Akar NusaAkar Nusa / All peoples / Indian
Indian
Includes
Stories written
Srivijaya: the sea empire of Sumatra
A great Buddhist maritime power that controlled the Straits.
Kingdoms and trade · 4 min readIndian influence on Malay culture
Words, stories and ideas that came with the traders.
Kingdoms and trade · 4 min readPasai, the first Muslim port in the Straits
A trading port that helped Islam spread across the region.
Melaka · 4 min readParameswara and the founding of Melaka
A prince from Palembang chose a river mouth that would change the region.
Melaka · 4 min readGujarati merchants of Melaka
A rich community of Muslim traders from western India.
Melaka · 4 min readTamil Chulia and Kling traders of Melaka
Tamil merchants gave the old word Kling a long history.
The great migrations · 4 min readThe tin rush of the Kinta valley
Tin turned Ipoh into a city and built great fortunes.
The great migrations · 5 min readTamil: the biggest Indian people of Malaysia
Tamil-speaking communities came across 2,000 years from the Coromandel coast.
The great migrations · 4 min readMalayali: clerks, nurses and traders from Kerala
The Malayali built a name in hospitals and offices.
The great migrations · 4 min readPunjabi Sikh: police, guards and dairy farmers
The Sikhs came as soldiers and watchmen in the 1870s.
The great migrations · 4 min readThe kangany system: how rubber estates hired workers
A headman went home to find workers and bring them back.
The great migrations · 4 min readRubber: from Brazil to Malaya
Henry Ridley's seeds changed who lives where.
Living heritage · 4 min readRoti canai, mamak and the Indian Muslim kitchen
A flatbread from South India with Malay cousins.
Living heritage · 4 min readThaipusam and the Batu Caves
A Tamil festival that became a Malaysian one.
Southeast Asia next · 4 min readSingapore: the island of many roads
A Chinese, Malay, Indian and mixed story on one island.
Coming soon
The Cholas and the Peninsula
A South Indian navy raided Kedah in 1025.
Telugu: from Andhra to the estates
A smaller Indian group with its own language and festivals.
Gujarati: cloth sellers and wholesalers
Gujarati merchants came to Melaka before 1500 and again in the 1900s.
Sindhi: textile traders of the cities
Sindhi shopkeepers settled in port towns after Partition.
Estates and railway lines: how Indian labour built Malaya
Railways, roads and ports were built by Indian workers.
The Indian Ocean crossing: ships from Nagapattinam to Penang
The voyage and its journal entries.
Sarawak's Indian and Eurasian families
A small but old Indian presence in the Sarawak towns.
Indian names and caste markers: a careful look
South Indian names often hold a father's name and village.
Places in these stories
Family lines linked in these stories
The seafarers' line
Line is likely 30,000 to 50,000 years oldMother line R9An old Southeast Asian line
Line is likely 40,000 to 55,000 years oldMother line M-SouthAsiaThe old lines of India
Line is most of these families are likely 20,000 to 50,000 years old oldFather line L-M2481A line of South Asia
Line is likely 15,000 to 30,000 years oldFather line R-M420A Central and South Asian line
Line is likely 15,000 to 25,000 years oldDNA does not decide who anyone is. It does not show race, religion or any legal status. Every community tells its own story first, and we tell the DNA part with respect.
