Indonesia and the Malay World
ISSN: 1363-9811 (Print) 1469-8382 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cimw20
JAWA, MELAYU, MALAY OR OTHERWISE?
Ronit Ricci
To cite this article: Ronit Ricci (2016): JAWA, MELAYU, MALAY OR OTHERWISE?, Indonesia and
the Malay World, DOI: 10.1080/13639811.2016.1219491
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13639811.2016.1219491
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INDONESIA AND THE MALAY WORLD, 2016
VOL. 44, NO. 130, 1–15
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13639811.2016.1219491
RESEARCH NOTES
JAWA, MELAYU, MALAY OR OTHERWISE?
The shifting nomenclature of the Sri Lankan Malays
Ronit Ricci
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY
The community known today as the Sri Lankan Malays traces its Received 12 June 2016
roots to political exiles, convicts, servants and soldiers sent to Accepted 13 July 2016
colonial Ceylon by the Dutch East India Company from the late
17th to the late 18th century and by the British after their takeover
of the island in 1796. These ancestors of today’s community came
from diverse linguistic, cultural and class backgrounds across the
Indonesian archipelago and, to a lesser extent, the Malay
Peninsula. Among the early exiles, for example, were kings and
princes from south Sulawesi, Madura and Java, while soldiers in
the early 19th century were recruited mostly from villages on the
Peninsula. This variegated group was not always known as
’Malays.’ Drawing on archival sources, memoires and interviews
this article attempts to trace the history of Sri Lankan Malay
nomenclature by exploring how members of the group referred
to themselves, how others (in the colonial and postcolonial
periods) have referred to them, and how ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’
perceptions of the community interact and impact shifting
naming practices and, with them, shifting identities.
Considering Malay life in Sri Lanka challenges some deep-rooted perceptions of the Indo-
nesian-Malay world in terms of geographical boundaries, circulation routes and linguistic
continuity. Situated in a region now defined as South Asia, comprising a minuscule min-
ority within a predominantly Buddhist and Hindu society and speaking a Malay strongly
inflected by Sinhala and Tamil, Sri Lankan Malays seem far removed from what might be
termed a ‘Malay mainstream’ and the ‘Malay heartlands’. And yet, a community that today
identifies as Malay or Melayu represents more than 300 years of a complex history, much
of which is still little explored and understood.1
In this article I wish to engage with a particular dimension of this history, examining
shifting and overlapping nomenclatures employed to refer to the community. Drawing
CONTACT Ronit Ricci ronit.ricci@mail.huji.ac.il
1
The use of ‘community’ is not without its problems, since such terms are rarely simply descriptive. This point is discussed
by Muller (2014) in his insightful ‘Manufacturing Malayness’, where he traces the consequential fluidity of alternately
describing the Malays as a linguistic group, a race and a nation in early British discourses on the subject. Throughout
my research in Sri Lanka the term ‘community’ was most commonly used by the Malays I met when speaking of
their collective identity, and I have therefore adopted it here. There were approximately 44,000 Sri Lankan Malays in
2012 (Department of Census and Statistics, 2015).
© 2016 Editors, Indonesia and the Malay World
2 R. RICCI
on manuscript and print archival sources, place names and conversations, I explore how
members of the group referred to themselves over time, how others (in colonial and post-
colonial periods) have referred to them, and how ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’ perceptions inter-
act and impact shifting naming practices and, with them, shifting identities and
understandings of the past and the present.2 My research is currently preliminary and cir-
cumscribed and cannot do justice to the range of questions raised by exploring the com-
plexities of Malay nomenclature history in Sri Lanka. My aim is to constitute a first step in
considering this often elusive but consequential topic.
In thinking about Malay nomenclature in Sri Lanka, there are two particular issues that
aroused my interest at the outset. The first is, how did a group like the Malays, possessing
as they do a diverse ethnic, linguistic and religious past, come to be masked by the unifying
terms Malay and Ja (Sinhala and Tamil for ‘Java’ or ‘Javanese’), the two most commonly
used appellations at present? We might suggest that both ‘Malay’ and ‘Javanese’ are to a
certain degree misnomers for a group with such diverse ancestry. Using ‘Indonesian’, a
more accurate term in today’s context, would be anachronistic and, consequently, is a des-
ignation the community has little or no attachment to. My point, however, is certainly not
to assess what the ‘correct’ nomenclature should have been or should be but to raise ques-
tions about this shifting nomenclature, its imposition from without and adoption from
within during different periods, and its relationship to a sense of belonging, community
and place.
The second question has to do with whether my impression, that Malays and non-
Malays in Sri Lanka refer to the community using different names, is valid and if so,
why? Below I briefly address these two matters, albeit in a tentative manner.
Sri Lankan Malays: a very brief introduction
The history of the present ‘Malay’ community in Sri Lanka goes back to the middle of the
17th century, following the foundation of Dutch rule in the island.3 The Dutch East India
Company (VOC) had a military and economic presence in parts of the Indonesian archi-
pelago at the time, with its headquarters in Batavia, and people from the archipelago were
often sent for a range of reasons to other colonial territories like Ceylon or the Cape of
Good Hope.
The ancestors of today’s Sri Lankan Malay community came from diverse backgrounds.
Many were of Javanese or east Indonesian ancestry, deported to Ceylon by the Dutch as
political exiles and convicts, sent there in various capacities to serve the Dutch, or recruited
as soldiers to colonial armies, both Dutch and, after the 1796 takeover, British.
Some of the political exiles in the late 17th, and especially throughout the 18th century
were members of ruling families in their home country. For example, the Javanese king
Amangkurat III of Mataram was exiled along with his retinue in 1708 after a bitter struggle
over the throne with his uncle, the future Pakubuwana I; the twenty-sixth king of Gowa in
south Sulawesi, Sultan Fakhruddin, was exiled in 1767 on charges of conspiring with the
2
The question of Malay identity has been the topic of heated debates and important scholarship in recent years although
the Sri Lankan Malays often remain unmentioned or are mentioned only briefly in these writings. For critical scholarship
on Malayness see, for example, Aljunied (2009); Barnard (2004); Kahn (2006); Milner (2008); Vickers (1997).
3
I employ Ceylon throughout when discussing the colonial period. The country’s name was officially changed to Sri Lanka in
1972 although ‘Lanka’ had been used to refer to the island since ancient times.
INDONESIA AND THE MALAY WORLD 3
British to oppose the VOC trading monopoly in eastern Indonesia.4 Also exiled during the
18th century were, among others, the prince of Bantam, crown prince of Tidore and the
king of Kupang. Another important figure exiled by the Dutch even earlier (1684) was
Sheikh Yusuf of Makassar, a leader, religious scholar and ‘saint’ from Sulawesi. Such pro-
minent figures had followers who joined them in exile and often also a local following in
Ceylon. Some members of the community eventually returned to their places of origin.
Thus, for example, after the aforementioned King Amangkurat III’s death in Ceylon fol-
lowing almost 30 years of exile, his descendants and servants were repatriated in 1734 to
Java, where the king’s body was reburied in the royal cemetery at Imogiri.5 Many others,
however, stayed, married in Ceylon and lived out their lives there, from choice or lack of it.
An important occupation for the Malay population was service in the Dutch army and,
after the British take over, in the British forces. In colonial sources, the Malays are often
depicted as ferocious, cruel, courageous and vindictive and their practice of running amok
was feared and admired.6 In the early 19th century a special regiment was formed by the
first British Governor, Frederick North (1798–1805) for the Malay soldiers and it
remained active until 1873, when it was disbanded. A significant relationship, first
pointed out by Hussainmiya (1990), existed between life in this Regiment and Malay lit-
erary culture. For example, members of the Regiment copied classical Malay works and
also wrote their own stories and poems, especially in the form of pantun and syair; the
literature’s principal promoters and audiences were related, in one way or another, to
the Regiment; members of the Regiment conducted lessons for Malay children, ensuring
they were literate in Malay written in the Jawi script; soldiers who travelled to Malaya and
Singapore on assignment served as a bridge between the community in Ceylon and the
large Malay centres to the east by sustaining a circulation of ideas, texts, and people
amongst them (Hussainmiya 1990).
Nomenclature history
The appellations used to identify the Sri Lankan community have shifted over time. The
designation ‘Malay’ was commonly used by the British since their arrival in 1796 to refer to
members of the community, and was based first and foremost on their collective language.
The name received added currency when new arrivals came from the British settlements of
Malaya and Singapore to join the Regiment during the 19th century.
During the 17th and 18th centuries the Dutch referred to the group as ‘the Easterners’
(Oosterlingen), another blanket term, like Malay, that did not hint at the diversity of their
home regions.7 According to Hussainmiya (1987), this tendency reflected the fact that
many of the ‘Easterners’ had been living in Batavia (to the east of Ceylon) before
coming to Ceylon and so may have developed a sense of community and shared identity
that reflected that experience rather than their individual, geographically diverse back-
grounds. However, the designation ‘Javanese’ (Javaans) was also used in some Dutch
sources and could suggest that Javanese people formed a majority within the community
in its formative stages or, again, that with many coming from Batavia (situated on Java), it
4
On this episode and its consequences for the Sultan’s family living in Ceylon see Suryadi (2008).
5
For a study of this event as depicted in Javanese sources see Ricci (2016).
6
For a contemporary depiction of the Malays through British eyes see Percival (1803: 146–66).
7
See, for example Political Council Minutes, 30.8.1736. National Archive of Sri Lanka, SLNA 1/73.
4 R. RICCI
indicated their site of departure to Ceylon (Hussainmiya 1987: 55–7). Yet some sources
point to people of more specifically, rather than broadly defined, Javanese, as well as
other Indonesian origins, linked by a collective identity. In his early (1672) account of
life in Ceylon the Dutch Reverend Phillipus Baldaeus depicted in great detail many of
the battles between the Portuguese and the Dutch, and repeatedly mentioned various cat-
egories of soldiers fighting on both sides, among them the Javanese (Javanen) and Banda-
nese (Bandanezen).8
Another example of defined places of origin is found in the customary document that
Librecht Hooreman, outgoing commander of Jaffna, wrote in 1748 for his successor Jacob
de Jong. Outlining developments during his tenure and challenges for the future, he men-
tioned two particular individuals:
Lastly, I mention here that two persons are confined to this Castle as Prisoners of State viz.
Bantams Pangerang [Prince] Diepa Coesoema and the Madura Prince Radin Tomogon Rana
Diningrat. The followers of the former consist of three men and three women and that of the
latter two men and two women … 9
(K.D Paranavitana 2009: 50)
Here specific sites are again indicated: Bantam (Banten) in west Java and the island of
Madura.
A unifying Malayness?
In light of the diasporic history of the Sri Lankan Malays and their diverse roots in the
Indonesian archipelago, one might expect at least some echoes, in speech or in writing,
of Indonesian languages other than Malay to emerge in Sri Lanka. We might ask what hap-
pened to the multiple languages brought there by exiles, soldiers and servants, among
them Madurese, Buginese, Sundanese, Javanese, Balinese and others? Were they entirely
forgotten over time? Is the use of the appellation Malay an expression of a kind of
amnesia, a complete adherence to the Malay language at the expense of all others?
These are intriguing questions and much further study is needed before satisfactory
answers emerge. A recently discovered manuscript, however, offers a hint of what may
yet be uncovered. The manuscript, a compendium made up of a range of texts of
various lengths, lists and several diagrams, contains several sections in Javanese. It thus
offers evidence attesting to the preservation to some degree of an Indonesian language
besides Malay by the descendants of earlier generations, perhaps going back to the early
exiles, many of whom were members of Javanese royal families or their servants. The Java-
nese appearing in the manuscript, written between 1803–1831, includes two brief self-
standing Javanese texts, a Javanese translation of an Arabic hadith, and individual Javanese
words scattered throughout the manuscript.10
8
Baldaeus (1960). For mention of Javanese soldiers see, for example, pp. 147, 225, 226, 279; for soldiers from Banda see
pp. 147, 162, 225.
9
For the Dutch original and an English translation see K.D Paranavitana (2009). I thank Professor Paranavitana for calling my
attention to this reference (personal communication, February 2012). The information contained in such passages has
historical significance that goes beyond the nomenclature question. Ranadiningrat, the Madurese prince mentioned
by Hooreman, is most likely the son of Cakradiningrat IV, the king of Madura who was exiled to the Cape while his
sons Ranadiningrat and Sosrodiningrat were exiled to Ceylon, see Zainalfattah (1951: 154).
10
I thank B.D.K Saldin, the manuscript’s owner, for allowing me access to it.
INDONESIA AND THE MALAY WORLD 5
The most striking Javanese text among these examples, both because it is complete and
because of its content and the associations it evokes, is a well known poem titled Kidung
Rumeksa ing Wengi (A song guarding in the night) that, as the title implies, offers its reciter
protection from all dangers and evil lurking in the darkness, including jinn, sheytan, fire,
water, thieves and others. The poem is traditionally attributed to Sunan Kalijaga, the 15th-
century leader of the Javanese wali sanga, the nine ‘saints’ to whom is credited the conver-
sion of Java to Islam. Accordingly it echoes powerfully with foundational events of the
Javanese past.
In the same manuscript additional evidence is found that points to the larger picture
hidden beneath the unifying cloak of Malay. The name of its owner appears as Enci Sulai-
man ibn ‘Abd al-Jalil, a man who described himself as hailing from Ujung Pandang in the
land of Makassar, currently in the province of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Makassar was
also the homeland of the aforementioned Sheikh Yusuf, religious scholar, anti-Dutch
leader and among the most prominent individuals to be exiled to Ceylon by the Dutch.
Enci Sulaiman provided further, highly significant detail about his ancestry: he was des-
cended from Mas Haji ‘Abd Allah of the central Javanese kingdom of Mataram. The appel-
lation Melayu is nowhere mentioned.11
My final example here of a ‘Javanese connection’ in Sri Lankan Malay writing comes
from a late 19th-century manuscript titled Hikayat Tuan Gusti.12 This is a Malay render-
ing of the biography of the famed Sunan Giri, one of the proselytising wali who was active
in the eastern part of Java. The story is well known and possesses multiple versions in Java-
nese but is uncommon in Malay.13 This manuscript too signals an ongoing attachment to
Java and its history among the ‘Malays’ in British Ceylon. In this way the appellation Ja,
used by speakers of Tamil and Sinhala in Sri Lanka to refer to the community, echoes with
a Javanese consciousness on the island.
The links to Java, although not immediately apparent, are closer to the surface than
those to other parts of the archipelago, perhaps because of the high percentage of Javanese
among the early exiles, their elevated status and a longstanding written Javanese literary
tradition whose products could be transmitted to new surroundings. The very term
used for writing Malay in Sri Lanka employing a modified form of the Arabic script,
known across Southeast Asia as Jawi, is a Javanese one: gundhul.14 The mention of Makas-
sar, however, shows clearly that sites beyond Java were significant as well. Among them
was the small royal court (keraton) of Sumenep on the eastern tip of the island of
Madura, founded in the late 18th century.
An 1856 manuscript from Ceylon attests to its owner’s familial genealogy going back in
time to that site, declaring on its first page: bahwa kitab ini yang empunya Baba Ounus ibn
Kapitan Saldin, ibn Enci Pantasih, bangsa Sumenep (This religious treatise (kitab) belongs
to Baba Ounus Saldin, son of Captain Saldin, son of Enci Pantasih of Sumenep). The word
bangsa, which in modern Indonesian has come to refer almost exclusively to the nation,
had a much wider semantic field that encompassed a people, race, family or group, here
indicating a sense of belonging to a particular geographical and cultural locality. Other
11
For brief notes on this manuscript see Ricci (2012, 2014).
12
I thank B.A. Hussainmiya for providing me with a copy of Hikayat Tuan Gusti. For an expanded discussion of this Sri Lankan
Malay text see Ricci (2013).
13
The only other Malay version I am aware of is itself an interlinear translation from Javanese, see Cabaton (1906).
14
The term gundhul is employed in Java to refer to the writing of Javanese, not Malay, in the Arabic script.
6 R. RICCI
sources, especially letters and petitions written in exile, point to additional, far flung places
across the Indonesian-Malay world to which those classified as Malays felt a connection
and allegiance, and to which they often wished to return. For example, a letter written
in 1792 by two brothers, descendants of Sultan Bacan Muhamad Sah al-Din of the
island of Bacan in eastern Indonesia, beseeched the Dutch Governor and Council in
Batavia to allow them to leave Ceylon after living there for 12 years.15
So far I have attempted to show that, from the evidence found in Malay writing pre-
served in Sri Lanka, it is not obvious that the community would develop an exclusively
Malay affiliation.16 It seems, however, that with time, a process of moving towards a uni-
fying appellation took place, although how and why exactly is only partially known. If in
Dutch times the categories of Easterners and Javanese were dominant (with occasional
references to additional sub-groups, including Bandanese, Malays and uliyam,17 among
others), under the British the term Malay gained prominence, certainly in colonial
records. The British categorised the group based primarily on their collective language,
Malay, but also on the physical similarities they identified between them and the local
inhabitants in the newly founded British settlements in Malaya (Penang, 1786) and
later Singapore (1819). Malays were perceived as possessing features unique unto them-
selves, as Percival (1803) concluded when depicting the Malays he witnessed in Ceylon:
The religion, law, manners and customs of the Malays, as well as their dress, colour and
persons, differ very much from those of all the other inhabitants of Asia. The Malays of
the various islands and settlements also differ among themselves, according to the habits
and appearance of the nations among whom they are dispersed. Yet still they are all easily
distinguished to be of the Malay race.
(Percival 1803: 147; my emphasis, R.R.)
The use of ‘Malay’ certainly became more entrenched with the founding by Governor
North of the Ceylon Rifle Regiment, also known as the Malay Regiment, in which
many Malays served and which not only provided employment but also a shared sense
of commitment and community.18 Especially pertinent to further understanding of the
adoption of the designation Malay is the question of how interactions amongst colonial
administrators and scholars categorising the peoples of Ceylon and those peoples, in
this case, the Malays’ self definitions shaped the nomenclature over time.
Malay, Javanese, Jawi or otherwise?
I have considered some of the evidence of the range of affiliations available to community
members in the past. In the remainder of this article I wish to focus on the second, and
15
Cod LOr 2241-Ia (11), see Wieringa (1998: 365).
16
Also intriguing and highlighting the internal diversity of the Malays, both past and present, are their close contacts and
frequent inter-marriages with the Tamil-Muslim community, known as the Moors. In this context it is of note that, to the
best of my knowledge, no term corresponding to peranakan is used at present in Sri Lanka to describe the children born
of such marriages. The term, however, was used occasionally in the past to refer to individuals from the archipelago who
were of Chinese descent, as evident from Dutch records, see for example the request made by Peranakan Sinees Jan
Lochsien to the court in Galle, to return to Batavia (Political Council Minutes, 5.12.1776, SLNA 1/173). For a further
example see below. The Moors, like the Malays, have traditionally written their language in the Arabic script (known
as arwi). I consider the Arabic script, in some ways, as another homogenising cloak, like Malay, that has acted as a
unifier or standardiser that obscures a diversity of languages and backgrounds.
17
Uliyam refers to those performing unpaid labour, sometimes replaced by a monetary tax, in the service of local or foreign
rulers.
18
On the history of the Regiment see Hussainmiya (1990).
INDONESIA AND THE MALAY WORLD 7
related question of the gap, difference or perhaps overlap between the way the Malays refer
to themselves in their own language (and in English) and the way members of other com-
munities in Sri Lanka refer to them when speaking in Sinhala and Tamil. In post-colonial
Sri Lanka we must consider the group’s nomenclature within the context of four different
languages in this multi-lingual society: the ‘Malays’ are known as Ja minnusu or Ja in
Sinhala; Java manucar or Jakarar in Tamil; as Malai karar by the Moors (Tamil-speaking
Muslims); and they refer to themselves as Malay when speaking English and as Melayu
orang or orang Melayu when conversing in Sri Lankan Malay.19 My discussion is in no
way conclusive, based as it is on an informal set of conversations comprising a sample
that is far from representative. It is meant only to draw attention to a range of current
views on the nomenclature issue, pointing to its ongoing relevance.
The use of Ja – referring by some but not all present day accounts to a Javanese origin –
seems to represent an older term than Malay for the community, but why it has been
retained or what significance it has held is difficult to ascertain. Is there a disjuncture
between the two terms – Malay and Ja - or are they perhaps synonymous?
One important historical source of information in this context is the Alamat Langka-
puri, a pioneering Malay newspaper which was published fortnightly in Colombo in 1869–
1870. Edited and published by Baba Ounus Saldin, a notable community leader, it pro-
vided a venue for the dissemination of international and local news as well as a forum
for debate on important community issues. Firstly, I wish to note the choice of title for
the newspaper, which despite its novelty in the Malay world and its clear link to a specifi-
cally Malay audience, did not employ Melayu as an identity marker but rather highlighted
the Sanskritic place name, Langkapuri, emphasising a sense of rootedness, belonging,
permanence.20
Within the newspaper, however, the use of Melayu to designate the language and
members of the community – most prominently in Colombo’s various kampung but
also in Kandy, Badulla, Galle and elsewhere – was almost universal. For example, a
story was said to have been translated from Tamil (referred to at the time as bahasa
Malabar) into bahasa Melayu; letters to the editor were written by people identifying as
orang Melayu; an article reported on an event involving children, kanak-kanak Melayu;
kitab Melayu were offered for sale in advertisements; a list of people gathering to
welcome the Duke of Edinburgh to Ceylon included the orang Inggris, Welanda, Perancis,
Malabar, Cinggala, Keling, and Melayu. Interestingly, in an article depicting the worldly
travels of Queen Victoria’s son, Prince Alfred, Tanah Melayu (the Malay lands) are
defined as Singapore, Penang, Labuan, Malacca etc., but made no mention of present
day Indonesia or Sri Lanka.21 Only in a few places have I come across the use of Jawi,
rather than Melayu, to refer to people (anaq Jawi; seorang Jawi and, in a single instance,
19
The reversal of the noun-adjective order (as compared with standard Malay and Indonesian) is a feature of Sri Lankan
Malay, thus Melayu bahasa, rather than bahasa Melayu.
20
In a similar vein Saldin called a later newspaper he published Wajah Selong. These titles can be juxtaposed, in terms of
considering a connection to place and/or ethnicity, with the almost contemporary Malay newspaper published in Singa-
pore, Jawi Peranakan.
21
All citations are from the Alamat Langkapuri. On the story translated from Tamil see issue 8, 19 September 1869; for a
letter to the editor see, for example, issue 18, 6 February 1870; for the mention of kanak-kanak Melayu see issue 17, 23
January 1870; an advertisement for kamus Melayu appeared in issue 18, 6 February 1870; for the depiction of welcoming
the Duke of Edinburgh see issue 24, 1 May 1870; for the definition of Tanah Melayu see issue 12, 14 November 1869.
8 R. RICCI
peranakan Jawi) and once to refer to translating, or rendering (ku Jawikan) a Tamil poem
into Malay.22
These latter examples beg the question of whether the use of Jawi – and possibly also the
use of Ja in colonial Ceylon (and later Sri Lanka) – are related to, or derived from, the much
broader category of Jawi used by Arabs and others as an umbrella term to refer to all South-
east Asian Muslims. As Michael Laffan (2009: 20–21) has shown in his exploration of the
evolution of this designation, the name goes back as far as the appearance of Yavadvipa in
Valmiki’s Sanskrit Ramayana. For a much later period, we know from Snouck Hurgronje
(2007) when describing his life in Mecca in the 1880s that all Muslim pilgrims and resident
scholars from Southeast Asia were known at the time as Jawi (in the singular) and, collec-
tively, as Jawah. Their neighbourhood in the holy city, known as Kampung Jawah, was
large and vibrant, and their language, Malay, was the second most frequently spoken
language at the time in Mecca after Arabic.23 It may be that the persistence of the term
Ja in colonial Ceylon and into the present is a part of this long and complex history,
although I wish to suggest that in the Sri Lankan case a strong argument can be made
that Ja reflects a past link specifically to the island of Java. However, being Jawi did not
exclude being Javanese, and one could easily fit in both categories, which often overlapped.
Perhaps the sign at the Jawa Jumma mosque in Kinniya, in northeastern Sri Lanka, best
portrays this ambiguity and overlap (see Figure 1).
Being Sri Lankan Malay now
To fast forward to the present, based on just a sample of interviews with Sri Lankan Malays
whose ages range from 30 to 85, some say that growing up they referred to themselves
mostly as Malay but at times as Jawa, because they believed their ancestors who came
to Ceylon were Javanese. A young Malay woman told me that when speaking Sinhala
she thinks of Malay and Ja as synonyms but if a Malay relative or friend mentions Ja
she would hear it very differently, and assume he was referring to Java. An older
woman was adamant that the community was Malay and not Ja, that Java was another,
irrelevant country. Others feel strongly that Ja and Malay are synonymous and that the
use of each simply reflects the conventions of the language spoken (i.e Malay is English;
Ja is Sinhala), whereas both orang Ja and orang Melayu can be employed when speaking
Malay. The main message emerging from these conversations is that there doesn’t seem to
be a way to generalise about how community members currently view these terms.
What is clear is that when Indonesian independence from the Dutch was proclaimed in
1945 many Sri Lankan Malays felt they had lost an important connection as they did not ident-
ify with the new name and nation state in the way they had with the particular island of Java
and all that that name had implied and evoked.24 Paradoxically, the name of the nation state
that did align with their identity as Malays – Malaysia – was not the place they viewed as their
ancestral land. And yet it has been the Malaysian government, via its High Commission in
22
These references occur, respectively, in issue 11, 31 October 1869; twice in issue 5, 8 August 1869; and issue 25, 15 May
1870.
23
On Kampung Jawah see Hurgronje (1880/2007: 229-312).
24
In conversations nowadays ‘Java’ seems an almost mythic, dream-like place for some, land of the past and of long gone
ancestors, perhaps similar to the imaginings of Langka from the Indonesian shore. There are, however, Sri Lankan Malays
who travel to Indonesia in search of the places their ancestors came from, and of family connections.
INDONESIA AND THE MALAY WORLD 9
Figure 1. Jawa Jumma Mosque, Kinniya, Trincomalee District, Eastern Province, Sri Lanka. The sign is in
Arabic, Tamil and English. Photo by Ronit Ricci, 2012.
Colombo, that has invested in the community, albeit in particular ways. For example, it has
funded several courses in standard Malaysian Malay exclusively for Sri Lankan Malays, and
has occasionally invited members of the community’s urban elites to conferences in Malaysia,
as well as sponsored various community projects. In most cases community members have
accepted these gestures with gratitude as measures of assistance and benevolence on the
part of their more powerful brethren in the ‘Malay heartlands’, with little or no critical atten-
tion paid to power dynamics and larger political agendas that may underlie these initiatives.25
Teaching standard Malay, for example, and the resulting internal division within the commu-
nity about which Malay should be propagated – Sri Lankan or Malaysian – may have far
reaching implications for the community’s linguistic and cultural future. Such debates and
the ongoing connections and loyalties of individuals and organisations to Malaysia and Indo-
nesia and these countries’ involvement or non-involvement in the community’s affairs points
to the ongoing relevance, among other issues, of the nomenclature question.
In yet another relevant development in recent years, the term Malay has been used exten-
sively in a political controversy relating to Muslim identity and its state-sanctioned codifica-
tion in Sri Lanka and the Malays’ desire to be known and listed (in the census and elsewhere) as
a separate ethnic group rather than one that is subsumed under the generic category of
‘Muslim’.26 Consequently, they campaigned actively to make their separate identity known
and thus more people across the country now know them as Malays than previously.
25
For an insightful discussion of Malaysia’s involvement with the Sri Lankan Malays and community members’ views on the
matter see Rassool (2013: 127–9).
26
For a brief account of this controversy see Saldin (2003: 5-6). On the complexities of Muslim identification in Sri Lanka see
McGilvray (1998).
10 R. RICCI
Figure 2. Jawatte Road signs in Sinhala (top), Tamil and English, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Photo by Ronit
Ricci, 2012.
Finally, it should be noted that the questions regarding Malayness, the use of Ja and
Melayu and other forgotten, ignored or potential names that speak to alternative pasts
and futures are played out not only in the pages of old manuscripts, conversations within
the community, and political agendas both domestic and foreign, but also spatially, in
the built environment of a range of Sri Lankan sites.27 The mosque at Kinniya mentioned
earlier is one example. Signs across Colombo testify to an earlier geography of the city,
especially in the area of Slave Island where Malays formed a majority in the 19th century
and still account for a large number of inhabitants.28 One comes across Jawatte (Ja com-
pound) Road (see Figure 2), Jawatte Street, Jawatte Mosque (Figure 3) and Jawatte cemetery
as well as signs that declare the presence of Malay Street (Figure 4), the Malay Cricket Club
and Sri Lanka Malay Association (Figure 5).29 Perhaps most evocative of the issues outlined
is the old, whitewashed building of the Malay Military Mosque (Figure 6) standing on the
small, winding Java Lane (Figure 7). As always, silences are no less telling, as that hovering
over the sign on the recently renovated and Kuwaiti-funded Malay mosque in Kaplitiya,
written in Arabic in its entirety with no mention of a Malay connection (Figure 8).
These shifting naming practices that underscore the question of what ‘Malay’ might
signify are relevant far beyond Sri Lanka’s shores. Is being a Malay (or Javanese) a
matter of self definition? Of group allegiance? Of residing in a particular region or
being a follower of Islam?30 Or, as in this case, does it derive, at least in part, from
colonial bureaucratic or anthropological categorisations that have evolved into
27
Another arena in which the nomenclature question is addressed is that of poetry, but it is beyond my scope here.
28
On the history of Slave Island and its name see Paranavitana (2006).
29
Interestingly, since the signs are much more recent than the names, the Tamil and Sinhala renderings on the sign for
Malay Street use Malay rather than the more traditional Ja, most likely translating from the English.
30
On the historical fluctuations and negotiations regarding the meaning of being Malay in another region – Makassar, see
Sutherland (2001).
INDONESIA AND THE MALAY WORLD 11
Figure 3. Jawatte Jummah Mosque, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Photo by Ronit Ricci, 2012.
designations carrying personal and communal significance in the colony and within
the post-colonial nation state? Writing about the complexities of identity in the
Malay world Adrian Vickers (1997) discussed the ways in which European (Portu-
guese, Dutch and British – all relevant to Sri Lankan history) policies, practices and
Figure 4. Malay Street signs in Sinhala, Tamil and English, Slave Island, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Photo by
Ronit Ricci, 2012.
12 R. RICCI
Figure 5. Malay Cricket Club and Sri Lanka Malay Association at Padang Complex, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Photo by Ronit Ricci, 2012.
sciences interacted with local perceptions and roles in multiple ways to produce the
changing meanings of Melayu and Jawa across place and time. ‘The most interesting
point,’ he writes – in a claim that rings very true for the Sri Lankan Malays and with
Figure 6. The Malay Military Mosque sign in Arabic, and English, on Java Lane, Slave Island, Colombo,
Sri Lanka. Photo by Ronit Ricci, 2012.
INDONESIA AND THE MALAY WORLD 13
Figure 7. Java Lane street sign in Sinhala, Tamil and English, Slave Island, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Photo by
Ronit Ricci, 2012.
Figure 8. Malay Mosque sign in Arabic, Kalpitiya, Puttalam District, Northwestern Province, Sri Lanka.
Photo courtesy of Megara Tegal, 2015.
which I want to end and leave the question open – ‘and the hardest to track, is the one
at which European attempts to identify or describe become indigenous discourse’
(Vickers 1997: 203).
14 R. RICCI
Acknowledgments
I wish to thank the following for their generous support: the Australia Research Council (DECRA
Award DE120102604) for funding the research on which this article is based; the British Library’s
Endangered Archives Programme whose support (EAP 450 and EAP 609) allowed me to access the
Sri Lankan Malay manuscripts; and Eric Thompson and Virginia Hooker for helpful comments and
advice.
Author biography
Ronit Ricci holds the Sternberg-Tamir Chair in Comparative Cultures at the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem and is Associate Professor at the School of Culture, History and Language at the Austra-
lian National University. Email: ronit.ricci@mail.huji.ac.il
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