2026/06/01 by Sahil Bhagat · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Anthropological Studies and Insights #Colonial History and Postcolonial Studies #Military History and Strategy
paper · doi:10.1080/03086534.2026.2672051
openalex publication_date 2026/06/01 · openalex created_date 2026/06/02 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/20
Plantations have been central frontiers to the anticolonial and nationalist movements on the Malaysian peninsula. The 1948 Malayan Emergency centred the plantation as a hotbed of anticolonial and, notably, communist clandestine movements. However, this has neglected the diverse anticolonial expression and the highly transnational nature of the plantation before 1948. This article focuses on the little-known 1947 Kedah Strikes, where predominantly South Asian plantation labourers dressed in green uniforms, armed with handfuls of pepper and rocks, vocalising pro-temperance slogans dared to challenge the exploitative methods of the plantation enterprise. This movement represented the culmination of transnational networks and actors, including the Mysore State Temperance Association, the Indian National Army, the Pan-Malayan Federation of Trade Unions and the Malay Nationalist Party, against the plantation enterprise and colonial state. Drawing on English, Malay and Tamil language sources, this article argues that plantations were both central nodes for transnational anticolonial exchange and origin points for the formation of early anticolonial political expression on the Malayan peninsula. This article illuminates the diverse attitudes surrounding the Kedah Strikes as it became a political experiment for anticolonial actors to define the peninsula’s political future, and a laboratory for colonial policing methods to pacify future plantation demonstrations.