Malaysian Indians in the context of "Social contract (Malaysia)"

Malaysian Malayalees, also known as Malayalee Malaysians, are people of Malayali descent who were born in or immigrated to Malaysia from the Malayalam speaking regions of Kerala. They are the second largest Indian ethnic group, making up approximately 15% of the Malaysian Indian population. The bulk of Malaysian Malayali migration began during the British Raj, when the British facilitated the migration of Indian workers to work in plantations, but unlike the majority Tamils, the vast majority of the Malayalis were recruited as supervisors (called mandur) in the oil palm estates that followed the kangani system, and some were into trading and small businesses with a significant proportion of them running groceries or restaurants. Over 90% of the Malayalee population in Malaysia are Malaysian citizens.

The Indian indenture system was a system of indentured servitude, by which more than 1.6 million workers from British India were transported to labour in European colonies as a substitute for slave labour, following the abolition of the trade in the early 19th century. Although described by colonial authorities as "free" migration, many recruits were deceived, coerced, or kidnapped, leading historians such as Hugh Tinker to characterise the system as a "new form of slavery". The system began with the Atlas voyage to Mauritius in 1834, but early journeys were marked by mortality rates of over 17%, prompting British authorities to impose stricter shipping regulations. The system expanded after the abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1833, in the French colonies in 1848, and in the Dutch Empire in 1863. British Indian indentureship lasted until the 1920s. This resulted in the development of a large South Asian diaspora in the Caribbean, Natal (South Africa), Réunion, Mauritius, and Fiji, as well as the growth of Indo-South African, Indo-Caribbean, Indo-Mauritian and Indo-Fijian populations. This migration resulted in the formation of large Indian diasporas, including Indo-Caribbean, Indo-Mauritian, Indo-Fijian, and Indo-South African communities. While many descendants celebrate their cultural resilience, historians emphasise the trauma and displacement caused by the indenture system.

Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Myanmar had a similar system, known as the Kangani system. Indo-Lankan Tamil, Indo-Malaysian, Indo-Burmese and Indo-Singaporean populations are largely descended from these Kangani labourers. Similarly, Indo-East African are descended from labourers who went primarily to work on the Kenya-Uganda Railway, although they were not part of the indentured labourer system.

Bumiputera or bumiputra (Jawi: بوميڤوترا‎, Native), often shortened to Bumi in casual contexts, is a term used in Malaysia to refer to the Malays, the Orang Asli of Peninsular Malaysia, various indigenous peoples of East Malaysia and certain Peranakans sub-groups. The term, rooted in the Sanskrit word later absorbed into the classical Malay bhumiputra (Sanskrit: भूमिपुत्र, romanized: bhū́miputra), literally translates as "son of the land" or "son of the soil". In Indonesia, a related term, "Pribumi", is used, although in Malaysia it more broadly denotes indigenous peoples.

Following the 13 May incident in 1969, the government implemented the New Economic Policy (NEP), a set of measures granting extensive social, economic and political advantages to bumiputera communities. These included affirmative action in education, housing and preferential treatment in the public sectors, officially aimed at improving the socioeconomic position of the bumiputera and appeasing the Malay majority by granting them a constitutionally enshrined privileged status over Malaysian citizens who are Chinese or Indians. Although originally presented as a temporary solution to interethnic tensions, the policy has remained in force for decades and has been described as a form of institutionalised racism.

The Malaysian Indian Congress (abbrev: MIC; Malay: Kongres India Se-Malaysia), formerly known as Malayan Indian Congress, is a Malaysian political party.

Founded in 1946 to advocate for Indian independence from British colonial rule, it turned its focus to the struggle for independence of Malaya (now Malaysia). It positioned itself to represent the Indian community in Malaya and was a founding member of the Alliance along with the United Malays National Organisation and Malaysian Chinese Association, which later became Barisan Nasional.

The indigenous languages of Malaysia belong to the Mon-Khmer and Malayo-Polynesian families. The national, or official, language is Malay which is the mother tongue of the majority Malay ethnic group. The main ethnic groups within Malaysia are the Bumiputera (which consist of Malays, Orang Asli, and, natives of East Malaysia), Arab Malaysians, Malaysian Chinese and Malaysian Indians, with many other ethnic groups represented in smaller numbers, each with their own languages. The largest native languages spoken in East Malaysia are the Iban, Dusunic, and Kadazan languages. English is widely understood and spoken within the urban areas of the country; the English language is a compulsory subject in primary and secondary education. It is also the main medium of instruction within most private colleges and private universities. English may take precedence over Malay in certain official contexts as provided for by the National Language Act, especially in the states of Sabah and Sarawak, where it may be the official working language. Furthermore, the law of Malaysia is commonly taught and read in English, as the unwritten laws of Malaysia continue to be partially derived from pre-1957 English common law, which is a legacy of past British colonisation of the constituents forming Malaysia. In addition, authoritative versions of constitutional law and statutory law (written laws of Malaysia) are continuously available in both Malay and English.

Malaysia contains speakers of 137 living languages, 41 of which are found in Peninsular Malaysia. The government provides schooling at the primary level in each of the three major languages, Malay, Mandarin and Tamil. Within Malay and Tamil there are a number of dialectal differences. There are a number of Chinese languages native to the ethnic Han Chinese who originated from Southern China, which include Yue, Min and Hakka Chinese.

Traditional Malaysian art is primarily composed of Malay art and Bornean art, is very similar with the other styles from Southeast Asia, such as Bruneian, Indonesian and Singaporean. Art has a long tradition in Malaysia, with Malay art that dating back to the Malay sultanates, has always been influenced by Chinese, Indian and Islamic arts, and also present, due to large population of Chinese and Indian in today's Malaysian demographics.

Colonialism also brought other art forms, such as Portuguese dances and music. During this era, influences from Portuguese, Dutch, and the British, were also visible especially in terms of fashion and architecture in many colonial towns of Malaya and Borneo such as Penang, Malacca, Kuala Lumpur, Kuching and Jesselton. Despite the influences of aboard, the indigenous art of Malaysia continues to survive among the Orang Asli of peninsular and numerous ethnic groups in Sarawak and Sabah.