The purpose of the publication of this study is to provide a fresh perspective
of the transmission and appropriation of colonial knowledge in order to
examine why modern school education, which had been introduced as a tool
of colonial rule, promoted the awakening of ethno-national consciousness
as an unintended consequence. For this purpose, it focuses on the interrelations
between Malay-medium education and the formation of pan-Malay identity
in British Malaya.
The publication of this study has the following significance.
First, as mentioned above, this study will be important as a study of intellectual
history that sheds light on aspects of the indigenization of colonial knowledge
in the formation of ethno-national identity in the colonial world. Second,
it might also be significant in the field of Southeast Asian area studies.
It attempts to reveal the process of the formation of the conception of
an area, that is, the “Malay world,” which could cover the whole area of
maritime Southeast Asia, focusing on intellectual interaction between the
colonizers and the colonized. Third, this study might also possess some
significance in the field of Malaysian studies. The principle of national
integration in modern Malaysia can be summarized as a multi-ethnic collaboration
on the premise that Malays and other Bumiputeras are given a special position.
This study might help us understand the formation of these official ethnic
categories in Malaysia.
The publication of this study in English would thus contribute the development
of studies of intellectual history, Southeast Asian area studies and Malaysian
studies not only in Japan but also in the other parts of the world, particularly
in Southeast Asia.
