Suara Kemanusiaan Dalam Cerpen-cerpen Tamil Malaysia Karya S. Vadiveloo yang Berlatarkan Zaman Penjajahan British dan Jepun Voices Of Humanity In S. Vadiveloo’s Malaysian Tamil Short Stories During The British And Japanese Occupation

Abstract

Materialism supersedes humanism in the world of imperialism and colonialism. The powerful suppresses the lower working class of the society for their benefit. The contributions and sacrifices of the lower working class of the society are denied by the powerful upper class. The portrayal of characters that are always fighting for their rights and dignity is evident in Malaysian Tamil short stories. The Malaysian Indian community is still underdeveloped and marginalised in terms of mainstream national development. The current state of Indian marginalisation can be related to colonialism and can be traced to the British and Japanese rule over Malaya. The suppression, marginalisation, and the prevention to voice out their grievances during the colonial era led to the deprivation of the Malaysian Indian society for over a hundred years. Malaysian Tamil short story writers regard issues of oppression seriously and give the oppressed a voice and a presence in Malaysian history and literature. Malaysian Tamil short story writers understand the feelings of estate workers and have taken the moral responsibility to expose their grievances to the outside world. They strongly feel that estate workers are deprived from voicing out their basic rights. Thus, in this article using S. Vadiveloo's short stories, I illustrate the plight of estate workers to highlight the sacrifices and contributions of the estate workers towards the development of the rubber industry in Malaysia.