How do ethnic minority communities react to ‘development’ policies introduced by post-colonial governments which suddenly take away their ‘identity’, ‘home’, place of worship, and their place in history? In Tamils and the haunting of justice, the doyen of Malaysian Tamil Studies, Andrew Willford, aims to capture and understand ‘the predicament of Tamils’ in the face of the Malaysian state's policy of closing plantations and displacing their Tamil workers and dwellers in the name of development and progress. The Tamil plantation communities who have been and are being displaced have not only worked on these plantations, but have also lived in these plantations for three to four generations since the nineteenth century. Willford focuses on how the present generation of Tamil plantation workers in Malaysia, particularly in Selangor, react to the Malaysian government's housing development projects, which have an undeniable thread of ethnic bias woven into them. Through a collection of multiple everyday stories of the plantation Tamil community's engagements with the Malaysian government, Willford explores how the community has read, persevered and reacted to the precarious conditions brought on them by the government. Covering topics that range from housing compensation, the politicisation of religious beliefs, identity politics and riots, Tamils and the haunting of justice explores how the Tamils of Malaysia have persevered and shown resilience in the most precarious and politically restless situations.
Throughout the study, it is easy to see that the Tamil plantation community has been marginalised, victimised and orphaned by the Malaysian government. However, the author impressively resists the temptations of perceiving the Tamils just as ‘victims’. Willford follows the displaced plantation Tamils’ to record and study their efforts of recreating ‘home’, recreating ‘faith’ (read temples), negotiating ‘place’ for the education of their children. He then carefully weaves them together (without romanticising the Tamils’ agency) to reveal how the Tamils navigate through precarious situations by recreating their identity, history and end up claiming not only monetary compensations but simultaneously claim a recognition of their rightful belonging to a land they and their ancestors contributed to.
One of the most interesting observations that Willford makes in his efforts to explore the subaltern resilience in the face of precarity, is how Tamils engage with the state from a position of being economically, socially and politically powerless, by using the idea of spiritual power and ‘God's Power’ superseding the state's power. Through his careful ethnographic study, Willford exhibits how the Tamils counter, challenge and to some extent reject, the power of the state by placing man-made laws and rules against their belief and the figure of their Gods and temples. Thus, the Tamils not only establish that their religion is as crucial as that of the majority Malays, but simultaneously belittle and question the power of the state by emphasising that their temples are abodes of pure divine authority. In doing so, the community also highlights that the state's power is not only refutable but also replaceable.
Theoretically, the biggest contribution of the book comes through its attempt to understand ‘identity’ and ‘belongingness’. While the state and the law actively construct the Tamil plantation workers as moveable or disposable workers or in some cases ex-workers on plantations, the plantation Tamils have responded by actively (re)constructing their identity as makers of modern-day Malaysia. Drawing from the seminal work of Jacques Derrida, Willford convincingly shows how in the face of ethnic politics, displaced Tamils (re)act to the government by ‘remembering’ and archiving their past and contributions to Malaysia. In the process, the author pushes readers out of their comfort zone to (re)conceptualise identity, not as a given or certain category, but as a constructed reality, which is perennially uncertain. Thus, making identity ‘losable’ and attainable at the same time.
The book reads seamlessly regarding topics covered and the organisation of the chapters. It begins with a brief historical survey of rubber plantations and the Tamil labourers’ place in Malaysian history. Then the study goes on to explore what justifications were given by the Malaysian government to resettle Tamil plantation communities and how the community struggled first for compensation and then for recognition. Thereafter the author studies how Tamils engaged with ethnic and religious riots and how they continue to struggle with the popular insidious stereotyping of Tamils as violent gangsters and troublemakers. Throughout the study, Willford manages to engage the readers’ attention to the sentiment of resentment that Tamils harbour towards the ‘others’ who have constantly ‘created’ the Malaysian Tamil identity according to demands of the changing sociopolitical contexts. In the concluding chapter, it is interesting to see how Willford completes a full circle by highlighting the way the identity of Tamils was once created by the colonial state as ‘docile’, and later how the same Tamil identity has now been re-created by the post-colonial state as violent and chaotic troublemakers. Hence, all the chapters, while exploring different aspects of displaced Tamils’ engagement with the state, remain beautifully tied to the main focus of the book, i.e., the idea of creating and (re)creating an identity.
However, one aspect of the book that could raise concerns for many of us who study the Indian community in Malaya/Malaysia is that the author at times risks overplaying race as a monolithic and singular category. For instance, many race-based attitudes from Malays and Chinese, particularly ones discussed in chapters 7 and 10, although popular, are not representative of all Malays and Chinese in Malaysia. In fact, there are many Indians and even Tamils who have ‘betrayed’ the plantation Tamils in Malaysia, something that Carl V. Belle brings out in his recent publication, Tragic orphans: Indians in Malaysia (ISEAS, 2015). Also, as readers, perhaps many of us are left craving to know more at the end of the book. While Willford addresses myriad ways in which Tamils have negotiated the process of ethnic-based marginalisation and displacement in Malaysia, readers are left guessing about what is really being done for the displaced Tamils by the Indian political parties, the various non-governmental organisations, or do they remain, as Belle argues, ‘orphaned’ by everyone? That said, Willford deserves to be congratulated, as through his anthropological study he also contributes to the larger field of history by showcasing how subalterns participate in recording history by actively and consciously ‘archiving’ and engaging in memory-making.
Tamils and the haunting of justice is a timely, authoritative and compelling book, suitable not just for scholars and general readers of Malaysian society and politics. Stories of loss and resilience through precarity are found worldwide and are indeed the stories which become relatable and connectors in international studies and world history. Thus, this study of how the Tamil plantation community in Selangor engaged with their loss of home, of identity, of ethnic space, makes it an appealing read for all who are interested in marginalisation, ethnic politics, subaltern politics, identity and migration. Through this book, Willford has no doubt set new standards for studying the everyday interactions of minority communities in their post-colonial societies and governments in Southeast Asia and beyond.
