Editing Malaysian Indian Congress (section)

== History ==
[[File:Headquarters of MIC.JPG|thumb|MIC Headquarters]]

=== John Thivy and Indian nationalism ===
John Thivy, the founder of the MIC, met [[Mahatma Gandhi]] at [[London]] while studying law. He was inspired by [[Mahatma Gandhi|Gandhi]]'s ideology and Nehru's vision and became determined to fight for Indian independence. He became actively involved in the Indian nationalist movement and returned to Malaya.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1j_qCQAAQBAJ&q=MIC+under+John+Thivy&pg=PA212 |title=From People's War to People's Rule: Insurgency, Intervention, and the Lessons of Vietnam |editor=Timothy J. Lomperis |page=217 |publisher=Univ of North Carolina Press |year=2000 |isbn=9789971693916}}</ref> He founded the Malaya Indian Congress (renamed Malaysian Indian Congress after the formation of the Federation of Malaysia in 1963) in August 1946, and was party president until 1947. The word 'Congress' in the party's name refers to the [[Indian National Congress]], the party Mahatma Gandhi led to fight for Indian independence.

=== Baba Budh Singh Ji, Ramanathan, and opposition to the Malayan Union ===
After India gained independence in 1947, the MIC changed its focus and started to fight for the independence of Malaya.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HphXHA4_sYQC&q=MIC+under+John+Thivy&pg=PA26 |title=Cage of Freedom: Tamil Identity and the Ethnic Fetish in Malaysia |publisher=NUS Paper |year=2007 |isbn=9789971693916 |editor=Andrew C. Willford |page=26}}</ref> Baba Budh Singh Ji became president of MIC in 1947. After World War II, the British had established the [[Malayan Union]], unifying the Malay Peninsula under a single government to simplify administration. Although a majority of the Indian community supported the Malayan Union, the MIC did not.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mic.org.my/about/history/ |title=History – MIC |publisher=Malaysian Indian Congress}}</ref> The Malayan Union was dissolved in 1948 after widespread Malay protests and replaced with the [[Federation of Malaya]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Malayan Union controversy 1942–1948 |last=Lau |first=Albert |date=1991 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-588964-9 |location=Singapore |oclc=22117633}}</ref> The MIC later joined the [[All-Malaya Council of Joint Action]] under [[Malay titles|Tun]] [[Tan Cheng Lock]] in opposition to the Federation of Malaya Agreement.

K. Ramanathan became president in 1950. By this time, the MIC was the leading party representing Indians in Malaya.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Rajagopal |first1=Shanthiah |last2=Fernando |first2=Joseph Milton |date=27 April 2018 |title=The Malayan Indian Congress and Early Political Rivalry among Indian Organisations in Malaya, 1946–1950 |journal=Kajian Malaysia |volume=36 |issue=1 |pages=25–42 |doi=10.21315/km2018.36.1.2 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Ramanathan advocated for the relaxation of the language proficiency test as a prerequisite for citizenship for Indians, and urged Indians to obtain federal citizenship.<ref name="Kailasam 2015">{{Cite journal |last=Kailasam |first=A. |date=1 January 2015 |title=Political expediencies and the process of identity construction: The quest for indian identity in Malaysia |url=http://web.usm.my/km/33(1)2015/km33012015_01.pdf |journal=Kajian Malaysia |volume=33 |pages=1–18}}</ref>

=== K.L. Devaser and a focus on Malayan independence ===
The MIC's fourth President, [[K. L. Devaser|Kundan Lal Devaser]], served from 1951 to 1955. It was during his period that MIC started to focus on the fight for Malayan independence.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://malaysianindian1.blogspot.my/2008/02/mic-hidden-history.html |title=MIC – The Hidden History |website=malaysianindian1.blogspot.my}}</ref>

Under Devaser, the MIC contested the [[1952 Malayan local elections|1952 Kuala Lumpur Municipal Elections]] in alliance with the [[Independence of Malaya Party]], [[Dato Onn Bin Ja'afar|Dato' Onn bin Jaafar]] and other non-communal organisations. The election ended with a failure for MIC as their coalition was defeated by the [[Alliance Party (Malaysia)|Alliance Party]]. The defeat showed MIC that it stood a better chance of gaining influence by joining the Alliance. In 1954 the MIC joined the [[United Malays National Organisation]] and the [[Malaysian Chinese Association|Malayan Chinese Association]] in the Alliance, securing a place for Indians in the administration.<ref name="Kailasam 2015" /> The party's broader membership was less enthusiastic than the MIC leadership about joining the Alliance but were willing to support the move if the party could secure concessions from the Alliance on inter-communal issues, particularly on education.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Indian minority and political change in Malaya, 1945–1957 |last=Brown |first=Rajeswary Ampalavanar |date=1981 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-580473-2 |location=Kuala Lumpur |oclc=8080662}}</ref>

Devaser was primarily popular among the urban-based Indian elite, and lacked wider grassroots support. For the first eight years, MIC leaders were either of North Indian or Malayalee origin, a minority among Malayan Indians. The majority of Indians in Malaya at that time were Tamils, most of whom were labourers in plantations. Indian plantation workers experienced enforced segregation because of plantation compound housing. The plantation labour system also worked against the integration of Indian workers into society and perpetuated racial and occupational differentiation. Plantation workers were unable to acquire the skills required to move to better-paying jobs.{{Citation needed|date=September 2019}}

Migrant plantation workers were both marginalised and polarised in Malaya. Their wages were tied to rubber prices, falling when the rubber price fell, and were about 50c per day. Devaser came under heavy criticism from the Tamil media for not addressing the pressing issues facing the community. Some in the party felt that there was a need for a leader with a stronger relationship with the party's grassroots. In March 1955, the local daily ''Tamil Murasu'' urged Tamils to boycott the MIC.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.thestar.com.my/story/?file=/2007/7/16/focus/18293824&sec=focus |title=Archives |website=The Star |access-date=13 July 2022 |archive-date=14 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190614011132/https://www.thestar.com.my/story/?file=%2F2007%2F7%2F16%2Ffocus%2F18293824&sec=focus |url-status=dead}}</ref> This was followed by a call for change in MIC's leadership, led by Tamil MIC leaders, and Devaser stepped down.<ref name="Kailasam 2015" /> The MIC then faced the challenge of reconciling the political aspirations of the middle class with the needs of the working class, who at the time comprised 84% of the plantation workforce.

=== V. T Sambanthan and becoming a Tamil party ===
In May 1955, [[V. T. Sambanthan|Tun V. T. Sambanthan]] was elected as the fifth President of the Malayan Indian Congress. Sambanthan started a recruitment campaign among plantation workers, relying on the patronage of Hinduism in its popular South Indian form, increased use of the Tamil language, and encouraging Tamil cultural activities. He personally toured plantations and encouraged Tamils to join the MIC.<ref name="Kailasam 2015" /> This led to a fragmentation of the Indian community, with traditionalists and the lower middle class becoming prominent in the party while upper-class professionals and the intelligentsia moved away from it. Two paths to leadership emerged in the Indian community, via politics or via trade union activism, with very little interaction between them.{{Citation needed|date=September 2019}}

Under Sambanthan's leadership, the MIC effectively became a Tamil party. Sambanthan served as president of the MIC until 1971 and was largely responsible for the transformation of the party to a conservative and traditionalist party emphasising Indian culture, religion and language.{{Citation needed|date=September 2019}} It was the weakest of the three main political parties, with the smallest electorate (7.4% in 1959) and had little support from the Indian community at large.

The Indian community was geographically dispersed and divided and comprised less than 25% of the population in any constituency. The MIC's overriding concern was therefore to remain a partner in the Alliance and obtain whatever concessions it could from the dominant UMNO. This led the MIC to compromise on priorities such as the political and economic rights of workers.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Koh |first1=Sin Yee |editor1-last=Christou |editor1-first=A. |editor2-last=Mavroudi |editor2-first=E. |title=Dismantling Diasporas: Rethinking the Geographies of Diasporic Identity, Connection and Development |date=2016 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-14958-3 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YbS1CwAAQBAJ&pg=PT133 |language=en |chapter=Unpacking 'Malaysia' and 'Malaysian Citizenship': Perspectives of Malaysian-Chinese Skilled Diasporas}}</ref>

Sambanthan sold approximately half of his father's 2.4&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup> rubber estate and donated part of the money to the MIC.  He was not uniformly popular but was able to gradually unite a party that had significant internal divides.  During his presidency, in 1957, Malaysian independence was achieved. Sambanathan was involved in the negotiations with the British government's [[Reid Commission]] to draw up the new Malayan constitution. In 1963 [[Singapore]], [[Sabah]] and [[Sarawak]] merged with the Federation of Malaya to form the [[Malaysia|Federation of Malaysia]], and the MIC renamed itself the Malaysian Indian Congress.

Sambanathan was forced to retire in favour of [[V. Manickavasagam]] in 1973 after a rebellion by five MIC leaders including [[Samy Vellu]].

=== Manickavasagam and non-political ventures ===
Manickavasagam served as president of MIC from 1973 to 1978. During this period, Malaysia's [[Malaysian New Economic Policy|New Economic Policy]] was being developed, and the MIC convened two economic conferences in an unsuccessful effort to advocate for the interests of Indians.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Anbalakan |first=K. |date=1 January 2003 |title=The NEP and Further Marginalization of the Indians |url=http://web.usm.my/km/KM%2021,2003/21-16.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160804174839/http://web.usm.my/km/KM%2021,2003/21-16.pdf |archive-date=4 August 2016 |url-status=live |journal=Kajian Malaysia |volume=21 |pages=379–398}}</ref>

It was during this period that the MIC, as member of the Alliance, became part of the [[Barisan Nasional]]. The party sponsored the Nesa Multipurpose Cooperative and the MIC Unit Trust as part of its programme for economic ventures. It also set up the MIC Education Fund for members' children and the Malaysian Indian Scholarship Fund for higher education as well as acquiring an Institute for training Indians in technical and trade skills.

Manickavasagam appointed several new representatives to leadership positions, including [[Subramaniam Sathasivam]], Datuk K. Pathmanaban, a Harvard MBA holder, and several others. They were young, well-educated and ambitious but lacked grassroots experience. Subramaniam was hand-picked by Manickavasagam to become deputy president and succeed him, but the party elected [[Samy Vellu]] as Deputy President instead, by a narrow margin of 26 votes.

=== Samy Vellu and emphasis on education ===
Samy Vellu became MIC president in 1979 and served until 2010. Under his leadership, in 1984, the MIC founded the Maju Institute of Education Development (MIED) to offer educational opportunities and financial support to Indian students in Malaysia.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://mied.com.my/?page_id=1069 |title=Corporate Profile – Maju Institute Of Educational Development. |language=en-US |access-date=14 November 2019}}</ref> Since its establishment, more than 10,000 students have obtained loans and scholarships totaling about RM60&nbsp;million MIED fund as of 2013.<ref>{{cite web |title=Mied |url=http://www.mied.com.my/index.php |access-date=2 April 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130716224251/http://www.mied.com.my/index.php |archive-date=16 July 2013}}</ref> In 2001, the MIC and MIED launched an [[AIMST University]] with the stated goal of helping Indians acquire professional training. Vellu was the founding chancellor of the university. By 2018, the university had achieved a score of 4 on the Malaysian Higher Education Institution's 5-point rating scale.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.thestar.com.my/metro/metro-news/2018/11/24/varsity-to-keep-chasing-excellence-aimst-striving-for-score-of-five-to-achieve-excellent-university |title=Varsity to keep chasing excellence |last=SEE |first=BERNARD |date=24 November 2018 |website=The Star Online |language=en |access-date=14 November 2019}}</ref> However, AIMST's commitment to training Indian students has been questioned.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.themalaysiantimes.com.my/mic-turns-70-but-aimst-intake-of-indian-students-shocking/ |title=MIC turns 70, but AIMST intake of Indian students 'shocking' |date=2 August 2016 |website=The Malaysian Times |language=en-US |access-date=14 November 2019}}</ref>

Vellu was succeeded by [[Palanivel Govindasamy]] who served from 2010 to 2014.  Subramaniam was then elected, initially in an acting role, serving from 2014 to 2018. {{As of|2019||df=}}, the party is led by [[Vigneswaran Sanasee]].

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