task lies in scrutinizing these stereotypes and understanding the foundations on which they lie on. Here I hope to offer a few explanations for some of the stereotypes that are most prevalent and commonly encountered:

1) Indians dress in bright colours and often look mismatched – Indians have always associated bright colours with good fortune; an esoteric significance of light in Hinduism as opposed to darkness/dim colours which is associated with barriers, ignorance, misfortune or evil. The aesthetic appreciation of bright coloured clothing is almost unique to the Malaysian Indians and does not necessarily appeal to what mainstream fashion dictates: that bright colours and a dark complexion do not always match well. However, combined with the Malaysian Indian conservatism, indulging in mainstream fashion to appeal to the general population is less important compared to cultural symbolism that these colours represent.

2) Indians look and smell funny – The cosmetics industry is undoubtedly experiencing huge growths in market in terms of demand despite the ballooning inflation. The increasing cost of cosmetics is far beyond what the average Malaysian Indian can afford. Therefore many Malaysian Indians eventually end up relying on cheaper tried and tested traditional cosmetic remedies such as Shikakai, Turmeric, Coconut oil, Attars and Henna that have passed on through numerous generations. These products however are hugely unpopular amongst other groups of people who remain unfamiliar with its uses, application and even scent. I believe this unfamiliarity is the basis of the stereotype that Indians look and smell funny. But do consider: would anyone use Attar perfume if they could afford a Dolce and Gabbana?

3) Indians are gangsters – There are statistics to show that Malaysian Indians make up a huge proportion of arrests made by the police demonstrating a high crime rate associated with Malaysian Indians. But I believe this correlates quite nicely with the fact that these proportion of Malaysian Indians are also amongst those who live in areas of deprivation. The combination of poverty, poor education and lack of accessibility to opportunities are well established reasons for high crime rates in any given population irrespective of ethnicity. It is no mere coincidence that Malaysian Indians have been stereotyped as delinquents; not by choice, but instead as a consequence of marginalization. The high crime rate amongst Malaysian Indians, I believe is merely a crude measure of the poor living conditions and quality of life that many Malaysian Indians suffer. Furthermore, let me remind readers that the crimes that are these Malaysian Indians are arrested for are usually petty crimes involving the under-educated population of Malaysian Indians. What if we measure crime rates amongst the well-educated population? What if we measure crimes rates for those involved in white-collar offences, organized crime, corruption, money laundering, piracy, loan sharks, assault, and sexual abuse/assault? I admit that Malaysian Indians heavily contribute to the numbers of petty crime rates, but we must understand there are examples of more serious offences to which there is less association with the Malaysian Indians and perhaps more closely linked to other ethnic races.

4) Indians are drunks – Alcohol problems in often described as solely an ‘Indian issue’. However examining most of the researches that has come to this conclusion will reveal the methodology used to sample participants was based on the hospital seeking behaviour of individuals in urban hospital settings. This therefore leads to an over-sampling of lower income urban groups; mainly the Malaysian Indians. Projecting the findings of these restricted researches onto the general Malaysian population is not plausible and fundamentally flawed. As a matter of fact, the Chinese are the largest consumers of beers (Carlsberg estimates that 80% of its customers are Chinese) and distilled spirit; the high-end products of the alcohol market. Whereas, most Indians can only afford ‘samsu’ or toddy, most of it which are illegally brewed and potentially dangerous. Whilst I admit that the numerous researches has demonstrated that Malaysian Indians of mainly lower income groups contribute to a huge chunk of alcoholic problems in urban Malaysian hospitals, it has proved little otherwise. Without obtaining a larger and more representative sample of the general population and stratifying the results for ethnicity and income groups, the generalization that Malaysian Indian are mostly drunks and that it is solely an ‘Indian issue’ is unjust.

At the risk of being accused of denying reality, I stand firm that I am not offering excuses for the condition that the Malaysian Indians exists in, but instead providing reasons and arguments for readers to understand the nature of some of the negative stereotypes, why they exists, the origin of these stereotypes and whether or not they are true. More so, is the importance to appreciate that some of these stereotypes are unfair or misunderstood, and ultimately have created barriers towards the integration of Malaysian Indians with the other races.

The lists of stereotypes, explanations and theories behind all these are limitless and I acknowledge the numerous limitations and constraints that lie in my text. What I hope to achieve is to educate readers into understanding that the ‘typical’ Malaysian Indian is a product of subjugation by his own conservatism and socio-economic marginalization. Therefore the next time you encounter the derogatory term ‘typical Indian’, please question, be it with yourself or others, the appropriateness of the context in which it was used in, with a view of the arguments that I have presented above. Things may not always seem to be as straightforward as they appear to be.