There has been a "systematic attempt to downplay the historical fact of Indian influences in Malay culture”, according to a book, Contemporary Malaysian ​Indians, which was launched last week.

The 640-page book also discusses the current Indian community’s dilemma and the scenario of "discontent to despair and then to hope" in reflecting encounters with the plantation community since 1961.

According to Universiti Malaya’s history professor Sivachandralingam Sundara, 58 years after independence, there seems to be an agenda to "deny or omit significant aspects of our glorious past".