Malay community

Malays of Sri Lanka would have been a long forgotten minority, had they not maintained
their mother tongue, the Malay at least in a colloquial form. The Malay
community is a distinct ethnic group. They are Muslim by religion. The present
population of Sri Lankan Malays counts only a 5% of the Muslim population, which
is also an 8% of the whole population of Sri Lanka. Except for slight changes in numbers, the percentage of the Malay population remained unchanged. While the present number of Malay population stands at 60,000 persons, one third of them live in Colombo, others are scattered out in several districts of Sri Lanka. Among them, the largest number is 1% of the population of Hambantota district in the southern Sri Lanka.
Despite its small size in number, the Malays have maintained their
language, and culture distinct from other communities such as Sinhala, Tamil and
Moors of Sri Lanka. They have also contributed joining hands with other
communities towards the nation building of a united Sri Lanka. One time they had
represented in the National Council, Parliament including in the first cabinet
of Independent Sri Lanka and engaged in wider range of professions including
Public and Educational service, in the armed forces, judiciary, medical and
engineering etc. However, as a community, the Malays have not achieved much
progress due to several factors including the indifferent policies of the past
governments towards their plight and dilemma.
　Although a three fourth of a century has passed since Edward Reimers, a
renowned archivist first shed lights on Malay community in Sri Lanka, only a
handful of papers were written on the subject until some of serious scholarly
research papers of Dr. Hussainmia were published in 1987 by the Institute of
Malay Language, Literature and Culture (IBKKM) of the Universiti Kebangsaan
Malaysia. Then his doctoral thesis 'Orang Rejimen, the Malays of the Ceylon
Rifle Regiment' published in 1990 by the same university in Malaysia, turned out
to be a prime source for study and research on Malays in Sri Lanka.
　The purpose of this paper is to study about the Malays of Sri Lanka, their
history and how they formed a distinct ethnic group in Sri Lanka. It will
examine their share of contribution towards the nation building of Sri Lanka and
their present plight and dilemma how to preserve their distinct identity in
parallel with their religious identity as Muslims in a multi-ethnic Sri Lanka.
The Malays assert they are Muslim by religious identity. But they are a distinct
ethnic community with their own language and culture different from others. Less
has been written about this socio-political aspect of the Malay community that
has focused on their distinct identity. Hence, this is an attempt to fill that
long due gap at least in some way.
　To complete this paper, I have mainly depended on interviews with many
Malay gentlemen of different socio-political calibre and informants at the
fieldwork on my several visits to Slave Island in Colombo, Galle, Matara,
Kirinda, Hambantota in Sri Lanka. Several reference materials at the Public
Library in Colombo and borrowed materials from several Sinhala and Malay
scholars and friends in Sri Lanka were indispensable for the purpose.
The Arrivals of Malays in Sri Lanka
The Malays of today's Sri Lanka are said to be the 'descendants of the 17th
century Malay Kings, Princes and Nobles exiled from Java by the Dutch and of the
Malay soldiers brought in by the British in the 18th century from the region
including Malay Peninsula

However, the origin of the Malay community of Sri Lanka goes far beyond the 17th
century A.D. It is impossible to say the exact date of the original arrival of
the Malays to Sri Lanka. But references in Chulawamsa about an invasion by a
Malay King named Chandrabhanu make it presumable that the Malays had contacts
with Sri Lanka earlier than the Dutch period. According to Edward Reimers, there
are also references to the Malays in other historical works of the Sinhalese of
the 13th and 14th centuries A.D. that King Parakramabahu, the Great's Admiral
and captains were Malays and King RajasinghaⅠis said to have had Malays in his
service. This may suggest that there were Malays before they were brought or
arrived during the Dutch and the British colonial rules in Sri Lanka. Therefore,
the arrivals of the Malays can be categorised into three periods. What are they?

　The Early Period (1247-1640 A.D.):
　The earliest arrival of the Malays we have known took place in the middle of the 13th century A.D. with the invasion of Chandrabhanu, the Buddhist King of Nakhon Si Tammarat in the Isthumus of Kra of Malay Peninsula. Culawamsa, a chronicle of Sri Lanka has recorded the incident:
　When the eleventh year of the reign of this King Parakramabahu had arrived, a king of the Javaka known by the name of Chandrabhanu landed with
a terrible Javaka army under the treacherous pretext that they were followers of
the Buddha. All these wicked Javaka soldiers who invaded every landing-place and
who with their poisoned arrows, like (sic) to terrible snakes, without ceasing
harassed the people whomever they caught sight of, laid waste, raging their
fury, all Lanka. (Culawamsa LXXXIII, 36-51).
　The term Javaka used in the chronicle is a well-established name for the
Malays of the Peninsula
Chandrabhanu attacked the Sinhala kingdom twice and failed both times. In the
second attack, he himself got killed. But Chandrabhanu had succeeded taking over
the northern part of Sri Lanka and become the ruler of the Javanese
Kingdomin Javapattanam (present Jaffna). This Javaka King of Sri Lanka who is mentioned
in the inscriptions of the South Indian Pandyan King, Jatavarman Vira Pandyan
(A.D.1235-1275) has been identified as Chandrabhanu (Sirisena 1977, 14).
　The Yalpanam Vaipava Malai, the chronicle of Jaffna mentioned of two local
names such as Chavakaccheri
(Javakaccheri-Java settlement) Chavakotte or Ja Kotuwa (Javaka Fort) confirming
the Java/Malay connection with Jaffna. It is presumable that these Javakas may
have moved towards the Kandyan kingdom at a later part of the history and worked
for the King of Kandy, who is said to have a garrison of army consisted of the
Malays. There is a well-known story that a Malay captain named Nouradeen and his
brother were beheaded at the order of the King of Kandy because the brothers
declined the royal offer to head the Malays in the service of the king but chose
to remain loyals to their British master, the King of the Great Britain.
　Beside these Javakas who arrived in Sri Lanka as Chandrabhanu's army or
servicemen during the reign of King Parakramabahu II, there were seafarer
freight careers, and the merchants ventured in ambitious maritime pursuits
around Madagascar. They often called round the coastline of Sri Lanka, which
suggests that many of them may have settled in areas near the harbours such as
Hambantota and around the coastline. According to one of my Malay informants at
Kirinda Malay settlement Hambantota was named after Sampan, the seafarers from the Indonesian archipelago, who called to the natural harbour in the past. These seafarers, and the freight careers of the East, after their conversion to Islam at the beginning of the 16th century A.D. relinquished their ambitious maritime
pursuits in favour of their co-religionists, the Arabs. The visits of Malays
became lesser and ceased visiting Sri Lankan waters at the beginning of the 16th
century A.D. when Arabs and Mohammadians established themselves in the seaports
of Sri Lanka and gradually took over the entire trade of the Island into their
hands. (Edward Reimers, 1924) 　The Dutch period (1640-1796 A.D.): The second arrival of the Malays in Sri Lanka took place during the Dutch administration, which ruled the coastal area of Sri Lanka for a period of more than one hundred and fifty years. Having driven away the Portuguese, who were ruling the coastal area of Sri Lanka, the Dutch established the full control of the coastal area in 1640. They brought
hundreds of Malays from all over in Malay Peninsula and Indonesian islands.
Those who were brought to Sri Lanka consisted of two categories. One being the
political exiles from Indonesia including other deportees expelled by the
Batavia government and second group consisted of all other classes of Malays who were brought to serve the Dutch government in Sri Lanka. This second group included
those recruits for the Military and other services, too.
　Among the first category, it also included princely exiles from various
parts of the Indonesian islands and the Malay Peninsula. The Batavia government
banished the Javanese including the nobles and many other eastern kings, princes
as well as the chiefs and the dignitaries of the region for rebelling against
the Batavia rule. In 1709, Susuna Mangkurat Mas, the King of Java, was exiled to
this country by the Dutch with his entire family and followers. This was
followed in 1723 by 44 Javanese Princes and Noblemen, who surrendered to the
Dutch at the Battle of Batavia, were exiled to Sri Lanka
All these lived in the four main coastal towns under the jurisdiction of the
Dutch, namely Colombo, Galle, Trincomalee, and Jaffna (Hussainmia, 1990, 40).
Others including the slaves were confined to quarters on the Slave Island
surrounded by Bere Lake in the center of Colombo. The majority of people living
in the area even today are the Malays. The Dutch is said to have stocked the
lake around the island with crocodiles, preventing the slaves' escape. Those who
escaped were flogged and branded for a first offense, hanged for a second.
The Dutch government also established a first settlement for the Malays,
who served them, in an area close to the Slave Island. A Dutch report dated 25th
June 1681 indicates that a piece of land 13 Morgen (about 28 acres) in extent
was granted to the Javanese Malays situated at Wolvendahl. There were 196 houses
and had coconut and jak trees planted.
　It is not known the exact number of exiles brought to Sri Lanka during the
Dutch period. But by the end of 18th century A.D., it appears that at least 200
members of eastern nobility were resident in the Island. With their families,
the number of Malay people amounted close to 2000 people.
　The British Period (1796-1948 A.D.):　It was the British who brought
the third category of Malays to Sri Lanka. Many came from the Malay Peninsula
and became the permanent source of providing military manpower and to serve the
British in the island. The British drove the Dutch away and took control of the
coastal area in 1796. Frederic North, the first British Governor of Sri Lanka,
at first, did not like the idea of incorporating the Malays, the soldiers who
fought against the British during the Dutch rule over Sri Lanka and had become
prisoners of war after the Dutch fell to the British, into his military. But he
agreed to take the 300 Malay soldiers under custody of the British when the
Dutch surrendered. The Dutch had stipulated that the Malays should be sent back
to Java Island at the cost of the British, who in turn first sent them to
Chennai, India and later incorporated into the British military in Sri Lanka.
This was the starting point that recruited hundreds of Malays into the British
military service, thereafter.
　Governor North was also the first British Administrator, who initiated
reforms in the military and formed Malay Corps raising their salaries resembling
to those of the native Corps. As a result, these Malay Corps were admitted into
the King's service on 23 April 1801 forming a Malay Regiment for the first time
outside Malay Peninsula. The Malays became the first Asians to hold commissions
from the British Sovereign. By this time, the strength of the Malay Corps
amounted to 1200 soldiers.
　During North's time, he established several Malay colonies in Sri Lanka
starting from Mahagampattu region, in the southern part of Sri Lanka. The first
one was opened in Hambantota, which is now a major Malay invalid settlement in
the south. Later, two other settlements were established in the villages of
Kirinda and Palatupana. The settlers were assigned to different kinds of work
including in the saltpans found in the region and farming and fishing etc. The
region at the time was a jungle and not even a coolie from other community
wanted to work in the area. Having seen the Malays were enduring the hard life,
Governor North was pleased with the Malays and wrote that 'they were hard
workers and courageous and not easily terrified with little dangers and
inconveniences' (Hussainmia 1990, 63) in one of his dispatches to the Home
Government.
　Thereafter, Governor North decided to recruit Malays to enlarge his forces.
His recruitments largely came from Malay Peninsula as he set up recruiting
agency for the first time in Penang (Prince of Wales Island) around 1800. He
also tried to bring Malays from other British colonies like, Cochin in India,
Island of St. Helena etc. But larger number came from Malay Peninsula with their
families to settle in Sri Lanka to serve the British military. The Malays were
periodically brought to Sri Lanka until the recruitment was halted in 1803 after
the British lost to the Kandyan kingdom in the war against Kandyan Kingdom on
24th June 1803. The defeat was largely attributed to the desertion of Malay
soldiers who formed the main strength of the British garrison.
　The desertion of 'British Malays' had occurred mainly because of the 'Kandy
Malays' who were in the Kandyan King's service and offered security and
protection to the Malay soldiers in the British side. 700 Malays deserted to the
Kandyan side leaving only 250 Malay soldiers behind. Governor North was so
furious that he immediately ordered the halt of recruiting the Malays. But he
later changed his mind and resumed taking the Malays into the service. He
changed his mind in consideration of the loyalty of Captain Nauradeen who led
the Malays in the British force and the assurance and "invariable attachment"
shown by the Malay exiles living in Sri Lanka to the British government. He then
rebuilt the Malay Regiment, which was left with only 600 soldiers by recruiting
more from the Malay Peninsula and other east islands. North continued his effort
to strengthen the Regiment until his departure from Sri Lanka at the end of
1805.
Formation of Malay Community in Sri Lanka
　The Malay community of Sri Lanka is formed of a number of people arrived in
Sri Lanka at different periods of time, on different reasons and from a diverse
region of eastern islands that included Malay Peninsula, Java and other
Indonesian islands. They are popularly known as "Jaminissu" among the Sinhalese
community and "Jamanusar" among the Tamil community meaning "People from Java"
in both languages. The term "Javaka" we found in the Culawamsa also has a
similar meaning: "Person from Java" (Java+ka) (Java+person) while the Malays
call them "Melayu" in Malay language. How did they form the Malay community?
　There are several factors that helped form the Malay community of Sri
Lanka. Firstly, the formation of a separate regiment for Malays in the British
military played an important role towards the formation of the Malay community.
By the time of Governor North's departure from Sri Lanka, he had laid a
foundation for a future Malay community of Sri Lankan style. During his tenure
of 10 years as Governor, he persuaded 75% of the Malays that included exiles of
various class and people come from different islands in the East living in Sri
Lanka to join the British military service. During his administration, North
recruited Malays from all over including locals and those from the Malay
Peninsula. He set up a separate military regiment for Malay soldiers, formed a
Boy's company to give prior training to the children of the Malay soldiers and
formed an Invalid Regiment to help them find alternative jobs. North set up
Malay settlements and provided jobs. He even looked after the children and wives
of those soldiers who died in the battle. The Malay regiment played a central
role in promoting welfare for the Malay soldiers and communicating with other
Malays and settlements in cities and villages in the island. On top of that, the
Malay Military mosque, primarily set up to serve the spiritual need of the
soldiers, also attracted the Malays living around the area. The mosque served as
a center promoting friendship among the Malays came from different places of
origin.
　Secondly, the Malays themselves played a formidable role in maintaining
their language and customs. Although they came from same region of the East
islands, they spoke variety of dialects spoken in Malaya and Java islands.
During the time of the Dutch rule over Batavia, the people living in the area
had developed a separate dialect called "Batavia dialect" which is a form of
simple spoken Malay. As the majority of people came from this area to Dutch
Ceylan it is possible that they retained the "Batavia dialect" and got mixed with local languages in Sri Lanka. This was only natural because of their long absence from their native land. Further, there was no proper learning and teaching of
standard Malay language in Sri Lanka neither in the past nor even at present.
This may have contributed to the creation of a Sri Lankan styled "Malay"
language. In fact, Malay and Sinhala languages share a common root of Sanskrit
language. The Malay language, like Sinhala has a strong influence from Sanskrit
language as Java, Sumatra had Buddhist and Hindu empires in the past. A close
look at some examples below give us a better picture of the fact.