The Malays

Just who are 'the Malays'? This provocative study poses the question and considers how and why the answers have changed over time, and from one region to another. Anthony Milner develops a sustained argument about ethnicity and identity in an historical, 'Malay' context. The Malays is a comprehensive examination of the origins and development of Malay identity, ethnicity, and consciousness over the past five centuries.



Covers the political, economic, and cultural development of the Malays

Explores the Malay presence in Brunei, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, and South Africa, as well as the modern Malay show-state of Malaysia

Offers diplomatic speculation about ways Malay ethnicity will develop and be challenged in the future

Anthony Milner is Basham Professor of Asian History at the Australian National University, and was Visiting Professor at The Research Institute for the Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (Tokyo) in 2007. He has also held appointments as Raffles Visiting Professor of History at the National University of Singapore and Visitor at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. His writings on 'the Malays' include The Invention of Politics in Colonial Malaya (1995, 2002), and Kerajaan: Malay Political Culture on the Eve of Colonial Rule (1982). He is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia.

"When all is said and done, readers will have learned a great deal about what it is to be Malay... A thoughtful... book." (CHOICE, December 2009)
"This study of a complex, elusive, and always changing essence of Malay civilisation draws on and reviews a large existing literature and adds an original and thought-provoking analysis to it. It is a work of great scholarship that is also absorbing reading." (Asian Affairs, March 2010)
"Milner's book is thorough and well researched. Indeed, it is a 'must read' for any student and/or practitioner of Malaysian history and politics." (The Star, August 2009)
"The book offers a fresh insight into the construction of group identities, the history of the Malay civilization and possible future of the Malay ethnicity." (Kansas City infoZine, March 2009)
"The Malays, confronts the bewildering diversity and contradictions of the Malay identity, ethnicity and consciousness. The book seeks to provide a provocative case study of the Malay people and to explore the idea of 'Malayness.'" (PR Inside, March 2009)
"The Malays is a must read book for those interested not only on the ethnic Malays in Southeast Asia but also in the broader field of identity study in the social sciences."
–Shamsul A.B., Institute of Ethnic Studies, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
"The Malays is an important contribution to the literature on the varied and changing meanings of what it is to be Malay by one of the most eminent historians of the peoples on insular and peninsular Southeast Asia. This book provides an interesting case study of the way in which group identities are 'constructed' and reconstructed in particular social and political contexts. Broad ranging in both his temporal and geographical scope and meticulously scholarly in his presentation of evidence, Milner produces fresh insights into the history and possible future of the Malays."
–Joel S. Kahn, La Trobe University, Australia

List of Figures.
List of Maps.
Preface and Acknowledgements.
Note about the Author.
1. Thinking about ‘the Malays’ and ‘Malayness’.
2. Early Histories: Engaging India and Islam.
3. The Sultanates.
4. A ‘Malay’ or Kerajaan World?
5. Experiencing Colonialism, and the Making of the Bangsa Melayu .
6. Building ‘Malays’ into Nation States.
7. Multiple Forms of ‘Malayness’
8. Ethnicity, Civilization and the Fear of ‘Disappearing from this World’.
Bibliography.
Index.