Firstly, we are Malaysians and Singaporeans first because we have been here for three generations or more. Therefore we do not come under the patriotic Indians as we are patriotic Malaysians and Singaporeans.

Most of us have lost contact with relatives in India and have formed our own large families in Malaysia and Singapore. Take me for instance. My widowed maternal great grandmother came to Malaya (as it was known back then) in the early 20th century with 2 daughters, one of whom was my grandma. We do not have much contact with the children of my grandma’s sister — it got lost along the way. My grandma had 11 children of whom each had an average of 4 children and their kids had an average of three children — so that family has really grown! If for a function we just invite the relatives from my grandma’s side it will easily number more than 100! That’s not counting the relatives of those who had married into different families. We have never had the need to go back to India to look for spouses as there are enough Indian Malaysians from various ethnic Indians (like Malayalees, Tamils, Telugus, Punjabis, Gujeratis etc) to fill up the quota. Interestingly, after more than 100 years of Indian in Malaysia, generally each ethnic group marries within its own group although mixed marriages between the different ethnic Indian groups in Malaysia is more common now than 30 years ago.

I read your blog about thinking in one’s mother tongue. The huge difference between what happens to the NRI and his mother tongue in the West and in Malaysia and Singapore is not due to the brain adopting to the foreign culture and the dominant language around us. If that was the case, then Indian Malaysians should be thinking and speaking more in Malay as more than 60 percent of the population is Malay. In Singapore since more than 70 percent of the population is Chinese, Indian Singaporeans should be thinking and speaking in Mandarin, which is not the case.

The situation in Malaysia and Singapore is due more to the perception of the Indians that English is a a far superior language; it is an international language — the language that opens economic doors. Plus, it is widely believed that it is more prestigious to speak in that language than in one’s own mother tongue. Some parents worried that their kids won’t be able to speak good English (in Malaysia the education system is in Malay, which increased the paranoia among Indian Malaysians about the possibility of their children not being able to converse in English. In Singapore the education system is in English. That should give enough confidence for the parents to speak mother tongue at home but that is not the case either. One good thing about Singapore’s education system is that it has insisted on the child learning its mother tongue so you will find some Indian Singaporeans who score A in Tamil in A level and still not be able to speak well in that language!), insist on speaking English at home so that the kids speak it well. And these parents do not lose sleep over the fact that the mother tongue is lost.

I predict that if this trend continues, in about 50 years or less, we will have Indian Malaysians in Malaysia but not the Indian languages especially among the urban middle and upper middle class. The Indian language and culture will only be alive among the lower income group. The urban middle class is in danger of becoming “black skinned white man” or as they say in Tamil karuppu tholz vellai karan.

And another thing: the majority of Indians in Malaysia and Singapore are from South India especially Tamil Nadu. So Bollywood although is available here and is enjoyed does not rule…it is Tamil films that rule here! So maybe in your website instead of just Bollywood, you should also make room for regional movies especially those from the South.