Sepoys, Convicts and the ‘Bazaar’ Contingent: The Emergence and Exclusion of ‘Hindustani’ Pioneers at the Singapore Frontier

Abstract

The article studies migrants from Uttar Pradesh in Singapore who have historically identified themselves as ‘Hindustani’ – a group that has largely been ignored in historical literature of the Indian diaspora in Singapore. Through an examination of British expansion in India in the early nineteenth century, parallel developments in Southeast Asia, community publications and oral testimonies, the article attempts to ‘(re)discover’ the history of Hindustani migration in Singapore.