PETALING JAYA: For centuries, adventurous spirits undertook perilous journeys across land and sea to Malaya, seeking to make their fortunes trading with the natives in their lush jungles.
Some visited regularly and eventually settled, many in the port of Melaka.
Lonely traders soon married local women of all races and began raising families. Many of their descendants are still in Melaka today.
Some of these enduring communities, such as the Baba-Nyonya and Portuguese-Eurasians, are relatively well known. Their unique blends of ethnicity and culture are considered part of modern Malaysia’s colourful backdrop.
Melaka respects these communities and protects them from over-zealous encroachment by the modern world.
But one of the less well-known, smaller communities is now on the endangered list.
The community of Kampung Chetti is not reaping the promised benefits of heritage status and feels under threat from development.
Consequently, the Chitties are becoming increasingly wary of attracting attention to themselves and inadvertently inviting more unwanted development to their doorstep.
The original settlers were Tamils and the word “Chitty” is Tamil for trader. In Malay, it is spelled as Chetti.
When the Chitty settled they turned to agriculture. Now they work the whole spectrum of jobs from labourers and shopkeepers to teachers and technicians.
Their descendants, also known as Indian or Hindu Peranakans, regardless of their religion or racial mix, still tend to adopt Indian surnames.
Their local dialect, which is mixed with Tamil loan words, has a Tamil accent although most are not fluent in Tamil.
Chinese cultural influences are also evident. For example, in ancestor worship, and in their traditional ceramic works of art.
Malay culture is also strongly represented especially in their cooking and in the traditional Chitty attire of sarongs, songkoks, and their own version of the Baju Kebaya.
Numbers dwindling
For centuries the Chitty have called Kampung Chetti home for their vibrant community.
But their numbers are dwindling fast.
Many families migrated north to Selangor and Penang. Others crossed the Causeway to Singapore.
A typical house in Kampung Chetti. (Pic credit: Aina Rashidah Md Noh)
Altogether, there are approximately 2,000 Chitties throughout Malaysia today. A mere 50 or so families still live in the Melaka village itself.
Pictures of Hindu gods and Indian names on houses, along with Indian temples and festivals, are a regular sight in Kampung Chetti.
Strings of mango leaves adorn the outside of households, a tradition from their hometown in Tamil Nadu, India.
Sadly, even if heritage rules are complied with, that will not stop the biggest threat to their community’s survival.
The village young, its next generation, are fleeing the traditions of home for an education and a future in the city.
Many may come back eventually to raise their own families.
The current village head himself left the village when he was younger to find work. He returned home eventually, determined to lead his community and keep its culture going strong.
Such sentiments are not shared by many young people growing up in Kampung Chetti today. They intend to experience the wider world just like he did. Except perhaps they will not return.
Filming the Chitty’s plight
Junaid Ibrahim, a Universiti Malaya undergraduate filmmaker, has investigated the community’s plight in a new documentary.
Undergraduate filmmaker Junaid Ibrahim has documented the plight of the Chitty community in his film, ‘Chitty: Retracing the Forgotten’.
“The young are proud of their roots, of course,” he told FMT recently.
“But they aren’t sure of their future. Their feeling is the village is going to vanish soon,” he explained.
A recently completed condominium block looms over the village and is considered an eyesore by villagers. It is a vivid reminder of why they fear Kampung Chetti is doomed.
In 2013, a 22-floor hotel and car park were approved for construction between the Kampung Chetti residential area and one of its Hindu temples, restricting access to connecting roads the community uses.
Both the temple and the village have been gazetted as national heritage sites for years but the development work went ahead anyway, puzzling and angering the Chitty community.
Since then many Chitties are not keen on speaking to tourists, as they worry that attracting attention to themselves will risk more eyesores sprouting out of nowhere.
According to Junaid, many took time to warm up to his team. “They were really reluctant to speak to my film crew. Understandably so.
“I mean, after living quietly for hundreds of years, they now have to fight against seemingly unstoppable development. No wonder they are worried,” he said.
For Junaid, the sense of community among the Chitties, where everyone knows everyone else, gets along well, and celebrates their diversity is one that should be emulated in the rest of the country.
“Everyone can relate to the Chitty people.
“They embrace their cultural and ethnic diversity. That’s what we should all be doing, instead of being so cold towards each other.
“The Chitties are an icon for hybrid culture. Everyone is mixed. They live together as one united community. That’s what it means to be Malaysian.”
Junaid’s documentary, “Chitty: Retracing The Forgotten” will be featured at FreedomFilmFest, an international human rights documentary film festival held annually in Malaysia. This year it runs from Sept 29 to Oct 6 in Petaling Jaya.
FreedomFilmFest will travel to Georgetown, Muar, Johor Bahru, Manjung, Kuching, Kota Kinabalu and Singapore between October and December 2018.
Full details can be found at their website: https://freedomfilm.my. -FMT
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