Fighting for Identity

Ethnic Indians in Malaysia demand for a fair share of the nation's wealth:

Malaysian Tamils, descendants of 19th-century indentured labourers from Tamil Nadu, last showed their anger in 1941 when thousands of rubber plantation workers downed their tools in the district of Klang, some 30 km east of the capital Kuala Lumpur, to protest against hardship and low wages.

Now nearly seven decades later, an estimated 20,000 Tamils protested in a big way again on November 25, condemning official discrimination, inhumane treatment and demanding a fair share of the nation’s wealth. “Official discrimination and neglect has severely marginalised us,” says Uthayakumar Ponnusamy, a lawyer and the man behind the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf), the organiser of the protest.