First Wave: Pre-colonial period . A Hindu-Buddhist kingdom ruled ancient
Kedah possibly as early as 110 A.D, this might be the evidence of Hindu-Buddhist influence before the onset of Islam in Kedah's
Kedahan Malays.
Ancient India exerted a profound influence over Southeast Asia through trade, religious missions, wars and other forms of contact. Pre-colonial Malaysia was part of the Malay Kingdoms with Hindu-Buddhist influence such as
Srivijaya, and the
Majapahit, which formed part of a cultural region known as India. There is a possibility that the first wave of migration from India towards Southeast Asia happened during Asoka's invasion towards Kalinga and
Samudragupta's expedition towards the South. The Arab and Indian traders had travelled this region including the southern tip of South East Asia the peninsula with maritime trade, the
Sailendra kings of
Java were able to take control of the
Peninsular and part of southern
Siam. The kings welcomed Buddhist missionaries from India, accepting their teaching of the
Mahayana sect, which spread through their territories. However, central and northeastern Thailand continued to adhere to the Hinayana teachings of the Theravada sect, which had been introduced by missionaries sent by the emperor Ashoka in the 3rd century BC. Another theory of the introduction of Buddhism after Indian arrived in the peninsula is that after Kalinga conquered lower
Burma in the 8th century their influence gradually spread down the peninsula. The ancient Indian Kalinga was located in southeastern India occupying modern day Orissa and northern Andhra Pradesh. In the 7th century an Indonesian kingdom was named Kalingga after the aforementioned Kalinga in India. Chinese sources mention this kingdom (
Holing) as a center for Buddhist scholars around 604 before it was overshadowed by the Sanjaya or
Mataram kingdom. The most famous Kalingga ruler is Ratu Sima. There is evidence of the existence of
Indianised kingdoms such as
Gangga Negara, Old
Kedah,
Srivijaya since approximately 1700 years ago. Early contact between the kingdoms of
Tamilakkam and the Malay peninsula had been very close during the reigns of the
Pallava dynasty (from the 4th to the 9th century CE) and
Chola dynasty (from the 9th to the 13th century CE). The trade relations the Tamil merchants had with the ports of
Malaya led to the emergence of Indianised kingdoms like Kadaram (
Old Kedah) and
Langkasugam. Furthermore, Chola king
Rajendra Chola I sent an expedition to Kadaram (
Srivijaya) during the 11th century conquering that country on behalf of one of its rulers who sought his protection and to have established him on the throne. The Cholas had a powerful
merchant and
naval fleet in the Indian Ocean and the
Bay of Bengal. Three kinds of craft are distinguished by the author of the
Periplus – light coasting boats for local traffic, larger vessels of a more complicated structure and greater carrying capacity, and lastly the big ocean-going vessels that made the voyages to Malaya,
Sumatra, and the
Ganges. In
Malacca Sultanate, the
Chitty people, played a huge role in Malacca's administration of the local ports such as
Raja Mudaliar, Syahbandar (Chief of Port) of Malacca and
Bendahara Tun Mutahir, a famous
Bendahara of the
Malaccan Sultanate.
Second Wave: Colonial period to Penang,
Port Klang and Singapore from 1926 to 1972. The vessel transported many Indian migrants between South India to then-
British Malaya as well as independent Malaysia. Following the Portuguese colonisation of
Malacca (
Malaysia) in 1511, the Portuguese government encouraged their explorers to bring their married Indian women who were converted already to Roman Catholic Christianity, under a policy set by
Afonso de Albuquerque, then
Viceroy of
India. These people were
Goan Catholics (
Konkani Catholics) and
Bombay East Indians (Catholics of
Marathi descent).
Kuparis who were of mixed Samvedic Brahmin, Goan and Portuguese descent also arrived. Their children already intermarried with Malay population, losing their ethnic identities. British acquisition of
Penang,
Melaka, and
Singapore - the Straits Settlements from 1786 to 1824 started a steady inflow of Indian labour. This consisted of traders, policemen, plantation labourers and colonial soldiers (see
sepoys). Apart from this there was also substantial migration of Indians to work in the British colonial government, due to their general good command of the English language. These workers were distinct from the commercial and educated group of urban Indians, who were often Tamils, Telugus, Malayali,
Punjabis, and
Bengalis. The
Gujaratis,
Sindhis and
Marwaris arrived as "passenger Indians" much like in other British colonies. These urban Indians may be Hindus, Christians, Sikhs or Muslims. The
Sikhs mainly worked in the police force, while other northern Indians were involved in business. The
Malayalees, Ceylonese and Christian Tamils may be involved in government and private
white-collar work, the
Chettiar in money-lending or finance, while the
Vellalar and
Muslim Tamils may be in various kind of businesses. The Indian population in
pre-independence Malaya and Singapore was predominantly adult males who were single or with family back in
India and
Sri Lanka. Hence the population fluctuated frequently with periods of immigration to Malaya and periods of exodus of people back to India. As early as 1901 the Indian population in the Straits Settlements and the Federated Malay States was approximately 120,000. By 1931 there were 640,000 Indians in Malaya and Singapore and they even outnumbered the native
Malays in the state of
Selangor that year. However, during
World War II many Indian men and women left for
Burma as part of the
Indian National Army with thousands thought to have perished. As a result, the population of Indians in 1957 had only increased to 820,000. While immigration was a major factor for the increase in population until Independence, the population growth began falling after that as the white collar classes in the civil service and plantations left when British institutions and companies left the country. Since then, lower birth rates and emigration to countries like
Singapore,
Australia,
UK, etc. in search of better educational and economic opportunities meant that Indians continue to see their share of Malaysia's population decline just as is the case with the
Chinese. Today, Malaysian Indians account for approximately 7 per cent of the total population of Malaysia (approx. 2 million) and 9 per cent in Singapore (450,000).
Third Wave: Contemporary period From the 1990s to the present period, there has also been a much smaller wave of Indian nationals into Singapore and Malaysia to work in the construction and engineering industry, restaurants, the IT sector, teaching and finance with many taking up permanent residence in Singapore where they account for nearly a quarter of the Singapore population. The unskilled labour mainly work in Indian restaurants. There are also foreign spouses from the Indian Subcontinent who are married to local Indians. ==Demographics==