why ‘keling’ is a degradatory SLUR and shouldn’t be reclaimed or used by anyone who isn’t tamil or malaysian-indian-muslim + tamil slangs that you shouldn’t use if you’re non-tamil; a thread

i’ve seen a lot of people say that keling is not a degradatory word because it was used to describe people from the kingdom of kalingga- but this just doesn’t make sense. as we all know, ‘keling’ is a used word majoritarily in southeast asia (malaysia, singapore, indonesia etc).

many tamil slaves and refugees fled to or were brought to the malay archipelago in the 18th century during the british colonial rule over asia. also tamil people from ceylon (sri lanka) were constantly fleeing from there because of the immense racism they faced.

it simply doesn’t make sense if you say that they came from kalingga because they didn’t- majority of them came from tamilnadu and ceylon. also the state of kedah in modern day malaysia was under an indian empire for a long time and hence had a lot of indians living there.

so we know that keling wasn’t used to describe people from india, but how is it degradatory? well there are reasons as to how this word came about in southeast asia, and i will list all the reasons that i’ve researched of and seem reliable.

1. it originated from the word ‘kling’ which is what the british colonisers and slave owners would call tamils. it was most likely because of how tamils were brought to SEA in chains and they would make a ‘kling’ sound, or because our accessories (the kolosu) makes a bell sound.

2. it could have actually come from indonesia at first, considering the fact that indonesia still has evidence of its rich indian heritage/culture from the past, so indian tamils were living there. indonesians nowadays claim that the word “keling” is used at anyone darkskinned,

and it would make perfect sense that it was used at tamils since majority of tamil Are in fact, darkskinned.

3. it was *apparently* used to refer to Rajaraja Cholan as “Raja Keling” by east asians!

4. it was used to insult indian muslims in malaysia. even though malaysia is an islamic state, indian muslims are outcasted in malaysia because of their racial background! this word was used to insult them and outcast them.

so there we go. don’t use the word if you’re not tamil or malaysian indian muslim. it’s not yours to reclaim. also i want to add that no matter what the true meaning of the slur is, it is Still used to outcast and degrade tamils and indian muslims which is why it really hurts us.

if you’re gonna refer to the word, use ‘k-slur’ instead. treat it just like any other slur (i’m saying this because some people think it’s ‘not a real slur’?????)

as for tamil slangs: there are some slangs that are typically used by non-tamil malaysians and singaporeans which shouldn’t be used, because tamil people get mocked and outcasted for their own language while other people use our slang just to look ‘cool’. i’ll list them below

‘dei’ or ‘dai’
this word truly doesn’t have any meaning tbh it’s just used as a way to threatening someone (both as a joke and literally)

‘machan’
this word means brother-in-law but is generally used in the context of the word “buddy”, so basically for referring to your friends.

‘thambi’ and ‘anneh’
thambi means little brother and anneh means big brother. if you’re using these words to actually refer to a tamil person as your brother then it’s okay- but many people randomly scream this words at tamils just to mock the language, which is not okay at all.

i think that’s all for now if i remember anything more i’ll add later

i guess all malaysian/singaporean indians (not just tamils) can reclaim tbh since it’s used at every indian in malaysia. but i’d honestly prefer if north indians didn’t use it since y’all are generally more privileged and didn’t have this word used to degrade you

^^ not to mention the slur does have layers of colourism ingrained in it

https://twitter.com/skeletonjacket/status/1295862940046778368?s=21 https://twitter.com/skeletonjacket/status/1295862940046778368

muting this but go off ig

if you wanna learn more about kedaram and sri vijaya being apart of the chola empire- just do a fucking google search. there’s so many articles and videos u can watch. it’s simple.

also the fact about kedah isn’t even that important- y’all are missing the whole point