If My Ethnicity is Your Problem, then Your Problem is Laughable

Lately, I am being abused for being a non-Tamil (Telugu), speaking about the colorism in the Tamil film industry. 
Adangomale... I am a Malaysian of Indian origin, shortly called "Malaysian Indian." 

Malaysian Indians make up approximately 6.6% to 7% of Malaysia's total population. This translates to roughly 2.27 to 2.3 million people out of a total population of around 32.4 to 34.1 million. They are the third largest ethnic group in Malaysia. 

The Indian community in Malaysia is diverse, encompassing various religious and linguistic groups, including Tamil, Malayali, Telugu, Punjabi, and others. Many Malaysian Indians are descendants of laborers brought to Malaysia during the British colonial era, primarily to work in plantations. 

Tamil is the most widely spoken language among Malaysian Indians (including non-Tamils like me), though many also speak Malay and English. 
I am the tallest one in the picture and the saree I'm wearing is in Telugu style.

The entertainment here, including FM radio, local Indian TV shows, and local Indian movies are all in Tamil. There's Surya TV and Gemini TV under Sun TV on Astro, they air a Telugu movie on Ugadhi, a Malayalam movie on Onam, and a Punjabi movie on Vaisakhi.

Since Tamil is spoken by most Malaysian Indians of all ethnicities, except Punjabi, and with Tamil pop culture from Tamil Nadu dominating the entertainment scene, it was natural to start a page called Karuththu Kannammaa in 2015 together with my schoolmate. The fact that she's Tamil and I'm not was never a problem. I don't have a problem with speaking Tamil - in fact I speak it better than my mother tongue. I also speak Malaysian Tamil. 

If I started the page for Malaysian Telugus, focusing on Goltiwood, it's really st*pid because:

1. The majority of the audience is Tamil speaking Malaysian Indians. ☝
2. Telugus are the minority within a minority - as of 2024, there are only 500,000 Telugus in Malaysia and many of them don't even know Telugu. 💥
3. I don't watch Golti, Hindi, Malayalam, Kannada, Bhojpuri, and Tulu movies as much as I watch Tamil movies. The same is true for Malaysian Indians including Telugus. 👺
4. If I posted about Tollywood, those Malaysian Indians who aren't familiar with it would riot as what I post isn't relatable to them. 👿

I taught myself to read Tamil - I can't read Telugu. There are only Tamil schools here - my sister and brother went to Tamil schools. My dad only read Makkal Osai, a local Tamil newspaper. My siblings and cousins married Tamil people. Some of my nephews and nieces can't speak Telugu because of their mixed parentage and the prevalence of Tamil and the pressure to speak it if you're a Malaysian Indian. This is how intertwined Tamil is in the fabric of life in the Malaysian Indian community.

There are only Vijay, Ajith, Rajini, Kamal Hassan and Dhanush fan clubs in Malaysia, not Mahesh Babu, Allu Arjun, Pawan Kalyan, and Prabhas fan clubs. Neither are there Mammooty, Mohanlal, Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan fan clubs in Malaysia.

These ethnocentric Tamils in Tamil Nadu should come here to identify the non-Tamil members in those Tamil actors fan clubs and tell them to form their own golti, mallu, and vadakku fan clubs.

It's not my fault that Karuththu Kannamma gained followers from Tamil Nadu circa 2017. I just kept doing what I was doing in 2015 and 2016 for the Tamil speaking Malaysian Indian community. It unexpectedly struck a chord with people in Tamil Nadu, India. Even before those Indians followed the page, my friend and I were speaking about Tamil movies. 
Cos she knows only about Tamil pop culture as a Malaysian Indian - I know about Tamil pop culture as a Malaysian Indian. So, it makes sense to speak about the common ground we have: Tamil pop culture.

During this journey, admins from Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu were recruited. The page isn't only mine, it was my Tamil schoolmate's it was also the Sri Lankan admin's and the TN admins. 

The Karuththu Kannammaa brand was painstakingly built from its Malaysian Indian centric days. I can't and won't suddenly change its course for a few ignorant Tamil nationalists from India.

Yes, Malaysian Indians of Telugu ethnicity don't watch Telugu movies as much as they do Tamil movies. And the Malaysian govt discriminates on us as "Indians," not golti, mallu, vadakku. Your TN politics and ethnocentrism don't apply to me. 

The world is globalized and anyone can speak about anyone. I can speak about Trump, Musk, and Rajini - I don't need to be American, South African, and Marathi to speak about them. In the same vein, I needn't be Tamil to speak about Kollywood or dark skinned to advocate for dark skinned Indians anywhere in the world.

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