Jawi Peranakan - Demise of The Community

Demise of The Community

There are a few Jawi Peranakan families left in Singapore and Malaysia, especially Penang, which used to be their largest settlement. However, most today register as Malays. The loss of their identity is due to various causes. Economically, other competing mercantile groups were emerging. The Great Depression led many Jawi Peranakan business empires to bankruptcy and a severe fall in rent collected by landlords. Over time, the Jawi Peranakan grew increasingly dependent on government and clerical jobs.

By the turn of the 20th century, the political climate favoured the Malays. As the largest racial group and the indigenous people of Malaya, they were seen as the natural successors to the British, with the waning of the British Empire. Projecting an identity that was distinctly apart from the Malays was therefore not expedient. In the 1920s and 1930s, the Jawi Peranakan were also criticised for their brand of religious belief of Hanafi Islam which different from Shafi'i Islam practiced by the Malays. Furthermore, the Jawi Peranakan tended to be reformist and they challenged the authority of Malay royalty in religious matters. Most were born and bred in the Straits Settlements, and had never been a subject of the Sultan. They therefore lacked this political and cultural quality which was seen to define a "true Malay".