Discussion of Patrick Manning’s legacy as a world historian must include the way he taught us to write historical narratives that not only shift between the perspectives of diverse individuals and interest groups, but also bring those perspectives into conversation with each other. This relational world history-writing methodology requires analysis of both local, transregional, and global historical forces and the experiences of people who tried to deploy or resist those forces. In the spirit of Manning’s approach, this article highlights how competing narratives about emigration from Britain and the Indian subcontinent to British Malaya from the 1920s until 1940 can be understood more clearly by demonstrating how three interest groups defined their relationship to the colony’s Malayan Indian population. Analyzing this contested discourse among British civil servants, Indian immigrant community representatives, and individuals trying to rally the Indians Overseas labor diaspora illustrates the kinds of circumstances that had the potential to promote or constrain meaningful social change for Indian-born and Indian-descended settlers in Malaya.

对帕特里克·曼宁（Patrick Manning）作为世界历史学家的遗产的讨论，必须包括他教我们写历史叙事的方式，这些叙事不仅在不同的个人和利益集团的观点之间转移，而且使这些观点彼此对话。这种关系世界历史写作方法需要分析本地，跨地区和全球的历史力量，以及试图部署或抵抗这些力量的人们的经验。本着曼宁的方法精神，本文着重说明了三个利益集团如何定义他们与该殖民地马来亚印第安人口的关系，从而可以更清楚地理解关于1920年至1940年从英国和印度次大陆到不列颠马来亚的移民的竞争叙述。分析了英国公务员，印度移民社区代表之间这种有争议的话语，