Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur
Jalan Masjid India is one of Kuala Lumpur's oldest trading streets, named after Masjid India, the mosque founded there in 1863 by South Indian Muslim merchants who had settled around Batu Road in the town's earliest years. For over 150 years the street has been the heart of the city's Indian Muslim quarter, packed with textile houses, gold shops, and mamak food, and today it runs as a covered pedestrian bazaar with a famous Saturday night market. The mosque that names the street was rebuilt in the 1960s as a three-storey South Indian-style building, and the street itself made world headlines in August 2024 when a sinkhole tragedy briefly closed it, before trade returned in early 2025.
Little India of Kuala Lumpur
Colloquial, though the official Little India designation moved to Brickfields in 2010
1860s
As Kuala Lumpur takes shape as a tin-trading settlement, Indian Muslim merchants, largely from South India, settle around Batu Road (today's Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman) and the surrounding lanes.
1863
The community erects Masjid India, a small mosque of brick and timber, to unite the growing congregation. The street that grows around it takes the mosque's name.
1870-1900
The Indian Muslim population around Batu Road expands rapidly and the little wooden mosque becomes inadequate, while the surrounding streets solidify into the city's textile and gold trading quarter.
1964
The original mosque is demolished to make way for a larger one. Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah of Selangor lays the foundation stone on 11 September 1964.
29 June 1966
The new three-storey Masjid India is officially opened, built in South Indian style with onion-domed cupolas, arched windows, and a minaret over its entrance. A basement was added in 1998 and granite cladding in 2002.
2010
Kuala Lumpur's official 'Little India' designation moves to Brickfields, but Jalan Masjid India remains the city's historic Indian Muslim quarter, its covered pedestrian mall thronged for the Saturday pasar malam and the annual Ramadan bazaar.
23 August 2024
An eight-metre sinkhole opens suddenly in the pavement and an Indian tourist falls in; despite a days-long search she is never recovered. A second sinkhole appears nearby on 28 August, and the street is closed while the ground is stabilised and repaved.
February 2025
Local media report the street's shops and night market back to life roughly five months after the tragedy, with footfall and trade recovering through 2025.
Masjid India
The 1966 three-storey mosque on the site of the 1863 original gives the street its name. Its South Indian style, with onion-domed cupolas and a front minaret, is rare in Malaysia, where most mosques follow Moorish or modernist designs.
Covered pedestrian bazaar
The street is closed to traffic and roofed by a canopy, lined with textile emporiums, gold and jewellery shops, perfume sellers, and money changers serving the district's trading tradition.
Saturday pasar malam
The weekly night market fills the street with stalls selling street food, clothes, and sundries, at its liveliest from evening until late, and swells dramatically during Ramadan.
Textile and gold trade
Sari and songket textile houses and gold shops have anchored the street's commerce for over a century, a direct continuation of the South Indian Muslim mercantile trade that founded the quarter.
Crossroads location
The street sits between Masjid Jamek, where Kuala Lumpur was founded at the meeting of two rivers, and Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, the historic Batu Road shopping street, placing it at the core of the city's oldest commercial district.
The street is named after Masjid India, the mosque founded on it in 1863 by South Indian Muslim merchants. 'Jalan' means street in Malay, so the name literally means 'India Mosque Street'.
The congregation dates to 1863, when a small brick-and-timber mosque was built. The current three-storey South Indian-style building replaced it in the 1960s: the foundation stone was laid on 11 September 1964 and the mosque officially opened on 29 June 1966.
Historically it was known as KL's Little India, and it remains the city's oldest Indian Muslim quarter. Officially, though, the Little India designation was moved to Brickfields in 2010, so the two areas are often confused. Jalan Masjid India is the historic one, near Masjid Jamek.
On 23 August 2024 an eight-metre-deep sinkhole opened in the pavement and a tourist fell in; she was never found despite an extensive search. A second sinkhole appeared on 28 August, and the street was closed for ground stabilisation and repaving. Shops and the night market were reported back to normal by early 2025.
Since the 1860s, when Indian Muslim merchants settled around Batu Road in early Kuala Lumpur. The textile, gold, and food trades on the street today are a direct continuation of that mercantile community, making it one of the city's longest continuously trading streets.
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