Conceptualizing the Malay World Colonialism and Pan-Malay Identity in Malaya

Conceptualizing the Malay World explores the interrelations between the indigenization of "colonial knowledge" and the quest for pan-Malay identity in Malaya. In what way, to what extent, and for what purpose did the colonized accept, modify, and adapt the colonizer's worldview? To answer these questions, this study examines textbooks produced by British and Malay authors for teaching Malay history and geography to the local populace in teacher training colleges, then conducts a case study of one of these students who would go on to become a prominent nationalist activist. It shows that while the colonizers brought new concepts of Malayness to Malaya, the indigenization of colonial knowledge entailed significant reinterpretation, transformation, and appropriation.

SODA Naoki is Professor at the Institute of Global Studies, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. He specializes in modern Southeast Asian history and Malaysian political and social history. He received his PhD in Area Studies from Kyoto University in 2008, and served at the National Museum of Ethnology as Researcher and at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies as Lecturer in 2002 and as Assistant Professor in 2006, before taking up his current position in 2019.