The other day, as I was waiting for a bus at my place, a bespectacled Indian man with a “songkok” came to me and gave me the Muslim greeting of peace, “assalaamu’alaikum”, which I returned. He then began a conversation in Tamil about where I stayed, and introduced himself as a fund-raiser for an orphanage in India. (Earlier, I had seen this same man in my floor talking to another Indian-Muslim household, down the corridor). And then came the question: “Yentha ooru?” / “Which town are you from?”
[a Basic Backgrounder]
For the uninitiated, Indian-Muslims in Singapore are not homogenous in their origins. There are different families (I don’t think “clan” applies here) that stem from villages or towns of South India, much like how Singapore Chinese may have roots in Hainan or Guangdong. I’d rather use the term ‘town’ to describe these places in India, as ‘village’ implies imagery of mud cottages and singing milk maids. Anyway: these towns, although having retained their natural settings like padi and sugarcane fields, have ‘modern’ structures like 2 or 3-storey bungalows that the town alumni build after their successful careers in Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Brunei, or, yup, Singapore (more about The Lost Sons in another post.)
Going deeper into which towns Singapore Indian Muslims originate from-
Those from the Tanjore side, like Kiliyanoor and Kollapuram. My father hails from Kiliyanoor, and my mom, the latter. Many men from this part of South India came in the 1950s and 60s, often unmarried, to make a fortune here and live like a king in India. A lot of them did, and still do. However, some (like my dad) decided to make this country their home, and married in India and brought their wives here. However, the relatives don’t follow (the fellow townspeople who do follow prefer to lie low, make a buck, send it to India, and eventually return to India.) So a new ‘nuclear family’ is thus established in Singapore, that has little community or relational support.
Kadayanalloor is an Indian Muslim town in South India where many second-generation Singapore Indians Muslims find their roots. Same story with finding fortune, but the forefathers brought along many more of their fellow townspeople. Most folks in Singapore who can trace their roots in Kadayanalloor would know each other, because they’re a close-knit bunch, mainly through marriages. So although say Rizal and Shariff would probably have never met each other before, they could, if they spent a few minutes, find how they link up (“hey! You’re Uncle Rashid’s daughter’s husband’s brother’s ---- son!”). However, the current generation of Muslims probably has never stepped foot on Kadayanalloor soil in India. The Singapore Kadayanalloor Muslim League (or fondly known as SKML) represents Kadayanalloor Muslims’ interests, who number in the few hundreds. Thus Kadayanalloorians have a strong family and social support base.
Ditto for the Indian Muslim town known as Thenkaasi. About a few hundred in strength, the Thenkaasi forefathers came here and settled, and I have many 2nd generation friends whose roots are in Thenkaasi. But most, if not all, have never visited the town of Thenkaasi.
Then there are folks who came from the town of Keezhaikarai, which is known for its scenic beaches. Several of my good pals are second-generation Keezhakarai.
Then there are those from Karaikaal, the town of merchants.
And we haven’t even started on the Pattani, Malayalee and North Indian Muslims. [Did I miss anyone?]
[back to The Present]
(Earlier, I had seen this same man in my floor talking to another Indian-Muslim household down the corridor).
And then came the question: “Yentha ooru?” / “Which town are you from?”
I replied that I was “Singaporean”, evoking applause from the corner of my cranium. The man then quickly asked what my father’s town was, to which I replied Kiliyanoor. After a few more niceties, the conversation stopped and the man went on his way.
I’ve encountered many such events, and this is a mild one: the desire of an Indian-Muslim to know the origin of another, when it doesn’t matter. This is despite the fact that both would look exactly the same, practice the same religion, speak the same language (minus the accents lah) and eat the same food.
There is a desire in all of us to look for differences and identify what cultural scholars call the “in-group” and the “out-group”. Someone who is identified as a member of a particular cultural group (meaning, to share common roots, practices etc) is a member of the in-group. One who isn’t, is from the out-group.
Of course, it doesn’t take a scholar to tell us that - this process of grouping is nothing new: we do it all the time. Having our own circle of friends, our (say) French class mates, our group of gym regulars etc.
But my problem is this: in a place where being Indian is already to be a minority, and where to be Indian-Muslim narrows it down even further, why do we further segregate ourselves into “origins from India”? It’s been an issue since my youth, and it’s very unsettling. This segregation mentality is the first step to stereotyping and prejudice. Each town of origin in India mentioned above has it’s own set of specialities, notorieties, and unique traits. These traits were founded in the socio-historic context of that time and place in India. To transplant those very characteristics to us born in Singapore is absurd, and outright dumb-assed. (For example, say Mohammed says he's from Town B, Jalees, who hears this, goes home and tells his folks that “Mohammed is from B, being from a town of potters, haha! Hey pass me a pot, haha!” - Just an example, it’s not factual.)
To make thing worse, the language of segregation is rampant: those who are not of a particular group of India-originated townspeople are labeled as ‘veliyoor’, or ‘foreigner’. Imagine being called a foreigner being in your own country.
I could choose to close my ears and shrug it off as “that’s the way it is” or “hey, let’s take this easy lah”. But I choose to take issue on this, as the segregation mindset inevitably spills over to the social fabric, where we are continually trying our darndest to maintain a harmonious multi-cultural society. And this is an issue that needs urgent discussion but hasn’t, to my knowledge, been articulated in any sense, anywhere.
Fortunately, this mindset is more rampant in the older generation. Folks my age are more sane.
I hope my generation is going in the right direction. And I hope one day no one has to ask me “Yentha ooru?” to be able to make small talk with or form pre-judgements of me.
If you have questions or want to share your views on this issue, Indian-Muslim or non Indian-Muslim, Indian or non-Indian, Singaporean or non-Singaporean, feel free.
*Note:
First-generation – of or relating to person(s) whose parents are immigrants
Second-generation – of or relating to person(s) whose parents are citizens, and whose grandparents are immigrants.
8 comments:
i liked the way your wrote this blog... like a movie scence cause i was so engrossed in reading.
this is how it went, i read the intro, then went into your background (like flash back), then suddenly camera cut into the present.. cool! didnt know u can have a scenematic experience on words.
back to topic..
yes jalees, i'm part of this current generation which much more sane.
you touched on multi-cultural society and the minority aspect.
lets me touch a bit of the religon side of it. already it is said that there is no races and differences between a fellow muslim and we do pilgrimage as a united whole.
but still there is malay-muslim and indian-muslim segregation. i can accept this to a certain extent basically because of language barrier but at the same time it is funny to see the same function(e.g. meelad rasul) held twice by the malay crowd and then the indian crowd at the same mosque.
even within this small indian-muslim segragation, there a few sub segragation of muslim leagues or different origin.
i wonder whether the malay side has further sub segragations.
i hope this practice of being grouped by origin will die off from our generation epecially being the minority!
Yes bro, the Indian/Malay-Muslim divide is another issue altogether, requiring a post or two. The Meelad is an excellent example. Another one is the virtual exclusion of non-Malay language speakers in so-called community mosques with the use of Malay-language sermons and Malay-language notices. We folks are completely lost when it comes to knowing about mosque matters. Nevermind that we have Tamil-only mosques; the point is, Islam sees no race and language difference. There has to be an attempt at recognising that people who are not necessarily Malay actually attend mosque.
Well written. Yup, its quite sad to see these segregations. Especially the label of "others" for the non tenkasi and kadayanallurs. I would like to touch on further segregation. The segregation within the same towners according to family names. These family names would be weird ones such as "hunchback, rat, red comb and what not". This is crazy. I have people first asking me what town I am to which I reply Singapore.Then they ask me what is my family name to which I just tell my Dad's name cos I find the whole family name concept stupid! Then they would reply saying "Oh! You are the daughter of (my dad's name)from (family name)." At that point in time I would feel like wacking the person's head. So the segregation chain goes like this
Muslims -> Malay or Indian Muslims -> Indian Muslim -> Kadayanallur or Tenkasi or "others" -> Family names. For such a small community having so much of segregation is so absurd. I think they should just focus their curiosity and energy into meaningful things.
oh ya there is a further segration ah! sheez!
we cant change elders, cause that is how they are grown. at the most u can change is your individual household. but hope that from our generation onwards, this doesnt carry on..
we can play a part in getting the community as one (sounds pretty ambitious). but hey, it all starts from a dream.
anyway, hopefully the next generation of ustaz and speakers might be able to educate on this topic as well..
in my opinion, the onli way or more like the onli time we can annihilate this segregation problem is thru our childrens generation. even for ourselves its gonna be a bit difficult... we still need to (in some aspects at least) adhere to the older generations codes of conduct simply coz our parents are tied to it.. sigh..
wow!
you've been mirrored...
all i know about my history is that my old folks were either toddy tappers or traders (or they were in the alko trading business...you can never tell).
I need a genealogy tree!
cheers!
P.S: dont you just hate it when the word verification word is so long and spans the entire length of the keyboard?
Jalsa, true that. I find that many of us are still tied down by parents' views as we are still under their hospice (if you want to call it that). Let's see if we can pull it off from our kid's generations.
Aliboy, not sure of Ustads will want to say anything about it. As you might know, many Indian-Muslim Ustads are actually employed or contracted to some of the Leagues and Sangams. So I'm not sure if they would actually speak on the non-segragation of Mankind when their salaries are paid by a self-identified, self-segregated group.
Caleb, yes, word verification is a somewhat leceh process. Which is why it keeps away the "Hi there, great blog. But I don't give a crap and I'm just a spammer who wants to market a new ass-pimple cream. You should get it from such and such-website. Bye!" postings.
Salam
I am extremely glad to have come across your blog and the issue you have raised. It is about time that we have a discussion about the whole “yentha oru” thingy. I get so pissed whenever I am approached by a total stranger and the first thing they ask is ‘yentha oru’ I am malayalee but I associate with many tamil speaking Indian muslims as such I realize that there is a segregation between the Indian muslim itself. Sorry to mention names. Whenever I meet someone new most of the time at the mosque the famous qn will pop ‘ r u kadayanallur or veliyoor(foreigner)’ what I find weird is that isn’t kadayanallur a veliyoor too!! Kadayanallur is in India and u can’t find that town in spore thus it is grammatically right to say kadayanallur is indeed a foreign town in the context of being a Singaporean. Many would say “Oh many generations of the kadayanallur ppl have been living in spore for a long time thus who ever who is not from kadayanallur are veliyoor” I feel that this is utterly stupid. It is all good to know about your descendents and our family tree and all. As mentioned by Ahmad. However, my concern is that no one should look down at another Indian muslim and label them a ‘veliyoor” if they come from a different town in India. Recently, I came across an Indian muslim family while I was waiting for a cab. Then a man from the family approached me and ask me ‘ yenna kudhumbom”( what family are u from)’ I just told him “ nalle kudhumbom” (good family) and hop on to my cab. I guess he might be thinking if he had asked a silly question. Hope I have not hurt any one feelings in my comment. Sorry for being long winded.
Wasalam,
Neera
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