Malaysian ethnic Indian protest leaders were defiant Monday despite looming sedition charges, as they faced court a day after a mass rally was broken up with tear gas and water cannon.

About 300 supporters carried campaigner Uthayakumar Ponnusamy towards the court, chanting "Justice" as they confronted a cordon of about 150 police who stood guard as helicopters hovered overhead.

Uthayakumar, from ethnic Indian rights groups Hindraf which organised Sunday's mass protest, insisted the movement would continue even if he and two other leaders arrested last week were convicted of sedition.

"We have a second level, third level leadership and the movement will continue. Yesterday's event was unprecedented and so we will not give up and we will continue with our struggle," he said as he went into court.

At least 8,000 protesters massed in Kuala Lumpur Sunday in defiance of a ban, rallying in support of a multi-trillion dollar lawsuit that blames former colonial ruler Britain for the origin of their economic problems.

They pushed their way towards the British High Commission (embassy) to deliver a petition despite the police erecting road blockades and using tear gas and cannon firing chemical-laced water.

Uthayakumar said that ethnic Indians in Malaysia, who account for eight percent of the population against Malay Muslims at 60 percent and ethnic Chinese at 26 percent, would not longer accept government discrimination.

"Indian Malaysians have very long been marginalised," he told reporters.

"There has been inequality in job opportunities and education and in many other areas and yesterday's protest was significant because they were mostly youths and even women who turned up to demand change."

Malaysia's Chinese population is dominant in business, while Malays control the ruling party, the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO). Indians complain they run a distant third in skills, wealth and education.

The judge at the Klang Sessions Court outside the capital is expected to decide whether the three will be granted bail or be held in custody pending a sedition hearing -- a charge which carries a three-year jail penalty.

The charges related to speeches the three delivered at a rally last month, which Hindraf lawyer Manoharan Malayalam said dealt with "inequality, the freedom of religion, education and the ending of Malay rights."

The activists' lawsuit seeks four trillion dollars' compensation for the estimated two million ethnic Indians whose ancestors were brought to Malaysia as indentured labourers by Britain in the 1800s -- two million dollars each.

They are also demanding the government boost the social and economic standards of minority Hindus.