Migration and Health in Plantation Labour Draft 1 16052019

The Health of Indian migrant plantation workers : Malaya 1870-1939.
Anjan K Das: Taylor’s University

School of Medicine , Kuala Lumpur Malaysia
Introduction
The advent of the British in Malaya led to unprecedented changes to the social, economic and
political landscape of the region. It also led, as is often not so clearly realized, to vast changes in
the geography and land use which caused major ecological changes which, in turn, brought with
them, disease. The changes in the use of land to order to mine extensive areas, and the reckless
clearing of the jungle in order to set up rubber and later palm oil plantations caused climatic
changes, altered the insect fauna and the crowding of mainly migrant workers led to changes in
the disease spectra which in turn led to major public health challenges. This article proposes to
examine state of heath in the plantation estates that became more and more important to the
economy of the Malayan region during the turn of the century, especially as mining gradually
decreased in intensity and economic importance. It also proposes to examine the public health
and curative services which were made available to the population of the estates during this
period and its impact on the health conditions. The survey will cover the period 1890 to 1939 as
the Second World War( WW II) brought about many traumatic changes and constitutes a
convenient end point to the first half of the twentieth century, so to say.
The initial foray of British capital to the world of large scale monoculture cultivation was not
particularly successful. The planting industry initially focused on coffee, indigo, sugar and
gambier, a resin which was used in the tanning industry. As Tate pointed out 1 the initial
confidence ended in the frustrating realization that profits were not easy to come by though
very short lived profit making boom periods led to sometimes undue optimism. However, at
the beginning of the twentieth century, the soil in Malaya was found to be conducive to the
cultivation of rubber plants imported from the Amazon basin. This also coincided with the
automobile boom in the United States and Europe in keeping with Henry Ford’s promise to
make cars for the multitude, and rubber proved to be a more lasting profit making industry and
Malaya was exporting 137,000 tons in 1907, up from just one ton in 1897.2 The initial phase of
expansion was driven by owner planters, of both European and Chinese origin, but very soon,
the British joint stock companies began to finance the development of huge estates which were
run by salaried managers.(1)
The plantation economy was central to British Imperialism” 3 Leo Amery, who was Secretary for
the colonies in the 1920s felt that the “marriage of (agricultural) tropical production to the
1
Tate, D. J. M. (1996), The RGA History of the Plantation Industry in the Malay
Peninsula, Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press.
2
Barlow, Colin (1978), The Natural Rubber Industry: Its Development, Technology
and Economy in Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press.
3
Chang, Jiat-Hwee.(2012) “Planning Rubber Plantations: Tropical Production, Malaria, and the Management of
Labor in British Malaya 1900-1942. 15th International Planning History Conference. 1-20
The Health of Indian migrant plantation workers : Malaya 1870-1939. Anjan K Das: Taylor’s University
industrial production in Europe was the justification for denying industrialization in the
colonies. As in plantation economies run by imperial powers worldwide, the rubber plantations
of Malaya were usually on cheap land in isolated areas “far from towns and mining settlement
carved out of virgin jungle “4. The rain forest was turned into a monoculture. The loss of topsoil
and vegetation root systems of the tropical jungles destroyed the systems that absorb
rainwater. These ecological safeguards once destroyed, led to increased areas of surface water
collection which in turn led to an increase in the anopheles mosquito, and therefore to a
manifold increase in the incidence and severity of Malaria.
“ British Malaya was a very unhealthy place in the 1920s”5. These estates in particular were a
charnel zone for the workers. The Institute of Medical Research ( IMR) noted that in the first
half of the 1920s, the death rate in plantations form fever was an astounding 62 out of every
1000 workers6. The estate lost 20% of its labourers in the first few years of its establishment.
The Straits Settlements, which were directly under the eye of the colonial establishment fared
little better. In Singapore, it was calculated that the mortality rate was much higher than in
similar establishments in India or Hong Kong.7
The colonial masters were also not immune to the health problems which plagued the workers,
though, of course, the scale was completely different. It was estimated by government officials
that Europeans could survive in reasonably good health for about four to five years in the hot
and humid climate of the Malayan peninsula. After this, they needed to return to a cold climate
to recharge their batteries, as it were, to return for a further round of duty! A literature grew
up around the health concerns of planters. They were advised among other things to go to bed
early and wake up early, exercise only moderately, drink as little as possible during the heat of
the day and to drink coconut water whenever possible, especially when out of doors.8. Medical
theorists propounded a theory that purported to explain why Europeans were not suited for
these climes, while native Malays were.9
Traffic between India and Malaya had continued over millennia. There were active colonies of
Indian mercantile communities, especially in Kedah and elsewhere. The Indian influence led to
the so called Indianised kingdoms which flourished in South East Asia.
4
Amarjit Kaur,( 2006) "Indian Labour, Labour Standards, and Workers' Health in Burma and
Malaya, 1900–1940," Modern Asian Studies 40, no. 2.
5
J. Norman Parmer: (1989) Health and Health Services in British Malaya in the 1920s: Modern Asian Studies, Vol.
23, No. 1, pp. 49-71
6
0oi Giok Ling (1991). British Colonial Health Care Development and the Persistence of Ethnic Medicine in
Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore. Southeast Asian Studies, Vol. 29, No.2,
7
Turnbull, C. M. 1972. The Straits Settlements, 1826-67: Indian Presidency to Crown Colony. London: University of
London Press.
8
Manderson L.( 1981) Health services and the legitimation of the colonial state: British Malaya 1786-1941.
International Journal of Health Services, Vol 17, No 1, 91-112.
9
Manderson op cit
Immigration in Modern times
Rubber planting was a labour intensive industry. The labour was simply not available in Malaya.
While large numbers of Chinese workers had come to the Malayan peninsula to work in tin
mines, they were not looked upon with favour by the plantation managers because they were
allegedly under the sway of secret societies which were ubiquitous in the Chinese society in the
Malayas and were inclined to change their jobs frequently as they were” free” men, and were
not bound by the strict regulations that that bound most Indian workers.10
The preference was for workers from Southern India, more specifically from the heartland of
what is today’s Tamil Nadu. They were considered to be disciplined and cheap and often
desperate to escape the difficulties of life back in India, including the inequities of the caste
system.11 This suited the colonial masters because as has been pointed out they “had almost no
capacity to desert the European plantations in favor of independent pioneering agriculture.
They were ideally suited to a form of production that had been initiated with slave labor, and
which could only survive on the basis of one form or another of bonded labor or in situations of
high population density where there was no alternative”12. However workers also came from
the Chinese, Malay as well as the Javanese communities. The Indians were usually housed in
the plantations in permanent lines, Chinese workers preferred to live outside in their own
communal accommodation, while the Javanese tended to mix with the Malays with whom they
shared a common language and religion.13. It was calculated that the ratio of Indian to Chinese
workers in every 100 acres of plantation was 10.2 : 2.7.14) . By 1931, rubber estates were
ubiquitous all over Malaysia, though the lion’s share was in the three major states of Johor,
Perak and Selangor.15
10
Kaur, A., 2013. ‘Aliens in the Land: Indian Migrant Workers in Malaysia’.New Mandala, Australian
NationalUniversity (ANU) College of Asia and the Pacific. Part 1,
http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandala/2013/02/20/aliens-in-the-land-indian-migrant-workers-in-malaysia/;
Part 2, http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandala/2013/02/21/aliens-in-the-land-indian-migrant-workers-in-
malaysia-part-2/
11
Basu R.(2008) : Contemporary Perspectives Vol. 2, No. 1, 74–111
12
Michael Stenson, Class, Race and Colonialism in West Malaysia: the Indian Case (Vancouver: University of British
Columbia Press, 1980
13
Kaur A. (2013) Indian migrant workers in Malaysia – part 1 . https://www.newmandala.org/aliens-in-the-land-
indian-migrant-workers-in-malaysia/ ( accessed 13/05/2019)
14
Kaur A. (2013) Indian migrant workers in Malaysia – part 2 https://www.newmandala.org/aliens-in-the-land-
indian-migrant-workers-in-malaysia-part-2/ (accessed 13/05/2019) Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal
Asiatic Society, Volume
83, Part 1, June 2010, No. 298, pp. 91-115
15
Liew Kai Khiun, ( 2010) Planters, Estate Health & Malaria in British Malaya ( 1900-1940) Journal of the Malaysian
Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Volume 83, Part 1, , No. 298, pp. 91-115
However, modern immigration commenced as noted earlier when the British set up their
colony in Penang in 1786. These Indians were mainly “merchants, traders, missionaries and
adventurers”16. These communities tended to form their own separate settlements and the
Chetties in Malacca were one example of such groups. These settlements tended to be self-
contained communities with their own water supply and religious buildings. Some of these
trading communities who were Muslim, intermarried with the local population and formed the
Jawi Pukan community. As Penang became a British possession, Indian presence increased as
more and more Indian merchants began to arrive. This migration was however small, and
modern Indian migration, as we have noted earlier only began in the 1830s.
Estate labour, as we have seen, originated principally form the South Indian province of
Madras. This led to an increase in Tamil migration, but the increased numbers of migrants
which led to a demographic change In Malaya started only after 188317. This coincided as we
have seen with the advent of commercial plantation and an increase in the need of a cheap and
docile workforce.
Untouchable Tamil agricultural labour in India had a propensity to migrate and change
professions.18 They often favoured emigration as a tool to break free from the dominance of
the caste dispensation in the Tamil countryside. They had migrated to Ceylon in large numbers,
and were always in the forefront of migration to different parts of the British empire, to
countries in Asia and Africa. As early as 1845, it was recorded by a British official that
untouchable labourers were moving to new areas in search of employment and that this
tendency was on the rise.19 The abolition of slavery in British territories in 1833 led to an
enormous increase in the demand for manpower. This , in turn led to an enormous increase in
labour migration from India. In addition to the pull factors of promised higher pay and a better
life, there was also the push factor of incredible hardships as home. Migrants left for all over
the globe, most of them were from the Gangetic Valley and from the Tamil country. The major
rise in demand for such labour came after 1870s when the British succeeded in pacifying the
country and set up a system of treaties and agreements with the local leadership. This opened
up the Malay heartland for European penetration and establishment of commercial agriculture
led to a massive labour shortage which was sought to be filled by labour from India. The advent
of rubber plantation led to an even larger increase in the numbers of Indians. It has been
estimated that numbers of Indians increased from about 30,000 in 1870 to 275,000 by 1911.
16
Periasamy M. (2007) Indian migration into Singapore and Malaya during the British period .BiblioAsia Vol 3,
Issue 2 pg 4-11
17
R. B. Krishnan. (1936). Indians in Malaya: A pageant of greater India: A rapid survey of over 2,000 years of
maritime and colonizing activities across the Bay of Bengal. Singapore: Malayan Publishers.
18
R Basu ( op cit)
19
Aurn Bandopadhyay, (1992) The Agrarian Economy of Tamil Nadu, 1820–1855,K P Bagchi and Company ,
Calcutta p 202
The initial immigration wave was under the Indenture system. The indentured labour,
derogatively termed coolies, signed a contract for 5 years or more. They were promised good
wages ( compared to Indian conditions), a passage back to India after the period of indenture
was over and occasionally a piece of land. Needless to say, the illiterate workers had little idea
about what they had had legally agreed to and in any case were often cheated after they
arrived at their destination. Between the 1840s and 1910 when the system of indentured
labour was abolished, it has been estimated that about 250,000 indentured labour migrated to
the Malayas. 20
The naked exploitation of the indentured workers forced the Indian government to appoint an
official the “ protector of Immigrants”. This position which was first set up in Calcutta and
Bombay in the 1830s to protect the interests of immigrants to Mauritius and South Africa, was
set up in South India in 1873 after the system of migration to Malaya was condemned by a
Tanjore magistrate as “regularly organized system of kidnapping”21 ( Indians overseas No 14) .
The protector was required to examine each immigrant to ensure that he was aware of the
conditions of his employment abroad, his state of health and his knowledge of the country
where he was going. In Malaysia , a counterpart to this official the so called “ protector of
Indian immigrants” was appointed in 1880 who was to ensure that at least the worst excesses
of the system were kept at bay. Nevertheless the indenture system was characterized by
Marxist scholars as a “new system of slavery”.
Several attempts were made to improve the system or at least to prevent its worst abuses. In
fact , in 1864,an act was passed in the British parliament which prohibited immigration to the
Malay Straits from India .22 However this policy was never translated to practice and the
immigration continued. In 1876, however, the term of indenture was fixed at 3 years. The
indenture system was however riddled with problems. As we have noted , the workers were
cheated of their dues and exaggerated promises were made about the remuneration. The
matter did not go unnoticed by the nationalist movement which was becoming stronger at the
turn of the century. The inequities of the indenture system was repeatedly pointed out by them
and led finally to the abolition of the indenture system in 1910, the last group of indentured
labourers were free of their bonds in 1912.
It was at this time that the cost of traveling to the Malayan straits began to fall and regular
steamer services began to ply from the ports of Madras, Nagapattinam and Karaikal. The British
20
. Jain R K ( 1993) Tamilian Labour and Malayan Plantations, 1840-1938. Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 28,
No. 43 pp. 2363-2365+2367-2370
21
Amrith S S (2010) :Indians overseas? Governing Tamil migration to Malaya 1870–1941. Past and Present 208:
231-261
22
Basu R Op cit
India Steam navigation company ran weekly services from these ports. The journey usually took
about a week and cost Rs 10 from Nagapattinam and Rs 12 from Madras( Chennai). The fare
included food charges. The journey, which took eight days form Madras and six from
Nagapattinum, was still a horrifying experience. Amrith23 has described the usual procedure
that a labourer would follow. He would be interrogated by the protector of Immigrants to
ensure that he had full knowledge of the conditions that awaited him and that he was
emigrating willingly. They were then allowed to board the overcrowded ships. As many as
hundreds and sometimes even thousands of passengers where crowded in the deck where the
immigrants usually travelled.
An unexpected visit by the Planter’s Association of Malaya ( PAM ) labour committee to one of
the ships revealed the horrific conditions. The ships were so overcrowded that even at the best
of times, they had 5.4 square feet space for each person and most of the ships allotted just 4.2
square feet. There were just 23 latrines, 15 for men and 8 for women for the total complement
of 3150 labourers. Not unnaturally, the entire deck was befouled with night soil. The
preparation of food was in unhygienic conditions and the so called hospital had 4 bunks. There
was no provision for bathing.24
On arrival in Malaysia the Malaysian quarantine officials would certify him free of disease
before he was passed over to the planters. Life in the plantations has been described as semi
slavery. As soon as the immigrant labourers arrived at their destination in the Straits
Settlements, they were sent to be quarantined in either the two main disembarking ports
Penang or Port Swettenham.(Port Klang) . These were government run institutions but were
funded by the Immigration Fund. If there had been no fever or any infection during the voyage,
the quarantine period was seven days. During this period, the labourer’s clothes would be
disinfected and they would be vaccinated. If the medical office felt that the vaccination was not
effective, a second dose was administered on the eighth day before they were discharged from
the center. They then awaited the arrival of the kangany of the estate for which they had been
recruited or his agent. However even this system was blamed by the planters for allegedly
slowing down the availability of labour and when in 1906, the Quarantine centers were unable
to process new arrivals, one of Penang newspapers had this to say “It will mean the entire
suspension of immigration for perhaps months, the disorganization of the work of many estates
and heavy expense to those for whom the coolies were intended.’25 All this cost money. In the
initial phases, individual employers financed the passage from India, and the workers were
expected to pay back these expenses after they began to work in Malaya. There was no formal
23
Amrith SS Op cit
24
Planters’ Association of Malaya. ‘Memorandum on Preventive Quarantine’, Papers on Tamil
Immigration Presented at 12th Annual Meeting of PAM, 30 April 1919, section 1, pp. 11–13.
25
Penang Gazette (PG), 14 September 1913.
contract or indenture. However after the setting up of the Immigration Committee in 1907, the
kangany recruited labourers expenses were paid by the Committee. Finally, however the
revenue of the committee was obtained from assessments levied on the employers , who in
turn recovered it from workers’ pay. However from 1909, no deductions were made from the
workers incomes to pay for the levy. 26
The term Kangany is from the Tamil, where it can be translated as foreman, or overseer. It
actually means to keep watch, and the term was used originally for those who supervised
labourers in temple lands in South India. Originally introduced to recruit labour for Ceylon, it
was extended to Malaya in the second half of the nineteenth century.
As the planters rarely recruited their laborers directly, they engaged a special class of people,
called the maistry in Telegu speaking regions and Kangany in the Tamil country. The employers
entered a contract with these labour recruiters for a supply of willing workers. For this they
were paid a premium of Rs 5 or Rs 10 for each person that they were able to recruit.27 The
advantage for the planters was that these intermediaries were from the same social
background as the labourers and could therefore talk to them ‘ in their own language” so to
say. This meant that they could discipline and control them as well as train them for the task for
which they were recruited. These kangany contractors used to visit the rural areas of Tamil
Nadu and spoke glowingly of the plantation life in the Malayas. They also exaggerated the
payment and often offered to pay their travel and incidental expenses. Not surprisingly this
acted as a powerful magnet to the landless labourers who were in the lowest rung of the
society, both economically and socially. There was an entire chain of these kangany and maistry
contractors, ranging from the gang maistry who lead a gang of 10-20 labourers to the Head
maistry who was in charge of the all the labourers in a particular firm or plantation. The
kangany system gained more prominence as rubber plantation increased and by 1910 it was
the dominant method of labour recruitment in rubber plantations.
The kangany was usually a man of influence and standing. They were often heads of large
families and of good castes; he could command the respect of the wider community. The
kangany was not only the recruiter, but also their patron, their negotiator with the plantation
management and often the source of small loans as well. He helped to maintain familiar caste
structures and addressed the inevitable problem of gender imbalance by encouraging family
migration.But even so, he was not a benign influence. A report in a contemporary newspaper
gives a vivid picture of his standing and reach : “The kanganis are easily believed by the
simpletons because he…shines like a tin-god clothed in gorgeous velvet coat and lace turban
26
Kaur op cit
27
Satyanarayana A ( 2001) A Birds of Passage"; Migration of South Indian Labour Communities to South-East Asia;
19-20th Centuries, A.D. IIAS/IISG CLARA Working Paper, No. 11 Amsterdam,
and bedecked with costly jewels in his ears and his fingers… he is passed by all as real and
sympathetic gentleman. He shows he does not care for money and gives any amount to his
newly acquired friends… He takes an interest in all matters concerning the welfare of the village
or town he resides in … Soon he becomes popular with all and is generally invited to all social
and public functions. His gold attracts like magnet everybody, and his position is envied by
many. He instills in the mind of these ignorant seekers of fortune that Malaya… (Is an) EI
Dorado… where they could become very rich in the course of an (sic) year or two. Thus the
ignorant people of the village are enticed away from their homes. Husband and wife are
separated, young girls kidnapped… (and) boys are spirited away from their… parents…”28.
The labourers who agreed to migrate were usually carried in The kangany-recruited labourers
were transported by the British India Steam Navigation company, which had weekly runs
between the ports of Madras and Nagatpatam and the Malayan settlements. The passenger
was charged Rs 12 and this paid for passage and the food during the voyage. The usual port of
entry to Malaya was Penang or Port Swettenham( Port Klang today). Here they were
quarantined in government run quarantine depots . If the ship was certified as having no
disease abroad, the quarantine lasted a week after which they were vaccinated and their
clothes disinfected One saving grace was that after the setting up of the Indian Immigration
committee in 1907, the committee paid their expenses. The committee in turn derived revenue
from assessments levied on all plantations which used imported labour. This followed the
approval by the Malayan authorities of the Tamil Immigration Fund ordinance of 1907 which
established an Indian Immigration Committee which managed the fund. This was an important
step as a government structure was now in place to oversee the recruitment from India. While
the kanganis continued to recruit as before, the costs for the migrants were defrayed by the
Fund. These labourers were in effect “free labourers” and any of them chose to stay on in their
adopted country.29
The kangany class, however, was notoriously corrupt. They utilized all sorts of malpractices in
order to recruit labourers. Their methods included kidnapping young men from markets,
misrepresenting the pay and conditions in Malaya, promising marriage to those who agreed to
migrate and trying to foster petty domestic disputes in order to entice estranged family
members abroad.30. For the planters, this was a heaven sent opportunity to recruit labour. They
depended on the kangany not only to recruit the workers, but to ensure that they were
disciplined and kept in line. For this purpose, they sanctioned heavy punishment by the
kanganys and turned a blind eye to their illegal activities in the garden and elsewhere.
28
Satyanarayana A op cit
29
Kaur A ( 2014) Plantation Systems, Labour Regimes and the State in Malaysia, 1900–2012. Journal of Agrarian
Change, 14: 2, pp. 190–213.
30
One important positive social effect of the migration must be noticed here. The lower cates,
especially the untouchables migrated in disproportionate numbers and were not forced into
the caste based occupations that they had had to do in their home country. They were also
recipients of a cash income which completely changed their outlook and made them confident
and unwilling to accept caste based discrimination after they returned to India. As the Census
Commissioner of Madras (1931) pointed out :“A man who, little removed from praedial
serfdom…finds himself treated on his own merits like every one else when he crosses the sea,
paid in cash for his labours and left to his own resources, must in the majority of cases benefit
from the change, and it is probably the existence of the emigration current that has contributed
most to the growth of consciousness among the depressed classes…. Labourers from well-run
estates generally bring back to their village some of the ideas on cleanliness, food and comfort
acquired while abroad. Evidences of this are to be seen in many a South Indian village and I
have myself on several occasions had pointed out to me a house differing markedly from its
neighbours as being that of someone who had been to Malaya….”60. .A telling episode was
narrated by a census commissioner who reported that on one occasion a pariah peasant barged
into a Brahmin who upbraided him. The pariah apparently replied that he had shed his caste
and left it with the port officer and would don it again when he returned.31
The Kangany system persisted till the 1930s when the ban on immigration from India brought it
to a close.
Health services
As the colonial establishment began to increase, one of the most important considerations that
the colonial governments were faced with was that of the health of the colonizers. In the initial
phase health services were made available to the expatriates. A carefully constructed narrative
was developed which suggested that the climatic conditions of the tropics was not conducive to
good health. According to Martin, one of the chief exponents of this theory, “it was axiomatic in
medical topography that 'a slothful squalid- looking population invariably characterizes an
unhealthy country'. It was climate that enabled the Hindu 'to live heedless and slothful'32 “The
hardworking and healthy natives of the Northern European countries were ill equipped,
according to this theory, to live in these conditions.
However the colonial rulers were forced to also extend medical facilities to the colonized
population. The reasons were twofold; “First, with colonial penetration and migration, endemic
disease amongst the peripheral population threatened also colonial health; second, the
expansion of economic concerns within the colony required as a precondition a sufficiently
31
32
Harrison M( 1992): Tropical Medicine in Nineteenth-Century India.The British Journal for the History of Science,
Vol. 25, No. 3 pp. 299-318
healthy, thus efficient, labor force.”33. In general, the health care policies of the Malayan
government reflected the needs of the colonial investors for a healthy workforce, which we
have already seen, was imported with much difficulty and cost from India in particular.
For various reasons, the mortality rate among the Tamilian labour population was much higher
than that among the Chinese or the Balinese who were the principal other groups who made up
plantation labour. The differences in death rates were striking. In a study conducted at the
Johore Rengamm Rubber Estate, it was shown that while Tamils had mortality rate of 154per
thousand per annum as against 29 for the Chinese, 54 for Bengalis ( ie those who embarked
form Calcutta and were mainly inhabitants of the Gangetic plains)and zero among the Balinese.
This despite the fact that they shared similar conditions of housing and medical facilities.34
It was recognized early that conditions in plantations were suboptimal with the “coolies” being
subjected to subhuman conditions and undergoing physical abuse at the hands of their
supervisors, both European and Indian. “The coolies were half -starved, beaten with great
severity, neglected when sick, and the food, water and cooly ( sic) lines provided for, were
neither adequate nor decent . On another estate, three coolies had died within three days
because of the prolonged absence of medical care.”35
The early years of the rubber boom in the early 1900s lead to an expansion of the plantations
and of the labour force and in the absence of any medical facilities, led to extraordinarily high
death rates. In later years because of measures taken by the Government and by the plantation
owners (as we shall see) the rate dropped considerably. In some individual estates, the average
mortality rate was still as high as 70/1000 per annum.36
The question is what was the cause of the poor health of the labourers?
Living Conditions
The living conditions for the labourers were primitive at best and downright dangerous at
worst. While European managerial staff had their separate living areas in the highest elevations
possible on the estate and had large airy and well-lit quarters with large verandahs, the estate
labour lived in the worst possible locations. The coolie lines, as they were called, were most
often located near the jungle, and were mostly surrounded by tall trees and faced the problem
of insufficient light, air and sunshine. They usually lived in long barrack like buildings with single
33
Manderson L ( 1987) : International Journal of Health Services, Volume 17, Number 1, pp 91-112
34
Darus S N M ( 1991)Health of the south Indian labourers on rubber plantations in British Malaya 1895-1941
Unpublished thesis, Department of History, NUS Singapore .
35
Darus op cit
36
Liew Kai Khiun op cit
windowless rooms ten feet square which accomodated up to 6 workers. Larger rooms ( 20X14
feet), were shared by up to 18 people, both male and female. Often two or three married
couples were allotted a single room. ( Indinas in Malaya pg 305/452) . The houses were, in the
main, built with atap or bertam with mud walls. There were 3 feet wide verandahs which were
mainly used for cooking. The airless rooms forced the labourers to sleep outside in the open.
This, associated by the cultural refusal of the Tamil workers (as opposed to the Chinese) to use
mosquito nets made them easy prey for malarial mosquitoes. In the Tangkak Rubber Estate, for
instance, the Tamil lines were close to the mountain, surrounded on all sides by ravines,
“uncleared and undrained”.37 Despite strictures from the District Surgeon, nothing was done to
improve conditions. Some of these dwellings were described as “squalid hovels”38
Later, in the 1920s, P N Gerrard suggested that the houses should be raised from the ground
with partitions that had gaps at the floor and roof to allow air ventilation. This concern for
healthy housing need not be confused with a concern for workers as humans, but merely
because it was an economic necessity to protect investment. It must be noted however, that in
some model estates, such as one owned by Dunlop in Negri Sembilan, the workers were housed
in cottages with a patch of garden where they could grow vegetables to supplement their
diet.39
The housing that was provided was invariably lacking in proper sanitation facilities. There were
no latrines and if they were they were usually located far from the housing areas and lacked
water and proper privacy. The result was that invariably close to the housing; often less than 50
yards away, feces was left in the open, thereby inviting flies, and therefore dysenteries and
typhoid as well as hookworm infestation. The planters’ commonly complained that building
latrines were useless because the workers invariably refused to use them, the truth however
was that the inconvenience and inadequate numbers of the latrines provided left workers with
no choice but to go for open defecation.
Another major issue was the lack of clean drinking water. Few coolie lines had any water supply
and the workers were forced to use open unsanitary wells or streams for their drinking water
needs and this exacerbated the effects of the unsanitary conditions in which they lived.
Nutrition and personal habits
37
Report of the Executive of the General Labour Committee. British Malaya on Indian Labour and Labourers.
1920,pg 2
38
Report of Commission of Inquiry into the State of Labour in the straits Settlements ac1 the Protected
Native States 1890
39
Chang, Jiat-Hwee op cit
Another issue that was often blamed for the poor health outcomes was the poor diet of the
estate workers which led to their susceptibility to myriad diseases. This also led to the common
infectious diseases having especially devastating effect as they had little nutritional reserve and
immunological competence to fight these diseases.
Anemia was rife in the estates. Most workers suffered from some degree of anemia. It was
noted that during one visit to a Johor plantation, most of the workers “presented an
appearance of deficient nutrition and bloodlessness,( sic) looking thin and pale40 The cause was
usually a diet deficient in enough calories for the hard physical labour that they were supposed
to do; additionally, the ubiquitous hookworm infestation also cause blood loss. Add to this, the
effects of chronic malaria and it was no wonder that almost all workers were anemic.
The food that provided to them was simply not adequate. The main food supplied by the
plantation was rice and dall( lentils) with occasional fish or meat. Vegetables and fruits were
available if they could grow them themselves but animal protein was almost never available.
The calorific intake was well below the requirement, and it was impossible for them with their
wages to be able to buy adequate amounts of food. In some states, uncooked rations were
provided and estate shops had their daily necessities which they could buy, often at high prices.
Most workers suffered from a form of chronic starvation.
One of the accusations against the Tamil workers was that their susceptibility to toddy drinking
was one of the principal reasons for their poor health.
Toddy and its ill effects
One of the principal causes of labourer ill health, according to the planters, was the propensity
of the menfolk particularly to fall prey to the drinking habit. The alcohol of choice was toddy.
Toddy was obtained from the flower bud on coconut palms. When initially tapped, it is
nonalcoholic, but alcohol content increases after 12 hours and it is a potent brew after 24to 48
hours.41 The drink as introduced to Malaya by the incoming Tamil and Malayali labourers in the
late nineteenth century and swiftly became very popular among the Tamils particularly who
came to work in the plantations. These shops were constructed by the management in every
rubber estate in Malaya and became the favoured meeting place after work for a large section
of the workers.
It was not really surprising that even those, who at home in India drank only occasionally
became confirmed alcoholics in Malaya. In India, they were subject to many social and other
40
Darus S N M op cit
41
K.S. Sandbu, Indians in Malaya, Some Aspects of Their Immigration and Settlement, 1786-1957. -
restraints which did not exist in Malaya. Not only this, the life in the plantations was
monotonous and there was little chance of cultural interaction which was a vital part of village
life in India. The estate owners were all too ready to encourage this habit and built shops near
the labour lines. In fact, some owners publicized the availability of cheap liquor as one of the
attractions of plantation life.42 In the annual report of the Indian Government agent in Malaya,
it was reported that “Toddy drink is a newly acquired habit to many of the Indian labourers in
Malaya. The temptation provided in estates at their very doors is the real reason for this. Many
estates have as many toddy shops as there are Divisions on them. Toddy has become a daily
routine with the Indian labourers in spite of the fact that it was considered a luxury and
excluded from their monthly budget. Many of them spend their earnings at toddy shop without
providing enough for their food and other necessaries of life.”43 The report also alleged that the
siting of liquor shops close to the labour lines converted even nondrinkers to regular imbibers.
The planters were very keen to promote toddy drinking. There were several reasons for this.
One was, of course the revenue generated by the sale of toddy. The revenue from the sale of
toddy increased from $1,261,276 in 1933 to $2,081,718, almost doubling of the revenue.44 In
Selangor alone, the revenue rose from $57,000 in 1932 to a staggering $92,350 in 1938 It is
worthwhile noting that this entire revenue came from the wages of the poorest labourers and
this prevented them from buying the necessities of life and was responsible for anti social
behavior and disrupted family life as well as , of course, ruining their health.
In addition, as we have already noted availability of toddy sometimes acted as an

advertisement of the plantation. One more important reason was that because the plantations
lacked any recreational facilities, toddy was useful method of keeping the labourers occupied
and also preventing the formation of groups which might take up issues relating to work
conditions and pay. A toddy drinking Tamil was more easily managed than a sober one!45
The labourer was attracted to this liquor because of several other reasons as well. Toddy was
alleged to have health benefits. It reportedly relived aches, rheumatism, lethargy and fever. It
was also a traditional remedy for constipation. Any attempt to reduce toddy consumption led
even to petitions against curtailing toddy shops.
42
Krishnan P et al ( 2014) , The History of Toddy Drinking and Its Effects on Indian Labourers in Colonial Malaya,
1900-1957. Asian Journal of Social Science 42 (2014) 321-382
43
Jasmin Asir (1974) "Kallunaamai patriye aranool karutthugal" ("Information on toddy consumption"). Sixth
Seminar ofAaivu Kovai, India: Department of Tamil Studies, Tagore College of Arts, Pondicherry, Pp. 370-375.
44
S. Arasaratnam (1970) Indians in Malaysia and Singapore, Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University
Press, p. 70.
45
C. Gamba (1962) The Origins of Trade Unionism in Mataya: A Study in Colonial Labour Unrest,
Singapore: Eastern Universities Press, p. 282.
By the 1920s, observers began to note that even women were being addicted to toddy.
Selangor reported the maximum numbers of women addicts. A commission set up to examine
the effects of toddy consumption noted several instances of hospitalization and death among
women toddy drinkers. Even children who did not go to schools as there were no educational
facilities in the plantations developed the habit of drinking. This was also the result of seeing
their parents in a chronic drunken state.46
The effect of toddy was horrific. Especially during payday, the workers were often found around
the toddy shop, drunk and unconscious. When they did go home, minor altercations led to
major violent quarrels leading to severe injuries. A significant proportion of the drunks were
women and adolescent males.) . The manager of Midlands estate in Selangor recounted that
drunk men often went home to beat their wives and often fell ill. These workers impacted the
bottom line as they were often unable to work. The drunks also made the roads in and around
the plantations unsafe and in later years this led to the realization that toddy was not an
unmixed benefit for the plantation owners!
Infectious diseases
Malaria, ankylostomiasis or hookworm, venereal disease, tuberculosis, dysentery, pneumonia,

beri-beri, cholera and still other diseases accounted for thousands of deaths annually in the
I920s. Typically, persons suffered from two or more maladies at the same time. In the
Federated Malay States (F. M. S.) probably more than half of those listed as dying from malaria
also suffered from hookworm. Many pneumonia deaths were due to tuberculosis. Chronic
malnutrition combined with malaria, hookworm and diarrhea in many, perhaps most, pregnant
women to produce high infant and maternal mortality.'
Of these, Malaria was undoubtedly the most important harbinger of ill health and death. It has
been estimated that fully half of the population of British Malaya were infected by Malaria in
the 1920s47) About half a million people died of malaria between 1910 and 1930. A medical
officer posted in the estates noted “The scourge of Malaria is upon us all. It makes rich and
beautiful Malaya a land of terror. .. it has shortened many precious lives; it robs us of vitality,
dulls the brain, separates husbands from wives . . . -it is, in a word, the great curse of the
tropics.”48 He further estimated that in 1919, 2 million working days were lost, and $1 million
was lost in revenue. There was a short lived downward trend in the early 1920s but in 1926
there was a recrudescence of the disease. The advent of the plantation economy had much to
do with this. There was widespread ecological destruction and conditions were ripe for the
spread of the anopheles mosquito and thereby the dreaded malaria. The undernourished
46
Krishnan P et al op cit
47
F.M.S., Medical Report for the Year I920, p. 30.
48
The Straits Times, I November 1923, p. 18 9.
immigrants from India, who had no natural immunity and lived in unhygienic conditions, were
ideal prey for the parasite.
Another major infection that plagued the labourers was hookworm infestation. The Hookworm
( Ankylostoma duodenalis) gained entry to the human body via bare feet and finally lived in the
intestines where they caused severe blood loss which led to anemia and debilitation. While
they rarely cause death, they weakened the body which was now an easy target for several
other diseases.
Venereal diseases were also extremely common. While the principal sufferers were soldiers,
planation labourers who often came to Malaya without their womenfolk were also commonly
infected by syphilis and gonorrhea.
The fourth great public health emergency was the high Infant Mortality Rate (IMR). I Klang, the
IMR for the first half of 1927 was 186.5 and in the adjacent Port Swettenham it was even higher
at 192.5. This was in the general population; in the plantations, it may be safely surmised that
the rates were even higher. In 1928, the Agent of the Indian Government was constrained to
point out that the “high infant mortality on estates is a matter of grave concern to the Indian
community.”49 There were also some instances of starvation among the children in the
plantations.
Indian concerns
The appalling state of health among the plantation workers could not but attract the attention
of the Indian public. It must be remembered that India had by the early years of the twentieth
century developed a fairly vigorous public life and the Indian National Congress met regularly to
voice the concerns of the public and to act as a representative body for non-official Indian
concerns. Specifically, some intellectuals raised the issue of the Indian emigrant population. A
journal was started in August 1914 which specifically addressed the problems of the Indian
migrant community. Named, the “Indian Emigrant “, this journal was edited by T K
Swaminathan who highlighted the problems of the Indian emigrant overseas. It covered a wide
gamut of issues. It described itself as "advocating the cause of Indians abroad, recording their
life, thought and activities, and safeguarding their interests in the Colonies.” Specifically, in
August 2015, it carried an article on “Labour problems in Malaya” which raised the health
issues among the emigrants among others.
49
F.M.S., The Chief Secretary's Report for the Year 1920, p. I .
The recurrent problems faced by the migrating workers had led to the Viceroy’s council taking
note and as early as 1877, it had been suggested that the government of India should have
officers posted in the colonies which had imported Indian labour in order to monitor the
conditions in which they lived. As we have noted earlier, the indenture system was stopped in
1910 in favour of the kangany system. In the same year two officers were appointed by the
Madras Government to report on the recruiting methods and living conditions of Indian labour
in Malaya. This report 50 covered the living conditions, health, housing, education etc of the
Indian migratory labour. The period from 1910-1920 saw a huge increase in the number of
migrants; this followed an increase in the price of rubber and the consequent expansion of the
plantations. The numbers ranged from 50,000 to 80,000 per year In 1922, a permanent
representative of the Indian government was posted in Malaya in order to monitor the labour
conditions. The Agent, as he was designated was powerful; he could inspect plantations and
factories and report to the Controller of Labour if he found any irregularities. He was, in
addition, empowered to attend the meetings of the Indian emigration Committee and
participate in the discussions.
The establishment of Estate hospitals had first been made mandatory in 1884 in the Indian
Immigrant protection Enactment. In 1904, the Indian Emigration Enactment, made it
mandatory for plantation owners to provide medical care and hospitals for their workers. This
caused resentment among the planters who felt that the Government was delegating their
duties to the plantations. 51
There were logistical problems in delivering health services to the plantation labour. The
plantations were widely dispersed and far away from centers of population where most
Government health facilities were located. The need therefore was for the focused services
which would target the labour in these locations.
In November 1910, new legislation , the “ Estate Labourers Protection of Health Enactment”
was passed to “provide for the protection of the health of labourers employed in agricultural
estates.”52 This legislation gathered together the scattered laws pertaining to the labourers
health that had been passed through the years. The duties of the plantation owners were laid
down clearly and penalties proposed for not complying with the requirements. In later years,
more amendments were made to the Act including the payment of maternity allowances,
provisions for maternity leave, provisions for crèches, better housing norms and so on. Most of
50
Sandhu, K.S. Indians in Malava: Immigration and Settlement. 1786-1951. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
51
Kaur A ( 2006) : Indian Labour, Labour Standards, and Workers' Health in Burma and Malaya, 1900-1940.
Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 40, No. 2), pp. 425-475
52
Darus op cit
these were because of the steady pressure from the Indian Government which was in turn
under pressure from nationalist politicians.
The new requirements were met with fierce resistance from the planters. Deputations were
made to the Government by the United Planters’ Association and a campaign in the press also
spelt out the problems faced by the planters. The government, however stood firm, and the
estates began to set up their own hospitals Most of them were, however makeshift
establishments staffed by untrained local Eurasians. They mostly acted as hospital dressers to
English professionals who were seconded from India or in some cases came directly from the
UK. 53. The larger estates allowed their hospitals to be used by patients from smaller estates
and several planters employed private Medical practitioners to visit their gardens periodically;
the period however could range from one day to one month. In 1923, the number of estate
hospitals increased from 93 to 141. The government was in favour of group hospitals catering
to several estates as they felt that economies of scale would mean better facilities and
personnel.54. Planters however, argued that large hospitals were expensive to build and
maintain and suggested that prevention of the common diseases would perhaps be a more cost
effective solution. A scheme was implemented in Malacca that was found workable. The
planters association Agricultural Board assessed the needs of the Malacca estates and stationed
six medical officers in convenient locations. They then catered to the needs of the estate
workers under their jurisdiction and this led to a drop in mortality figures. The government
decided to implement a similar system across the federated states in 1921. This attempt
however failed as the private arrangement of the Planters’ Association was taken over by
official policy. Implementation was an administrative nightmare and very soon complaints and
recriminations flew back and forth stymying what may have been a very good system. .
However the hospitals in the plantations with all their flaws were the only medical help that a
labourer was likely to get if he fell ill. They did, in fact, render yoeman’s service, although they
were definitely not an ideal system.
Another important development took place in 1910. This was when the preventive public
health facilities were split off from the curative wing. This too led to internecine wrangling, but
the principle was now firmly established that public health engineering and health was to be a
specialized service related, but not subordinate to the hospital services. The numbers of health
department personnel was miniscule. As late as 1924, 14 years after its establishment the
Health Department had a total of 5 health officers , However in 1927, these numbers were
substantially augmented with the appointment of 84 positions, including 19 European Health
officers and 53 Asian staff. Separate chiefs of the department were appointed for the states of
53
Lenore Manderson, Sickness and the state: health and illness in colonial Malaya, 1870–1940, Cambridge
University Press, 1996,pg 15
54
Khiun L K op cit
Perak, Selangor, Negri Sembilan and Pahang. A further increase was made of sanctioned posts
in 1928, though , it must be admitted, only 93 out of 121 were actually appointed.55
Malaria control
The principles of malaria control were laid down by Sir Malcolm Watson. Watson was the
nephew of the legendary Sir Ronald Ross who was the first to show that the parasite was
transmitted by the anopheles mosquito. The measures included drainage and filling up of
mosquito breeding grounds and had the advantage of not requiring personal protection. As we
have noted, Tamil workers were for some reason resistant to using mosquito nets, unlike their
Chinese counterparts. Watson built up a lucrative consultancy advising plantation on anti
malaria measures.
He first implemented these principles in the Klang region and in the Port Swettenham area. In
the latter, “An area of about 110 acres, formerly low-lying swampy land covered with mangrove
trees, has been cleared and carefully drained. In the neighborhood of the railway, government
buildings, and town site a considerable area has been filled in and leveled, partly to do away
with the breeding grounds of mosquitoes and partly to provide building sites. The whole area
not occupied by buildings or roads is now covered by grass.”56 In Klang, about 25 acres of virgin
jungle was cut down as well as 80 acres of secondary forest sometimes about 30-40 feet high.
In addition 26 acres of permanent swamp were drained , finally making a grassland that
extended to 332 acres. Statistics were adduced showing a steep fall in malaria mortality. This
compared to the continued incidence of malaria in the “non-treated” areas.
His principles gradually became standard in the plantation industry. Other than drainage
measures, he recommended that the siting of the houses for managers and workers should be
away from ravines, swamps and cultivated areas where the anopheles bred. It was also
suggested that the buildings should be in the middle of a clearing, the radius of which should be
greater than the flying range of the anopheles prevalent in that area.57 Ronald Ross had
additional recommendations: he insisted that Europeans should live in separate European
enclaves which should be at an elevation, and the quarters should be large, airy, well lighted
and should have verandahs.
The government meanwhile set up a Malaria Advisory Board (MAB) and malaria destruction
Boards(MDB) which were meant to advise the government on policy, enhance public awareness
and reviewed engineering work designed to decrease mosquitoes.58). In 1923 the government
55
The Malay Mail, 10 August I927,
56
Howard L. O.( 1910) Preventive and Remedial Work against Mosquitoes. Washington: Government Printing
Office pg 89
57
Chang, Jiat-Hwee.(2012) op cit
58
Parmer op cit
laid down clear guidelines for anti malarial work. All land owners whose properties exceeded 25
acres were to assume the burden of carrying out proper and reasonable anti malarial measures
on his land.59.The cost of such measures could be recovered by imposing an assessment.
Another popular anti malarial measure was the free distribution of quinine tablets. These were
made available at district offices, police stations, schools, post offices and travelling
dispensaries . At its peak, 2 million quinine tablets were being distributed. A third prong of the
war against malaria was patient education. For this purpose publicity material was made
available in English, Malay, Tamil and Chinese. Lantern slides were used by itinerant lecturers to
reach out to remote outposts. The final measure was to repatriate plantation labour whose
health was impaired by repeated malaria attacks.
Watson detailed his experiences in a paper published in the British Medical Journal in
1908.60While the major part of the paper was devoted to anti-malarial measures in towns and
rural settlements, he also spoke of his efforts in the plantation sector. In the plantations, he
strongly advocated the use of compulsory quinine administration. In one experiment in a Klang
valley estate, all the workers were compelled to consume 8 to 10 grains of quinine when well
and 20 grains when they were absent from work. They had to compulsorily consume these in
the afternoon muster, failing which they would not get their wage for that day. According to
Watson, this led to a drastic fall in the malaria incidence. It was particularly effective in children
who were bribed to have their 5 grains daily by having it sweetened in condensed milk. Watson
relates “the children with hardly an exception rush out, each with his tin, when the time of the
daily dose arrives.” In most plantations at least in the initial days, quinine was only supplied to
the children because of its cost.
The government further implemented the Health Boards Enactment in 1926. It was to codify
landowner responsibility for anti-malarial work. The Act was based on the recommendation of
the Estates health Commission, a body which had among its members both official and
unofficial members and had pointed out that the estate owners were flouting existing law by
not providing the facilities according to the law. The estate owners o, on the other hand argued
that even if they did carry out the antimalarial measures as mandated, it would be useless as
adjacent kampungs and small landholdings were not required to do so. The new law intended
that that the government would bring these areas under anti malarial measures. The Act never
really got off the ground and both European and Chinese estate owners fought all these
measures tooth and nail and finally managed to have the law terminated in the 1930s by
59
The Straits Times, 1 September 1923,
60
Watson M ( 1908) : Experiments Towards The Prevention Of Malaria In The Federated Malay States BMJ Vol. 1,
No. 2461,pp. 499-500
pleading financial hardships because of the severe slump in the rubber prices during the Great
Depression.
Hookworm infestation
The Rockefeller Foundation which had61 experience of fighting hookworm elsewhere

cooperated with Government for a three year Rural Sanitation Project where the government
would look after the soil pollution while the Foundation would concentrate on mass anti
helminthic treatment and publicity measures. A survey conducted by the Foundation had
shown alarming results. About 73 % of the population was affected by the hookworm and
among school children in Malacca, the rate was as high as 90%62. The lack of toilets was a major
contributor to the infection. This enabled the parasite to enter the soil and as most of the rural
population walked barefoot, infection was easily contracted. The Chinese population had
imported the habit of using night soil for fertilizing fields and this added to the problem.
Even so, two important interventions were proposed and implemented. One was the effort to
establish a shoe wearing habit. In order to make shoe wearing widespread, a prominent local
businessman, Tan Kah Kee was encouraged to make cheap footwear. Made from lasts
developed from measurements taken from 1000 school children these shoes became popular
and soon almost all Malayans were wearing them. The second intervention was development
of the bore hole latrine which was very effective to safely dispose of the night soil.
Venereal Disease
Venereal disease and in particular syphilis was a major concern. The government was more
concerned with the fact that European soldiers were more likely to develop disease as they
frequented the brothels that flourished in the larger cities. But plantation labour, many of
whom were deprived of female company, was also prone to developing syphilis and gonorrhea.
It was difficult to control this, and in fact well intentioned efforts by missionary groups to close
down brothels only drove the “trade” underground and paradoxically increased rates of
venereal disease.
Infant Mortality
It has already been observed that infant mortality rates were very high amongst the plantation
labour and some of the causes have been analysed. The first step to control these rates in the
general population was the opening of five infant welfare centers in Kuala Lumpur, Taiping,
Ipoh and Seremban. Plantation workers could not really avail of these facilities but had to
61
The Straits Times 6 February 1925, p. 9.
62
S.S., 'Preliminary Survey of Hookworm Infection and Rural Sanitation in the Straits Settlements, 1925' by Paul F.
Russell, M.D., pp. 624-7 in Annual Departmental Reports of the Straits Settlements for the Year 1925.
depend on the estate hospitals to add creches and infant welfare sections which did happen
over the 1920s and 30s but at a very slow pace.
As realization dawned in the Imperial headquarters that tropical diseases were often different
from those encountered in the temperate regions, and that these diseases cost money and had
a salutary effect on the profits of the colonies, Schools of Tropical Medicine were set up in
order to research into the prevention and treatment of tropical diseases. The London School
was set up in 1899 by Sir Patrick Manson, and owed its existence to the munificence of a Parsi
donor, B D Petit., There was already one in Liverpool estabished in the previous year by the
Liverpool ship owners who realized that their continued profits depended on the management
of disease in the tropics. The Calcutta School was opened in 1914. In Malaya, the Institute of
Medical Research had already opened its doors in 1900 as the Pathological Institute in Kuala
Lumpur, with the aim to promote the health status of the local population and "to explore the
great and unknown field of tropical medicine
Conclusions
The great migration of human labour to the Malayan plantations took place for over a century,
though the heyday for such migration was during the period 1890-1935. During this period,
millions of mainly poor, uneducated laborers were lured into coming to what promised to be a
land of better opportunities. Their migration was driven by the grinding poverty that most of
them faced in India and newer opportunities that were opening in in the commercial
agricultural sector in Malaya promised a new life. While many did not find their Eldorado here
and returned to the motherland, large numbers did stay on and made Malaya their home. Their
descendants now make up a prominent part of the chiaroscuro that is Malaysia.
One of the most important challenged that they faced on arriving at their workplaces was the
health related one. They fell prey to diseases that they were not familiar with in their mother
country, their living conditions contributed to their plight and some of their habits also led to
further deterioration in their condition. This paper provides a narrative history of their
migration, their health problems and how the government of the day and their employers dealt
with them. This history is one of neglect and incompetence and a stubborn reluctance by the
planter class to countenance any reduction of profit by spending money to improve workers’
health. This was in spite of the realization that the poor health conditions led to a drop of
productivity, hitting the very profits that were being protected. That said, it is also true that the
government did make some efforts to ameliorate their condition, though many of the initiatives
that were planned suffered from poor implementation. In the attempt to balance between the
profits of the estates and the well being of the migrant workers, the government tended ot lean
on the side of the estates.
The Second World War and the Japanese occupation brought sea changes in the dispensation
at estates and its advent is a convenient date to end this narrative. During and after the War,
much was to change and emigration also came to a halt. The end of the War and the
resumption of colonial rule was now tempered with the realization that it was no longer
business as usual and that Merdeka ( Independence) was but a matter of time.

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Migration and Health in Plantation Labour Draft 1 16052019

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The Health of Indian migrant plantation workers : Malaya 1870-1939.

Anjan K Das: Taylor’s University

Immigration in Modern times

Nutrition and personal habits

Toddy and its ill effects

In addition, as we have already noted availability of toddy sometimes acted as an

Malaria, ankylostomiasis or hookworm, venereal disease, tuberculosis, dysentery, pneumonia,

The Rockefeller Foundation which had61 experience of fighting hookworm elsewhere

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