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The Five Generations of Telugus
in
Malaysia-
Adari Appanna
Naidu
This paper is
dedicated to the first and second generation Telugus
for their
boldness, bravery, strength, dedication, benevolence and love
The migration of
Telugus to this country first took place during the period of the Sri
Vijaya Empire in the 15th Century. This period saw the coming
in of Telugus from East Coast of Andhra namely from Kalingapatnam as
traders. Historical factors indicate some of them would have settled
around Kedah and Malacca.
The second and perhaps
the largest migration took place from 1895 to 1950 with the opening of
plantations by the British in Malaya and their need for work-force to
develop their plantations. The British targeted India for their
workforce as it was administratively easier to get the required
man-power from a British territory. The poor economic conditions at home
also acted as a push factor for Telugus from the port town of
Vishakapatnam, to seek for greener pastures. Most of the Telugus were
from villages surrounding Vishakapatnam, Anakapalli, Srikakulam, and
Vijayanagaram. It is also interesting to note that some of the Telugus
who decided to migrate to Malaysia were those who had working experience
in either South Africa or Burma. Most migration of these Telugus took
place under the ‘Kangany or the Thandelu System’ where the British
planters sent the Kanganies to their respective villages to recruit the
work-force for which they were compensated. It is evident that the
Kanganies found it easier to convince their own relatives or people of
their own-caste or village to travel thousands of miles, beyond wide
seas for their livelihood. They had to travel form Vizag port by ship
for 7 days to reach the West Coast of peninsular Malaysia. Most of the
Telugu population settled in estates around Kedah, Perak, Selangor,
Negeri Sembilan and Johore as follows:-
Please write to tlsbhaskar at gmail
dot com for complete version of paper. The paper will be sent with the
email copied to author.
Length of the paper: 9 pages in MS
Word
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