EWRF chairman S. Pasupathi said as a responsible and progressive educational centre, UM needed to strengthen the Indian Studies Department instead of dissolving it.

'What is the role of Indians in the country going to be in the future if the single research facility available for it is abolished by a premier university?'

Malaysia has a two million-plus population of ethnic Indians, a bulk of whom are Tamils who settled here during the British era. They form roughly eight percent of the nation's 280 million people.