The Malay World in Textbooks: The Transmission of Colonial Knowledge in British Malaya

Abstract

This paper examines the transmission of colonial knowledge about the Malay world from the British to the Malays in pre-war colonial Malaya. For this purpose, I make a textual analysis of school textbooks on Malay history and geography that were used in Malay schools and teacher training colleges in British Malaya. British and Malay writers of these textbooks not only shared a "scientific" or positivist approach, but also constituted similar views of the Malay world. First, their conceptions of community understood Malay as a bangsa or race and acknowledged the hybridity of the Malays. Second, their conceptions of space embraced the idea of territorial boundaries, understanding Malay territoriality to exist at three levels-the Malay states, Malaya and the Malay world, with Malaya as the focal point. Third, in conceptualizing time, the authors divided Malay history into distinctive periods using a scale of progress and civilization. This transmission of colonial knowledge about the Malay world began the localization of the British concept of Malayness, paving the way for the identification of Malay as a potential nation.