Teach The "Historical Method" As Part Of The History Subject

The linguists say that over 60% of the Malay language is derived from Tamil. You can dispute the percentage but without a doubt a very large part of Malay is indeed derived from Tamil. I believe some writer has published a dictionary of Malay words derived from Tamil.

It takes a very long time for a language to borrow so many words from another language. It is something that would have taken centuries and required a close interaction between the Tamils and the Malays for so many Tamil words to be absorbed into the Malay language. How did this happen?

Here is a pop quiz. The Roman Empire lasted for 1480 years from 27 BC to 1453.  Which Asian empire outlasted the Romans? 

The answer is the Chola Empire which lasted for 1600 years from 300 BC to 1300 AD. The Cholas were a Tamil dynasty from Tamil Nadu. They had a few capitals over their 1600 year history ie Puhar, Thiruvarur, Thanjavur, Gangaikonda and Cholapuram.

Along their 1600 years the Cholas did invade Kadaram (Kedah), the peninsula and all the way to Sri Vijaya (founded 650 AD) in Sumatera.  

The Cholas invaded, colonised, expanded, traded, culturally influenced etc the whole region of South East Asia over such a long period of time that large numbers of Tamil words have been absorbed not just into Malay but also in the Thai language (also substantially) and even into the Philippines. 

Since we are talking about history here is another video featuring the Pakistani journalist Hassan Nisar. Its only six minutes and it will be worth your time.

Among other things Hassan Nisar mentions distorting or twisting history. He is referring to the Muslims, especially Pakistani Muslims.

I decided to upload this video in the blog because we suffer the same problem with history here in Malaysia.

For quite ridiculous reasons (which are most unacademic, most un-intellectual) many 'muslim' academics and intellectuals are distorting local history as well as playing up dubious Islamic histories which cannot pass real historical tests or scientific inquiry. 

They are not only very weak on evidence but often twisted and distorted to suit some silly and child like agendas.

During my time in school (1970s), the history books "taught" about Hang Tuah, Hang Jebat etc. For a time we really believed that Hang Tuah existed.

Then the late Professor Syed Hussein Alatas pointed out that the entire Hang Tuah story was a myth. A concoction. There was absolutely no evidence to prove any of the stories about Hang Tuah. 

Yet by that time we had named our navy ships after Hang Tuah, Hang Jebat, Hang Lekir etc and we have Jalan Hang Tuah. Too late. All based on  a myth.

Then the late Kassim Ahmad even "reinterpreted" the Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat myths. Kassim deliberated that Hang Jebat who fought against Hang Tuah was the real peoples' hero whereas Hang Tuah was the unthinking stooge of the feudal sultans. 

By debating the righteousness of both Hang Jebat and Hang Tuah, Kassim was inadvertently giving some "historical" credibility to the myth. 

Of course one can also debate and discuss the cynicism and social critique in The Simpsons (which some people do) but not without being absolutely certain that The Simpsons is just a cartoon. No one is going to name a nuclear submarine the USS Homer Simpson. At least not yet.

In Malaysia we have 'local historians' saying that the Bujang Valley civilisation was neither influenced by the Indians, Hinduism or Buddhism.  Instead they say 'some other pagan people' built it. Really? 

Thousands of scholars from all over the world have studied the spread of the Indian civilisation throughout the Malay Archipelago, throughout Indo-China and around the Indian Ocean. And they left behind archaeological evidence.  The Bujang Valley is no exception. 

So for a lone voice, in a country where literacy is still a first generation phenomena for many, to challenge well known and well proven history simply means that the literacy has not achieved passing grade quality.  The problem is the quality of literacy. 

I have in my possession "history" books by local "academicians" saying that Maniam Purindan aka Mani Purindan the precursor of the Melaka bendaharas and also the ancestor of some of the Sultans of Melaka was actually a keturunan Arab from Gujerat or some place  (instead of being the Tamil that his name so obviously suggests.) 

The reason given for this historical somersaulting was that 'kita tahu orang Tamil adalah miskin' and could not have been wealthy traders (which Maniam Purindan was) who were influential in the Melaka court.  

This is the most imbecilistic statement that defies thought processes. Yet these people have PhDs and are labelled academics and intellectuals.

For your interest here is some Wikipedia about the Cholas :

The Chola connection

Both Raja Raja Chola and his son Rajendra Chola had established maritime contacts with the Sri Vijaya kingdom. But Rajendra Chola, during an overseas expedition, conquered Kadaram and captured its king, Sri Mara Vijoyatunga Varman.

The next significant find, at a place called Takua Pa, just above the Valley, is an 8th-century CE inscription in Tamil of the Pallava king Nandivarman II with his title 'Avani Naranan.' It refers to a merchants' guild, trading in gems that had left from Manigramam, a village near Poompuhar, to Bujang Valley. The idol and the inscriptions in Tamil are still there at Takua Pa in present-day Thailand. Takua Pa was the first port of call for the South Indian merchants. The Bujang Valley, a little south of Takua Pa, was the next important port of call. Sri Vijaya's king, Sri Mara Vijayotunga Varman, sent an embassy from Kedah to Raja Raja Chola, requesting him permission to build a Buddha Vihara near Nagapattinam in the name of his father Sri Chulamani Varman. Raja Raja Chola permitted him to build a Buddha vihara and gifted wealth and a village called Anaimangalam, near Nagapattinam, in 1006 CE, for the vihara.


There were friendly relations between the two kings, and Vimalan Agatheesvaran, an ambassador from Sri Mara Vijayotunga Varman, gifted lamps, silver kalasams and plates to the Kayarohana Siva temple, near Nagapattinam. An inscription in Tamil is still available here. Another inscription talks about Kuruthan Kesavan, a chief officer of the king of Kadaram, consecrating an 'Ardhanarisvara' and gifting Chinese gold ('Cheena kanagam') to the same Kayarohana temple. 

That was fairly recent history - going back less than a thousand years. 

Lets get to the point. Islamic history goes back even further, more than 1400 years back. There is little evidence that can pass the test of modern "historical methods" for stories that go that far back in history. 

What is the 'modern historical method'? Modern historical method (for the study of history) may include things like :

Source criticism
Procedures for contradictory sources
Core principles for determining reliability
Evidence
Historical reasoning

and such. (There is much more to it than this).

Basically it is a scientific and logical method for the study of history.

Perhaps if we had used a more scientific 'historical method' much earlier,  then my generation would not have wasted time studying Hang Tuah in school. The 'modern historical method' of scrutinising the integrity and authenticity of historical sources would have shown that Hang Tuah was a myth.

Some times you do NOT even need modern historical methods to sieve the falsehoods out of history.   You need just simple common sense to figure out that there were no four legged, winged, horse like, flying animals anywhere in our history.  

Hence my suggestion is that we should also teach our young people HOW HISTORY SHOULD  BE STUDIED.

In other words our schools must teach the young the methodology, the 'historical methods' of researching and studying history. It must be scientific, as much evidence based as is possible and logical.

As Hassan Nisar says in the video above "Only when you study history without prejudice and mutilation will you reach some correct and useful conclusions".

Read history without prejudice.  Do not mutilate your history.

And, no one should be declared a heretic, sentenced to death, (abducted and made to disappear etc) just because their version of history is different from the next fellow's version. 

Just bear this in mind folks - there can be no absolute certainty in history - especially history that goes back a thousand years.