Early Malay Nationalism

Early Malay nationalism before Malaysian independence did not exist as a united and organised political movement prior to World War II. The concept of ketuanan Melayu (Malay hegemony) was largely irrelevant at the time, as the Chinese and Indians, who formed almost half of the population, did not see themselves as citizens of Malaya. A report by the British Permanent Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies in the early 1930s found that "the number of non-Malays who have adopted Malaya as their home is only a very small proportion of the whole population". Malay nationalism first appeared in the early 1900s, with the Kaum Muda (Youth Group) — a group of Malay Islamic scholars — publishing articles advocating independence for Malaya and Indonesia as one Greater Indonesia.