Returning an exiled past: KS Maniam's between lives and the politics of The Malaysian Indian identity

Abstract

KS Maniam's latest novel Between Lives (2003) vividly articulates the politics of the Malaysian Indian identity through the interspersing of the lives of two women who emerge from different corners of its historical backdrop: Sumitra in her late twenties, the product of a middle class Malaysian Indian background and Sellamma, in her seventies, a product of the colonial plantation coolie background. The former has been given the task of persuading the latter to relinquish her hold on a piece of land that is keenly sought after by developers as it is seen as a prime piece of real estate. However, as noted in the blurb to the novel, "hoping to find the flaw that will help her dislodge the old woman from her memories and her land ... she finds herself falling under the spell of the old woman's personality and memories". This paper will delve into the ways in which Maniam portrays the performance of the rites of this rather intricate cultural passage and its significance to the Malaysian Indian context, positing the need for the community to confront the issue of an exiled coolie past that appears to have no place on the mural that is being sketched to reflect a more globalised identity.