For years, I have argued that if Malaysian Indians do not wake up soon, our collective identity will be heading toward extinction.
It is precisely because I have argued it for years, that the anti-temple rally held last weekend, spearheaded by Muslim convert Zamri Vinoth, did not shock me. On the contrary, it merely confirmed what I have long feared and predicted: that the Indian identity in Malaysia is entering an irreversible stage of decline.
Identity extinction does not require genocide. It does not demand mass killings or physical annihilation. It can occur quietly, invisibly, and almost peacefully — when a community’s descendants no longer identify with their ancestral heritage, no longer acknowledge their roots, and eventually forget that they ever existed as a distinct group.
At the pace we are going, I would not be surprised if within two or three generations — or in around sixty years — there will be so few Malaysians who identify as Indians or proudly acknowledge their Indian ancestry that, for all practical purposes, our community will appear extinct. History will remember us not as a vanished people, but as a people who never truly existed.
This is not necessarily tragic. Identity extinction, when voluntary, can be natural, inevitable, and even healthy. Small diaspora communities often assimilate over time. With Indians now comprising only 6.7% of Malaysia’s population — a figure projected to decline further — demographic assimilation is an expected trajectory.
But there is a profound moral difference between voluntary assimilation and involuntary erasure.
If we voluntarily become extinct due to demographic reason , this is fine. It is natural , inevitable and perhaps even necessary, that a small diaspora community will eventually assimilate with the communities that it coexists with through intermarriage, cultural blending, and generational evolution. However, if we are to become extinct, at least we should aim to do it in a dignified and voluntary fashion. If we succeed , then though the next generation might not identify as Indians anymore, but at least they will gladly and proudly admit that their ancestors were Indians .
Involuntary identity extinction, however, occurs through humiliation, marginalisation, and systemic weakening. It happens when a community becomes so economically vulnerable, socially irrelevant, and politically powerless that its own members begin to disown their heritage to escape stigma and disadvantage.
While no reasonable person believes Malaysian Indians face genocidal threat, the risk of identity collapse through weakness and humiliation is both real and palpable. Economic stagnation, educational erosion, political fragmentation, and cultural retreat have combined to push the community into a state of existential crisis. The very fact that the continuous existence of our temples is now in question, is just a proof of how dire the existential crisis that we face have become.
Every identity has its identity marker, and the more fundamental the identity marker is , the more sacred it will be treated as. There is a reason why the relocation of the Al Aqsa mosque to a Palestinian held territory has never been discussed, despite the fact that such a relocation, has the only likelihood of resolving the conflict between Israel and Palestine, in manner that doesn't involve genocide.
The reason it is never on the table is because the Al Aqsa mosque is the most sacred identity marker of the Palestinians. If it is relocated , even if it achieves peace, if will result in the extinction of the Palestinian identity. The relocation will render the Palestinian identity to become so weak and vulnerable, that within a few generations, rather than continue to identify as Palestinians, the Palestinians will likely deny their Palestinian heritage, and identify themselves as Arabs or Jordanians or Lebanese or Egyptians instead. .
Hindu temples perform a similar civilizational function for Malaysian Indians.
Tamil schools matter. Language matters. Cultural traditions matter. But temples — particularly historic ones — serve as the most fundamental anchors of Indian identity, binding history, ritual, memory, and community into a living continuum.
Now I am not saying that all temples are equal - the equivalent of the Al Aqsa mosque to the Indian identity in Malaysia is likely the Batu Caves temple - so the relocation or demolishment of other temples will not likely cause as mortal a wound to the Indian identity in Malaysia - however, as rule , all Hindu temples, especially the older ones, do serve a sacred role in preserving the identity of Indians in Malaysia . The more temples we lose, the weaker will our identity become.
Now I will not venture here into the legal and technical debates surrounding the demolition or relocation of temples built on land they do not legally own. That is a complex and sensitive issue, deserving of its own careful and separate examination.
Instead, I will just cut to the chase and say that whether it is fair not not, one thing is for certain - temples are the last bastion of Indian identity , and if we have come to a point where we have to worry about the continuous existence of temples in Malaysia, that can only mean one thing: our identity is in a state of existential crisis.
According to Hippocrates, the father of western medicine, a crisis is a point in the progression of a disease that will lead to either one of two possible outcomes. If it goes one way, the disease will subside and the patient will recover. If it goes another way, the disease will worsen and inevitably kill the patient.
Now that the existence of our temples have become vulnerable, it should be clear that identity is certainly in a state of crisis, and what we do now at this crisis point will determine as to whether our identity will eventually recover or decline inevitably towards certain extinction .
The first part of solving a problem always lies in being aware that there is a problem. If you are reading this, I hope you will share, translate, discuss or talk about what you have read here with those around you, so that we can at least kickstart the process of addressing the problem, by first being aware that there is a problem .
Now, if you ask me, at this point I am not at all sanguine about the prospect that all our temples can be saved. The fact that we are in a crisis position means that we need to resign ourselves to the likelihood that we will lose more than we gain, until we are able to turn things around.
But if you are reading this, and you become aware of the state that we are in, and help spread this awareness, I do truly believe, even if it comes to pass that some of our temples will fall, the sacrifice of the gods will be worthwhile if the race is saved through that sacrifice.
TheRealNehruism (nehru.sathiamoorthy@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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