THE FORGOTTEN WATERS: A CRITIQUE OF MALAYSIAN HISTORIOGRAPHY

Abstract

In Malaysian historiography, I observe that the theme of water has long been marginalised, in stark contrast to the global development of water historiography where water is increasingly recognised as a social agent, a site of memory, and a field of power. In this article, I argue that such marginalisation is not merely a failure of thematic selection but reflects a deeper epistemological colonisation that began during the colonial period and continues to permeate postcolonial state structures. By critically rereading the archives, water rituals, and ecological transformations as alternative archives, I expose how water has been objectified, silenced, and instrumentalised within colonial and developmentalist projects of power. I do not merely critique the descriptive tendencies within the historical writing of water; instead, I propose a fluid hydrosocial historiography that combines pluriversal epistemologies, reading against the grain of the archive, and a deep appreciation for collective subjectivity and memory. I reposition water not simply as an economic resource but as a site of trauma, resistance, and political imagination. Drawing connections between theories of decolonisation, political ecology, and memory studies, I construct a more reflective methodological framework to write water histories through lived experiences, emotions, and multilayered human-environment relations. Through critical analysis of Malaysian cases, I demonstrate that rewriting the history of water is not merely an expansion of historiographical themes but a profound challenge to the epistemic structures that govern how we know, remember, and imagine our relationship with water. Through this approach, I restore water not merely as a technical object but as an epistemic space where histories of loss intertwine with the possibilities of a more just and sustainable future.