Malayisation
Malayisation or Malayization is a process of assimilation and acculturation, that involves acquisition or imposition of elements of Malay culture, in particular, Islam and the Malay language, as experienced by non-Malay populations of territories fully controlled or partially influenced by historical Malay sultanates and modern Malay-speaking countries. It is often described as a process of civilisational expansion, drawing a wide range of indigenous peoples into the Muslim, Malay-speaking polities of Maritime Southeast Asia. Examples of Malayisation have occurred throughout Asia including in Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Sri Lanka.
Malayisation started to occur during the territorial and commercial expansion of Melaka Sultanate in the 15th century, which spread the language, culture, and Islam to the Maritime Southeast Asia. Following the demise of Melaka in the early 16th century, instances of this assimilation of people from different ethnic origins into Malay culture, continued under numerous sultanates that emerged in Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Riau Islands and Borneo. Malayisation could either be voluntary or forced and is most visible in the case of territories where the Malay language or culture were dominant or where their adoption could result in increased prestige or social status.
The ultimate manifestation of this cultural influence can be observed in the present dominant position of Malay language and its variants in Maritime Southeast Asia, the establishment of ethnic Malays realm within the region, the forming of new cultures such as the Peranakan, and the development of many Malay trade and creole languages.
In linguistics, the term Malayisation may refer to the adaptation of oral or written elements of any other language into a form that is more comprehensible to a speaker of Malay; or in general, of altering something so that it becomes Malay in form or character.
History
Early history
There is significant genetic, linguistic, cultural, and social diversity among modern Malay subgroups, mainly attributed to centuries of migration and assimilation of various ethnic groups and tribes within Southeast Asia. Historically, the Malays are descended from the Malayic-speaking Austronesians, various Austroasiatic tribes, Cham and Funan settlers of ancient polities in coastal areas of the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and Borneo; Brunei, Old Kedah, Langkasuka, Gangga Negara, Old Kelantan, Negara Sri Dharmaraja, Malayu and Srivijaya.The coming of Islam to Southeast Asia constituted a new era in Malay history. The new religion transformed many aspects of the old Hindu–Buddhist–animistic cultural practices and beliefs of the people, and imbued it with an Islamic worldview. Beginning 12th century, the old polities were soon gradually superseded by Islamic kingdoms across the region. The most important of these was the Melaka Sultanate, established around 1400 CE. At the zenith of its power in the 15th century, Melaka exercised its special role not only as a trading centre, but also as the centre of Islamic learning, therefore promoting the development of Malay literary traditions.
The blossoming of Malay literature in this era had transformed the Classical Malay dialect of Melaka, enabling it to attain linguistic prestige. As a result, growth in trade between Melaka and the rest of the archipelago led to the dialect spreading beyond the traditional Malay speaking world, and eventually it became a lingua franca of maritime Southeast Asia. It was then further evolved into Bahasa Melayu pasar or Bahasa Melayu rendah, which is generally understood as a form of pidgin influenced by contact between Malay and Chinese traders. The most important development has been that pidgin Malay creolised, creating several new languages such as the Ambonese Malay, Manado Malay and Betawi languages.
File:Malays and Javanese.jpeg|thumb|right|The Malays and the Javanese, hand-coloured copper engraving from Jan Huyghen van Linschoten's, Itinerario, 1596. The legend reads "Inhabitants of Malacca, the best speakers, the most polite and the most amorous of the East Indies. Inhabitants of Java, who are hard-headed and obstinate."
The period of Melaka was also known as the era of Malay ethnogenesis, signified by strong infusion of Islamic values into Malay identity, and the flourishing of various important aspects of Malay culture. The term 'Melayu' to refer to a distinct group of people had been clearly defined to describe the cultural preferences of the Melakans as against foreigners from the same region, notably the Javanese and Thais. The cara Melayu were the cara Melaka ; in language, dress, manners, entertainments and so forth, these might be referred to as 'Malay', and this Melaka-based culture or civilisation was acknowledged right across the archipelago. The aboriginal communities from Orang Asli and Orang Laut who constituted a majority original population of Melaka were also Malayised and incorporated into the hierarchical structure of Melaka. So successfully did Melakan rulers equate the kingdom with "Melayu" that one Malay text describes how, after a defeat, the people of Melaka fled into the jungle where they became Jakun, that is Orang Hulu. It shows that, without the mantle of Melaka's prestige, the local inhabitants were undifferentiated from the other non-Malay elements in neighbouring areas.
The Melakans were described by European travellers as "white", well-proportioned, and proud. The men normally wear cotton garments which cover them only from the waist down, but a few of the more distinguished wear short, silk coats, under which they carry krises. Their women, who are olive-coloured, comely, and brunette, usually wear fine silk garments and short shirts. Nobody but the Sultan may wear yellow colours without special permission under pain of death. The faces of the natives are broad with wide noses and round eyes. Both sexes are well-mannered and devotees of all forms of refined amusement, especially music, ballads, and poetry. The rich pass life pleasantly in their country homes at Bertam which are surrounded by bountiful orchards. Most of them maintain separate establishments in the city from which they conduct their business. They take offence easily and will not permit anyone to put his hand on their head or shoulders. Often malicious and untruthful, they take pride in their ability to wield the kris adroitly against their personal enemies. In larger engagements they fight in bands with bows and arrows, spears and krises. In their beliefs, they are devout Muslims. Their language ''"is reported to be the most courteous and seemelie speech of all the Orient." It is readily learned by foreigners, and is the lingua franca for the entire region.''
Later Malay sultanates
After Melaka was conquered by the Portuguese in 1511, and the ruling family had established a successor polity in Johor, it would appear that the 'ways of Malay' continued to be fostered and began to have an influence in surrounding sultanates. Startling even to the Portuguese conquerors was the extent to which most of Sumatra's east coast had been influenced by its neighbour across the straits; almost all urban elites spoke Melakan Malay, and they also acknowledged not only correct speech but also good manners and appropriate behaviour, as Malay custom. The role of Melaka as a model also becomes evident, when comparing its law codes with those of other succeeding Malay sultanates.Malay language was one aspect of the prestige of the sultanates and considered as a language of the learned in Southeast Asia in 17th and 18th century comments. An 18th-century European account even suggests that one is not considered a very broadly educated man in the east unless he understands Malay. Such observations on the influence of the Malay language and kingship concepts relate to the inter-monarchical context. At the local level, individual Malay sultanates all over the archipelago that usually based on rivers and often close to the coast, exercised sufficient attractiveness, or suasion, to foster a process of assimilation. They were operating on a range of frontiers – in Sumatra, Borneo and the peninsula – where non-Muslim peoples, in many cases the tribal communities, were gradually being brought into Malay realm: learning to speak the Malay language, adopting Islam, changing their customs and style of dress and assuming roles of one type or another within the expanding sultanates.
In an early example from eastern Sumatra, the 15th century Sultanate of Aru, believed to be the precursor of Malay Sultanate of Deli, is described in the Melaka-Johor chronicle as being of Batak origin. European observations on the same region from the 19th century suggests that people further upstream on the rivers of Deli, people who had long had a trading relationships with the coast, and were later called Karo Batak, were being incorporated in the Deli Sultanate. The Batak and Malay distinction was not racial but cultural, and by converting to Islam and taking on Malay dress and culture, the Batak could become Malay. Both European and Malay writings show them being tutored in the new culture, receiving Malay titles such as Orang Kaya Sri di Raja as part of the process of conversion. Similar developments were underway in Asahan, to the south, and on the Barus frontier in the northwest of Sumatra where entry to the new sphere entailed not only a change in manners and clothing styles, but also the adoption of the Islamic religion and the Malay language.
On the peninsula, the effects of the continued contacts between the non-Malays with Malay-dominated centre is suggested in a 19th-century account of Pahang, which mentions that some of the natives who had strong trading ties with the Malays had begun to emulate their speech and dress. The population of Pattani also has been described as partly aboriginal in origin. In the case of Johor, the aboriginal people who were reported in the 19th century to be speaking Aslian languages, were called 'Malay' a century later. It has been suggested that these people would probably have joined the Jakun first before becoming Malay. The Jakun are described as being similar to Malays in their kinship arrangements, but resistant to aspects of social structure as well as the Islamic religion of the Malays. In 17th century Cambodia, a polity renowned for its Buddhism, king Ramathipadi I converted to Islam, took the name Muhammad Ibrahim, married a Malay Muslim of a princely Cham family, had his courtiers wear krisses and used Malay language in correspondence. During the same century in Champa, a once powerful Indianized polity but by that time retreating before the advancing Vietnamese, the rulers held the title Paduka Seri Sultan which is so common in the Malay polities. These rulers were in close contact with the peninsula, in particular Kelantan. French missionaries reported the presence of scribes and religious scholars from Kelantan right into the 19th century. It was believed that Kelantanese who eventually helped to give the Cham struggle against the Vietnamese, the character of a religious crusade.
In Brunei Sultanate, many of the Muslim subjects of the Sultan were converts from local Dayak groups. Acculturation had also taken place in Sarawak and Northern Borneo, where Brunei Sultanate and by the 18th century the Sulu Sultanate were collecting products for China and other markets, and establishing a fairly loose, river based governmental presence. Dayak chiefs were incorporated into the Brunei hierarchy, being given Malay titles such as Datuk, Temenggong and Orang Kaya. What had once been independent villages were gradually built into wider units, and their leaders co-opted into the hierarchy of the polity. A colonial writing about Sarawak, observed that many non-Malays would be amazed to learn the degree to which the present Malay population derives from the local native sources, and among the latter are Sea and Land Dayaks. In northeastern Borneo, the Bulungan Malays appear to be of Kayan origin. Further down the east coast, the Paser polity had extended its influence into the Barito-speaking Dayak, and some of these people became Muslim and were eventually referred to as 'Paser Malays'. In southern Borneo, the Malay-speaking Sultanate of Banjar had been pushing inland since the 17th century, bringing Dayaks into its Muslim culture. In the west, the development of such sultanates of Sambas, Sukadana and Landak tells a similar tale of recruitment among Dayak people.
Malay culture also influenced many Philippine kingdoms where things may have only developed differently after Christianisation and cultural separation due to Spanish conquest and subsequent policies. By 1521, it is certain that the Malay language was extensively used for international communication, making it established that the Philippines was part of linguistically diverse Southeast Asia that used Malay as a common language among the ruling classes. Besides the use of Malay when Filipinos first interacted with Spaniards and other Europeans, other Malayan cultural influence is also evidenced by the use of the Malay language in titles and other diplomatic and religious terms in Philippine kingdoms, as was the case for much of the rest of Malayan Southeast Asia. These include titles such as datu and laksamana, as well as the terms for 'rank', 'sitting legs crossed', 'treason', 'magical chanting' and 'story'. As for specific diplomatic ties, the influence of the Brunei sultanate on the Kingdom of Luzon, for example, is well recorded. King Ache the Old of Luzon, or Raja Matanda, who resided in Manila in 1521, was said to be a grandson of Sultan Bolkiah of Brunei. Borneans were described to have taught Islam to people of Balayan, Manila, Mindoro and Bonbon. Borneans and Luzonians were also described as 'almost one people', and their clothing styles and ceremonies and customs were certainly similar.
Malayisation also occurred in the form of acculturation, in addition to complete assimilation into Malay identity. In this way, it shaped the ethnocultural development of creole ethnic group such as Betawi, Banjar, Peranakan, Jawi Peranakan, Kristang, Chitty and so forth. Such acculturation process was also reflected by assimilation of immigrants from other part of Maritime Southeast Asia, commonly known as anak dagang, into the established Malay communities, aided by similarity in lifestyle and common religion. Among these immigrant communities, some cultural elements of Malay origin were later combined in various forms and degrees with their own elements, which partly retained. Notable groups including the Javanese, Minangkabau and Bugis Malays.