Bengali Migration to the Malay Peninsula

Abstract: Prior to colonialism, cultural, religious, and trading ties linked South and Southeast Asia. In the late eighteenth century, the British East India Company created a robust tie between the Bengal Presidency and the Malay Archipelago that facilitated the movement of people, ideas, and commodities into Southeast Asia. Bengali migration received little attention in the broader narratives of the movement of ‘Indians’ eastward, but scholars have begun to disaggregate South Asian diasporic communities and focus on separate communities, especially the Sikhs and Tamils, who played important roles in the colonial economy. This article draws on archival records and oral testimonies to examine Bengali migration to the Malay Peninsula during and after colonial rule.