The growth of a plural society
The Malay State Guides of Perak. The soldiers had originally been recruited from India by Ngah Ibrahim to restore peace after the Chinese feuds.
During the period of British administration, the large-scale immigration of Chinese and Indians changed the population of the Malay Peninsula into that of a plural society (one composed of people of various races, religions, customs, languages, living side by side, but independently, under one political unit). The Malays, as rice farmers and fishermen, lived in the kampongs, the Chinese worked mainly in the tin mines and the towns, while the majority of Indians were on the plantations.
- Information in the full article includes
- The beginnings of a plural society
- The Malays
- The Chinese
- The Indians