Marakkar

The Marakkars or Chonaka Mappila or Chonakar (Tamil: சோனகர், romanized: Cōṉakar; Arwi: چٗونَكَرْ‎) are a mercantile, panethnic group inhabiting the southwestern coast of India, Sri Lanka, and Southeast Asia.

Today, Marakkars are found across South Asia (Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maldives, Sri Lanka) and Southeast Asia (Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore). They are a multilingual Sunni Muslim community, speaking Tamil, Malayalam, Sinhala, Dhivehi, or Bahasa depending on their country of origin.

The Marakkars were prominent medieval traders who controlled significant Indian Ocean commerce. They are historically notable for mounting the first sustained Indian resistance against European colonialism, fighting the Portuguese Armada for a hundred-years from 1520 to 1619 under leaders including Admiral Kunjali Marakkar IV. Earlier waves of Marakkar migration to Southeast Asia contributed to the spread of Islam throughout the Indonesian Archipelago. In the early modern period, they became the first Indian community to settle in British Malaya, later forming the Jawi Peranakan ethnic group.