Dislodging imperial crates of subalternity: A study of the representations of the Indian coolie experience of colonial Malaya

Abstract

In this thesis, I investigate the representation of a particular subalterncommunity in Malaysiaa??s history, the Indian immigrants of her colonial past.I begin by tracing their presence within the circumference of colonialnarrativisation and uncover the ideology of subalternity that is dominantwithin their discursive frameworks. I then move on to show how postcolonialre-visioning of this very community reclaims the ground of subalternity andinvests the Indian immigrant with a sense of agency. My concern is thusprimarily with colonial disempowerment and post-colonial re-empowerment ofthe Indian immigrant community of Malaya within the space of narrativity. I plan ultimately to unpack the various dimensions of the Indian immigrant experience in Malaysia and to bring it to the fore of the wider scholarship of the diasporic community as a key text that reflects the polemics of Malaysian Indian identity and its definitions and re-definitions.