Origin of Malay Nationalism (1967)

The slow growth of communal, ethnic, and national feeling among the peninsular Malays from 1900-1940, and the expression of this feeling in voluntary associations of a potentially nationalist nature are the subjects of Mr. Roff's study.

As the preface to this work states, before the writing of this book most literature on the British colonial period tended to focus on anyone but the Malays. This book, it was claimed, was the first book written in English with more of a Malay centric approach. It traces their history on the peninsula and in Singapore from the arrival of the British to the arrival of the Japanese. 297 pages whose contents include

1 - The Malays and the British: Initial Impact,
2 - The Malayo-Muslim World of Singapore,
3 - Kaum Muda-Kaum Tua: Innovation and Reaction,
4 The Malays and the British: The Middle Years,
5 - The Growth of an Autochthonous Intelligensia,
6 - Voluntary Associations and Political Development &
7 - New Elites and National Organizations in the 1930s.
There is a glossary, bibliography and an index.