Culture is not a competition

I RECENTLY came across the Malaysia Kumar podcast episode titled “Why I always talk in English”, featuring Malaysian celebrity chef Shankar S Santhiram.

- SARANYA DEVAN

He spoke at length about his December 2024 trip to South Africa when he prepared traditional Malaysian Tamil sappadu (food). As a South African of Tamil heritage myself, and having visited Malaysia recently, I was initially intrigued. There is always value in hearing how diasporic communities view one another, especially if the analysis is approached with sincerity and respect.

However, what unfolded in the episode was not simply an exploration of cross-cultural insights, but a troubling display of cultural condescension, pompously wrapped in the language of Tamil pride.

Santhiram spoke affectionately about how Tamil played a “huge role” in his life, although he chose to swop Tamil and speak in English to “reach a wider audience” and to entice non-Indians, such as native Malays, to sample “Malaysian Tamil food”. Fair enough. Adaptability is something all diasporic communities understand. But the conversation took a disappointing turn.

Santhiram went on to point out that South Africa only had about 1.3 million Indians — about half the Indian population of Malaysia. Using this statistic as a foundation, he confidently claimed that Tamils in South African had forgotten their cultural ways, language and even their food. This is where I began to fume.