#malaya

“Caste Hindus on plantations strengthened caste hierarchies by imposing distance and proximity rules on Dalits during religious festivals and in plantation temples and schools. This would have been facilitated by the fact that most head kanganies were from higher caste groups and would often use their close association with religious affairs on the plantation to reinforce the symbolic dominance of their caste and kinsmen.

The higher caste coolies on a plantation were usually in charge of temple affairs and the appointment of priests. Dalit identities were also reinforced on the plantation through the inclusion of ritual occupations that were considered unclean in the cultural life of plantation workers. Pariahs, for example, would be paid to beat drums to ward off evil spirits during funerals, Vannans would wash soiled clothes, and Ampattans would moonlight as barbers. These symbolic occupations went so far in entreching Dalit identity that in later decades Adi Dravida youth and Tamil reformers who were seeking to uplift the social status of former “untouchables” would make a special effort to eliminate these practices.

The ways in which plantation societies managed to accommodate caste differences, and the ritual separation of Hindus into “untouchable and non untouchable”, explain why caste divisions survived for as long as they did in many parts of Malaya.”

- A Subaltern History of the Indian in Singapore, by John Solomon