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    The Chitty Melaka Story, Second Edition
    The Chitty Melaka Story, Second Edition
    The Chitty Melaka Story, Second Edition
    Ebook169 pages1 hour

    The Chitty Melaka Story, Second Edition

    By Gerald Pillay

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    About this ebook

    It is a history of the Chitty Melaka (as known as Chetty Malacca) community. They originated in Sultanate times in Malacca when Hindu Tamil traders began settling down with the Malay (and later Chinese) ladies, leading to creation of this unique "Peranakan Indian" community, who have since outlasted four colonial powers. Today, they live in many parts of Malaysia and in Singapore, with a growing overseas diaspora. The nucleus of the cmmunity still live at Kampung Chetti or Tujoh in Gajah Berang, Melaka, Malaysia on community land, where they continue to manage the many Hindu temples they built over the years. The book also touches on their dispersion, their changing composition, and their future identity.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGerald Pillay
    Release dateDec 31, 2018
    ISBN9789811178450
    The Chitty Melaka Story, Second Edition
    Author

    Gerald Pillay

    Gerald Francis Pillay was born in Melaka (then Malacca), Malaysia on 2 Dec 1934. His paternal family migrated to Singapore in 1949. He is married and has two sons and one grandson.He was educated at St Francis’ Institution, Malacca and St Joseph’s Institution, Singapore. He studied at theUniversity of Malaya (then in Singapore), where he was a University Scholar. He won the Economics BookPrize (1956) and graduated with the B.A. Honours Upper II in Geography (1957).Mr. Pillay served in the Singapore Administrative Service from 1957. He was Deputy Secretary (TechnicalEducation) in the Ministry of Education when in 1974 he transferred to the newly formed Industrial TrainingBoard as Secretary. He retired in 1989 as the Deputy Director (Deputy CEO) of the board, which hadenlarged to become the Vocational and Industrial Training Board – predecessor of the present Institute ofTechnical Education. Altogether he had 33 years in the public service.In 1989, he formed GFP Consultancy. For another 17 years, until his second retirement in 2006, hepractised as a consultant in Technical Education, serving international agencies such as theWorld Bank, UNDP, UNESCO and ILO, employers and employers’ organisations. In 1992-3,Mr. Pillay served on Botswana’s Presidential National Commission on Education.Mr. Pillay was Aide-de-Camp (Extra) to Tun Yusof bin Ishak, Yang di Pertuan Negara (Head of State),Singapore, 1961-64

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      Book preview

      The Chitty Melaka Story, Second Edition - Gerald Pillay

      The Chitty Melaka Story

      Gerald F Pillay

      Second Edition

      Copyright 2018 Pillay Gerald Francis

      Smashwords Edition

      * * *

      National Library Board, Singapore Cataloguing in Publication Data

      Name(s): Pillay, Gerald Francis, 1934-

      Title: The Chitty Melaka Story / Gerald F Pillay.

      Description: Second Edition. | Singapore : Pillay, Gerald Francis, 2018.

      Includes bibliographical references.

      Identifier(s): OCN 1057465911 |

      ISBN 978-981-11-7845-0 (e-book)

      Subject(s): LCSH:

      Peranakan (Asian people)-Malaysia-Malacca (State)-History.

      Peranakan (Asian people)-Singapore-History. |

      Peranakan (Asian people)-Malaysia-Malacca (State--Social life and customs.

      Peranakan (Asian people)-Singapore-Social life and customs.

      Classification: DDC 305.89510595--dc23

      * * *

      About the Book

      Chapter 1 - Our History provides an historical overview of the Chitty Melaka community (also spelt Chetty Malacca or Chetti Melaka). It does so through descriptive snapshots covering their beginnings in Sultanate times through their different sojourns under four colonial powers. The whole period totals over five hundred years.

      Chapter 2 - Who We Are deals with the present time. It touches on their dispersion into other parts of Malaysia, Singapore and overseas, their changing composition, and questions of their future identity. One of the latter relates to them as Peranakan Indians.

      There is a Postscript on Strategies for the Future, added in this edition.

      Appendices

      Appendix 1 - About the Indian Peranakan (Chitty Melaka) Association Singapore

      Appendix 2 - Bibliography.

      * * *

      COPYRIGHT: Pillay Gerald Francis, 2018

      Smashwords Edition.

      This document may be reproduced in part (but not in full) with due acknowledgement

      Users of the photographs are independently responsible for clearing possible copyright obligations through the references given; in the case of family photographs, with the undersigned.

      Where websites are quoted, users are likewise independently responsible for clearing any obligations therein.

      - The Publisher

      * * *

      Sponsored by

      MLA Pte Ltd, Singapore

      http://www.mla.com.sg

      Published at Smashwords by

      Pillay, Gerald Francis

      139A Lor 1A Toa Payoh

      #01-48, The Peak

      Singapore 311139

      Email: gfpillay@singet.com.sg

      Prepared for e-publication by

      Serene Chen and

      Jennifer Yeong, of

      MLA Pte Ltd

      45 Tessensohn Road

      Singapore, 217662

      PREFACE

      This work began as random searches on the Internet. Soon it became an abiding quest. My object became to see the Story of the Chitty Melaka as a whole, over the years.

      What this volume does is it brings together information not previously found in one place, and connects them up. It is a map for further exploration.

      This is not a work of rigorous scholarship. Website sources are cited wherever relevant, but no attempt is made to authenticate every statement found. It is an informal exercise, and in some places personal, a work of love. I make no apology for background digressions and over-indulgence in historical and family detail. Much of it has been new to me.

      To isolate the Chitty Melaka component, I have made reasoned assumptions about the distribution of the historical estimates and statistics of Melaka’s population among the communities. Future researchers will undoubtedly refine or correct these assumptions and the picture accordingly.

      To see the life of the community at different times, I have freely applied both surmise and imagination.

      Special Mention

      I cannot express enough my thanks and praise for the website of Sabri Zain entitled Sejarah Melayu [1], from which I drew much material. Its Library is a gold-mine – it archives a most astonishing, incredible and priceless collection of original source materials on our history.

      I strongly recommend it.

      Gerald Pillay

      * * *

      PREFACE

      TO THE SECOND EDITION

      The First Edition of this work (ISBN 978-981-11-7851) was issued in paperback on 6 Sep 2018 under the auspices of the Peranakan Indian (Chitty Melaka) Association Singapore, and included coverage of the Association.

      This Second Edition is issued independently as an e-publication. It confines itself to the historical content of the Chitty Melaka Story, with a Postscript on Strategies For The Future added.

      With the permission of the President, Major (Retd). Ponno Kalastree, I have included in Appendix I - About the Association containing his input in Part III of the original edition.

      Gerald Pillay

      * * *

      ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

      Firstly, my thanks go to Major (Retd) Ponnosamy Kalastree (affectionately known as Ponno), President of the Peranakan Indian (Chitty Melaka) Association Singapore for his leadership of the community and his keen personal interest in this work.

      Next, I wish to express my gratitude to the Association for joining with me in the release of the First Edition (paperback) under its auspices, incorporating information about the Association.

      In terms of content, my thanks go to David Bok, truly the catalyst within our community, for his valuable inputs and advice, and for editing the text. I would like to add here my warmest appreciation to Panniruky Perumal, for his painstaking research to update the Pillay family history and making the same available to me. I also thank Sanasee Philips Roy for his contributions in this respect.

      Next, my very special thanks go to my two sons, Leslie and Carl Pillay. Firstly, I thank them for believing in their Chitty Melaka heritage. Secondly, I thank them for encouraging me to undertake this project. And thirdly, I thank them for supporting the work through their company, MLA. In all this, they have demonstrated the true spirit, and been worthy examples, of the next generation Chitty Melaka. I could not be prouder. I am equally proud knowing that Deirdre Goh and Sharon Loh, their respective wives, fully share my sentiments. Finally, I thank MLA Pte Ltd for its sponsorship of this publication, both in the original First Edition in paperback and in its Second Edition as an e-publication.

      It is opportune that I here also place on record my deepest appreciation to Serene Chen and Jennifer Yeong of MLA, who between them did the cover design, graphics and the total layout and production of this document to the final stage, for both editions.

      I also extend my warmest thanks to Nalina Gopal, Curator, Indian Heritage Centre, National Heritage Board, for her many acts of guidance and assistance. I hope the Centre will find this book a meaningful addition to the growing literature on the Chitty Melaka.

      Gerald F Pillay

      * * *

      DEDICATION

      I wish to extend my heartfelt love and thanks to my dear wife, Mabel, for her unfailing encouragement, loyalty and support in this undertaking, and indeed in all that I do. This work is dedicated to her.

      It is also dedicated to Christian Lowen Pillay, our grandson, 12 years of age, for whom it is primarily written.

      Gerald

      * * *

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      Editorial Notes: Nomenclature of Chitty Melaka, Footnotes

      CHAPTER 1 – OUR HISTORY

      Beginnings

      The Sultanate Years

      The Portuguese Years

      The Dutch Years

      The British Years

      The Japanese Occupation

      CHAPTER 2 – WHO WE ARE

      Who We Are

      Where We Are

      The Singapore Diaspora

      Future Horizons

      POSTSCRIPT

      Strategies for the Future

      APPENDICES

      Appendix 1 - About the Indian Peranakan (Chitty Melaka) Association Singapore

      Appendix II - Bibliography

      Footnotes

      About The Author

      Related Writings of the Author.

      First Edition

      * * *

      INDEX OF TABLES

      Table 1. Estimated Breakdown, Population of Malacca, 1613

      Table 2. Estimated Breakdown, Population of Malacca, 1641 (Post-Dutch conquest)

      Table 3. Populations of the Dutch East Indies (including Malacca), 1680

      Table 4. Estimated Breakdown, Population of Malacca, 1795

      Table 5. Census of Population Straits Settlements Abstract, Population of Malacca, 1881-91

      Table 6. No of Chitty Melaka in Melaka, Survey by Mr. K Narinasamy, Sep1976

      Table 7. No of Chitty Melaka Outside Melaka, Survey by Mr. K Narinasamy, Sep1976

      Table 8. Chitty Melaka Families in Singapore, Gross Numbers, 2012-4

      Table 9. Chitty Melaka Families in Singapore, Inter-Marriage and Emigration, 2012-4

      Table 10. Chitty Melaka Families in Singapore, Inter-Marriage, Ethnicity of Spouse, 2012-4

      Table 11. Chitty Melaka Families in Singapore, Emigration, by Destination, 2012-4

      * * *

      Editorial Notes

      1. Nomenclature of Chitty Melaka

      There have been various spellings of our community’s name. In my original documents of Part I, I used Chetty Malacca, with which I grew up. The Association originally used the term Chetti Melaka, which was what was used at their 2014 Symposium. The term used in their most recent (2017) constitution, as also in that of the community’s association in Kuala Lumpur, is Chitty Melaka. In the Melaka constitution it is Chitti Melaka. The Indian Heritage Centre, Singapore uses Chetti Melaka.

      For this publication, I have standardised it to the current Association practice, which is also the form used by the Department of Museums, Malaysia in their landmark 2017 publication, Chitties of Melaka.

      Nevertheless, as Part I is an historical account, I have retained therein the historical name Malacca

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