History
Since Penang and Singapore's founding in 1805 and 1819, the number of South Asian immigrants to these colonies grew rapidly. Many were South Indian men. However, Jawi Peranakan ancestry does include a large number other South Asians, from North India, Pakistan and even modern day Afghanistan, before the Durand line was drawn. Women travelled to Singapore only from the 1860s, and even then in small numbers. This led to a shortage of South Asian brides, and so South Asian Muslim men often married Malay women. The descendants of these unions were called Jawi Peranakan.
"Jawi" is an Arabic word to denote Southeast Asia, while Peranakan is a Malay word meaning "born of" (it also refers to the elite, locally-born Chinese). More broadly, South Asian Muslims without mixed parentage but born in the Straits Settlements were sometimes also called Jawi Peranakan, as were children from Arab-Malay marriages. Similar terms for mixed Malay-South Asian people were "Jawi Pekan" (mostly used in Penang). Jawi Peranakan families were found throughout Malaysia, especially Penang, and Singapore.
Read more about this topic: Jawi Peranakan
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