Kampung Madras

Kampung Madras (Madras Village), formerly known as Kampung Keling (Tamil: காலிங் கிராமம்), is the Little India of Medan, Indonesia, and one of the city's significant ethnic enclaves. Kampung Madras encompasses an area of approximately 10 hectares, and hosts a large Indian population, mostly Tamils. Now a now part of the Medan Polonia district, Kampung Madras is home to many sporting goods resellers, sari stores, and other shophouses. In the mid-nineteenth century, the colonial Dutch began importing Indian labor to work on Sumatran plantations and to construct roads, trenches, and dykes; today, Sumatra is home to as many as 60,000 people of Indian descent, many of whom reside in Medan. This area was originally called Patisah (Tamil: பெடிசாஹ்), and the name became a district in Medan called Petisah. The enclave's name changed to Kampung Madras to reflect the native land of the people of Indian descent who reside there. However, many people still refer to the place as Kampung Keling, a more derogatory term that may be offensive to some of its residents and others. Every year, Kampung Madras becomes a meeting point for Hindu and/or Tamil festivals such as Thaipusam, Thai Pongal, and Deepavali.