Malaya’s early 20th century population change - Articles

Malaya’s early 20th century population change

Dr Richard Leete, Director of HRH Sultan Nazrin Shah's Economic History of Malaysia Project¹

Malaya’s early 20th century economic growth and development were closely correlated with the increase of foreign workers—continuing a trend observed in the last quarter of the 19th century.² Labour force increase was a key driver of economic and population growth.

The rapid growth of tin mining and rubber plantations, as well as infrastructure development, led to substantial inflows of foreign workers. Without the inputs of migrant workers both the mining and plantation industries would have faced critical labour shortages, as would the construction of railways, roads, and government buildings.

Chinese and Indians had been migrating to the Malay peninsula in relatively small numbers for generations, but under British colonialism their numbers increased markedly. Large inflows of Chinese and Indian migrants occurred during the tin and rubber booms in the last two decades of the 19th century and the first two decades of the 20th, respectively. They were drawn from highly populated areas in China and India where there were extreme poverty, hunger, infectious diseases, and a lack of paid jobs. Migrants from southern China and southern India, where there was a seemingly elastic supply of labour, helped to propel the peninsula’s transition from a trading outpost to the world’s leading producer of tin and natural rubber. Until around 1910, many, or even most, of the Chinese and Indian migrants who came to the Malay peninsula were indentured labourers.

Chinese migrants were mainly drawn to the emerging new towns developing around the tin mines in Malaya’s west-coast states and to the port cities of the Straits Settlements, while the Indian migrants—always very much fewer—lived and worked mainly on the rubber estates. At first, most of these migrants who were male came to Malaya on a temporary basis with the intention to save money and return home within a few years. But later, when female migrant workers came to Malaya, many chose to settle permanently.

Cross-border movements of Malay and Malay-allied races within the Malay archipelago were sizeable and were made possible by open territorial borders. In the first half of the 20th century, there were substantial migration flows from the densely populated island of Java, from neighbouring islands, and from Sumatra, into Malaya’s west-coast states and the Straits Settlements. Ethnically, linguistically, and culturally like the Malays, they provided a valuable source of labour supply, especially in Malaya’s agricultural sector (Sultan Nazrin Shah, 2019).

Counting the People

A population census is the primary source of statistical information about the size of a country’s (or territory’s) population and its spatial distribution, as well as its socio-economic characteristics. Historically population censuses have been held every 10-years with similar topics being canvassed. Census information helps to guide public policy and planning decisions, especially at state and local levels.

Population census-taking in the Malay peninsula began during the British administration, with censuses conducted in the same years as in the United Kingdom and according to similar methods. Geographical coverage of Malayan censuses is closely linked to the historical backgrounds of its constituent territories—the Federated Malay States, the Unfederated Malay States and the Straits Settlements.

The first sequence of censuses in the Straits Settlements began in the mid-19th century and continued in 1901 and 1911. The first census for the Federated Malay States was held in 1891, and repeated in 1901 and 1911. The first census covering the Unfederated Malay States was in 1911. In 1921, the first unified census on a Pan-Malayan basis was conducted, involving the Straits Settlements, the Federated Malay States, and the Unfederated Malay States. Thereafter, Malayan censuses were held decennially, except that the planned 1941 census was postponed by the Japanese Occupation (1941–1945) and held in 1947.

Population Growth and Ethnic Composition

The Malayan population grew very rapidly during the first half of the 20th century, rising from 1.7 million in 1901 to 3.8 million in 1931, and reaching 6.3 million in 1957 (Table 1). This growth was almost entirely due to net inflows of migrant workers because natural increase—the difference between birth and death rates—was close to zero, or even negative, throughout much of this period. Net migration flows, approximated by the annual average population growth rates, show how markedly the inflows varied in the different periods and by ethnic community (Figure 1).

Table 1 Population size (‘000s) by ethnic group, Malaya, 1901–1957

Sources of data: For 1901: Hare (1902); Innes (1901)—estimates were made for the Unfederated Malay States. For 1911: Cavendish (1911); Marriott (1911a, 1911b); Pountney (1911). For 1921: Nathan (1922). For 1931: Vlieland (1932). For 1947: Del Tufo (1949). For 1957: Fell (1960).

Notes: The population figures for 1901 were obtained from population censuses of the Federated Malay States and for Malacca and Penang, with an estimate being made for the 1901 population of the Unfederated Malay States based on the 1911 census.

Malays

Malays were mainly rice growers and planters of coconuts and other agricultural produce. In 1901, Malays, including those born in the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), accounted for some 63 per cent of Malaya’s population, but crucially, by 1931 their share had fallen to 49 per cent, despite significant net migration of Malays, mainly from Java and Sumatra, throughout the first three decades of the 20th century (Figure 1). Their declining share of the total population occurred despite the fact that migration from the Dutch East Indies sharply increased the size of the indigenous Malay population.

The first generation of Malay and Malay-allied race migrants clustered together according to their place of origin and for a time preserved their own identity. But the distinctions disappeared for the migrants’ descendants, and most local-born migrant offspring referred to themselves as Malay. This shifting self-identity and the British tendency to group Malays together were made possible because of a basic similarity of appearance, their perception of the peninsula as their native land, the use of Malay as a common language, and above all a shared religion of Islam (Sultan Nazrin Shah, 2017).

Chinese

Chinese were the mainstay of the tin mines, worked on plantations and operated revenue farms which collected various taxes for the government, including from the lucrative opium trade. They were also employed in many other occupations including market-gardeners, artisans, shopkeepers, contractors, and financiers. The Chinese share of Malaya’s population, which had remained around 29 per cent between 1901 and 1921, rose markedly to 34 per cent in 1931 and then to 38 per cent in 1947, and stabilized over the next decade. The big rise in the number and proportion of Chinese occurred over 1921–1947, when their population share rose from 29 per cent to 38 per cent (Figure 1).

In the late 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century, the inflows of Chinese workers tended to be heavily sex-selective, leading to a high male sex ratio of Malaya’s population. An extremely high proportion of Chinese migrants, and to a lesser extent Indians, were young males who were either single, or if married had left their wives behind before entering Malaya. From around the 1920s, the sex ratio among Chinese became much more evenly balanced as the government introduced special schemes to encourage existing migrants to bring their wives and settle in the peninsula. The result was that the net inflows of Chinese female migrants rose faster than those of males.

Figure 1 Population size, distribution, and growth by ethnic group, Malaya, 1901–1957

Sources of data: As for Table 1

Indians

The fraction of Indians in Malaya’s population rose very sharply in the decades between 1901–1921, from just 6 per cent to 15 per cent, as rubber planting expanded and inflows were at their peak. But the Indian share of the population fell after 1931 and was just 11 per cent by 1947, as many Indian plantation workers were repatriated as a result of the rise in unemployment over the Great Depression years (Figure 1).

Beyond the plantations, Indians were recruited, inter alia, for public works, as police and guards, and also to serve in the lower ranks of the colonial bureaucracy. Most came from Tamil areas in south India. They were considered to be more accustomed to British rule, more amenable to discipline than the Chinese, and more willing to work for low wages. Access to low cost Indian labour migration helped ensure the rubber industry’s spectacular growth and profitability. Since there was work for wives and older children on the rubber estates, Indian migration included whole families. But low wages, indebtedness, poor social status, and physical isolation kept estate Indians apart and they tended to exercise little influence on Malayan society.

The fraction of Indians in Malaya’s population rose very sharply in the decades between 1901 and 1921, from just 6 per cent to 15 per cent, as rubber planting expanded and inflows were at their peak. But the Indian share of the population fell after 1931 and was just 11 per cent by 1947, as many Indian plantation workers were repatriated as a result of the rise in unemployment over the Great Depression years (Figure 1).

Beyond the plantations, Indians were recruited, among other things, for public infrastructure works, as police and guards, and to serve in the lower ranks of the colonial bureaucracy. Most came from Tamil areas in south India. They were considered more accustomed to British rule, more amenable to discipline than Chinese, and more willing to work for relatively low wages. Access to low-cost Indian labour migration helped to ensure the rubber industry’s spectacular growth and profitability. Since there was work for wives and older children on the rubber estates, Indian migration included whole families. But low wages, indebtedness, poor social status, and physical isolation kept estate Indians apart and they tended to exercise little influence over Malayan society.

Indian migrant workers repairing a road in Penang in the early 20th century

Source: National Archives Malaysia 2001/0052762

Population Distribution

Malaya’s population distribution has long been highly uneven with settlement patterns concentrated along coastal and river banks. At the beginning of the 20th century, Perak (19 per cent), Penang (14 per cent), Kelantan (13 per cent) and Kedah (11 per cent) together accounted for 58 per cent of the total population. Map 1 shows how the distribution changed dramatically over the course of the next half century, mainly on account of international and internal migration flows.

By 1957, Selangor, which contains Malaya’s administrative capital of Kuala Lumpur, had grown most increasing its population share to 16 per cent from 10 per cent in 1901, but still below the share of Perak, then Malaya’s commercial capital, which accounted for about one-fifth. Another major population growth area was the southern state of Johor whose share rose from 8 per cent to 15 per cent. The population share of Pahang, the peninsula’s largest state in land area, was one of the smallest throughout this period. Interestingly—and reflecting the uneven pattern of spatial development—the population shares of the east-coast states of Kelantan and Terengganu fell sharply.

Over the first half of the 20th century the urban population grew steadily. Urban population growth was mainly attributed to migrant settlement heavily concentrated in and around towns whose formation and growth were linked to the development of tin, rubber, infrastructure, and related commerce and services.

Map 1 Shares of population by state, Malaya, 1901, 1931, 1957

Sources of data: As for Table 1

Summing-up

Malaysia’s present-day multi-ethnic, multicultural, and multilingual character to a large extent stems from net migration flows during British colonial rule in the last quarter of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th. Labour migration slowed because of the Great Depression and somewhat later as a result of a tightening of immigration regulations. By 1931, the peninsula’s ethnic composition was delicately balanced, with Malays making up slightly less than half Malaya’s total—and it remained so up to independence.

Apart from the small elite group of Europeans, most of whom were British citizens and who enjoyed a markedly higher standard of living than other groups (Sultan Nazrin Shah, 2017), and a small number of Japanese and Arabs, the plural society that evolved within the British colonial economy consisted of Malays, Chinese, and Indians. These groups were not homogeneous, with subcultural, religious, and linguistic differences within and between them. Occupational activity was one economic divide, and religion and customs proved to be further social and cultural barriers. The physical and social distance that separated them, in what was essentially a dual economy, precluded a sense of common identity. This was later to cause serious political and social challenges that remain to the present.

Endnotes:

¹ This article was originally uploaded to the ehm.my website on 15 November 2016 and was revised on 17 August 2024.
²For the purposes of this article, Malaya is defined as the Federated Malay States, the Unfederated Malay States and the Straits Settlements of Penang and Malacca—the Straits Settlement of Singapore is excluded.

References:

Cavendish, A. 1911. Report on the Census of Kedah and Perlis, 1911 (Penang: The Criterion Press Ltd).

Del Tufo, M. V. 1949. A Report on the 1947 Census of Population, Malaya (Comprising the Federation of Malaya and the Colony of Singapore) (London: The Crown Agents for the Colonies).

Fell, H. 1960. 1957 Population Census of the Federation of Malaya, Report No. 14 (Kuala Lumpur: Department of Statistics–Federation of Malaya).

Hare, G. T. 1902. Census of the Population, Federated Malay States, 1901 (Kuala Lumpur: Government Printers).

Innes, J. R. 1901. Report on the Census of the Straits Settlements taken on 1st March, 1901 (Singapore: Government Printing Office).

Marriott, H. 1911a. Report on the Census of the State of Johore taken on the 10th March, 1911 (Singapore: Government Printing Press).

______ 1911b. Report on the Census of the Straits Settlements taken on the 10th March, 1911 (Singapore: Government Printing Press).

Nathan, J. E. 1922. The Census of British Malaya (The Straits Settlements, Federated Malay States and Protected States of Johore, Kedah, Perlis, Kelantan, Trengganu and Brunei), 1921 (London: Waterlow & Sons Limited).

Pountney, A. M. 1911. The Census of the Federated Malay States: Review of the Census Operations and Results, 1911 (London: Darling & Son Limited).

Sultan Nazrin Shah. 2017. Charting the Economy: Early 20th Century Malaya and Contemporary Malaysian Contrasts (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press).

____ 2019. Striving for Inclusive Development: From Pangkor to a Modern Malaysian State (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press).

Vlieland, C. A. 1932. A Report on the 1931 Census and on Certain Problems of Vital Statistics, British Malaya (The Colony of The Straits Settlements and the Malay States under British Protection, namely The Federated Malay States of Perak, Selangor, Negri Sembilan and Pahang and the States of Johore, Kedah, Kelantan, Trengganu, Perlis and Brunei) (London: The Crown Agents for the Colonies).