Singapore. Indians in Singapore, 1819–1945: Diaspora in the colonial port city By Rajesh Rai New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Pp. xxix + 325. Tables, Glossary, Bibliography, Index.

Abstract

Indians in Singapore, 1819-1945: Diaspora in the colonial port city By RAJESH RAI New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Pp. xxix + 325. Tables, Glossary, Bibliography, Index. The Indians of Singapore constitute a small but uniquely situated part of the larger mosaic of what once used to be called 'overseas Indian communities' but now come under the rubric of 'Indian diaspora'. Their history of migration and settlement goes back to the early years of the nineteenth century, but it was for the most part seen as a segment of the Indian community in the Malay Peninsula rather than as a separate and distinct component of it. Moreover, the political and social concerns of this small community settled in a port-city in Southeast Asia did not quite resonate with the interests and concerns of Indian communities elsewhere, preoccupied as they were with issues of citizenship and political representation in colonial legislatures. The Indians of Singapore and Southeast Asia more generally were thus separated from Indian communities elsewhere by both geography as well as history (and historiography). Rajesh Rai's latest book goes a long way towards bridging this gap. He has now given us the historical evolution of the Indian community in Singapore in great detail with sober and authoritative research, and his book will remain the standard text on the subject for the foreseeable future. It is an important contribution to the literature on the Indian diaspora. The British settlement of Singapore goes back to 1819, but Indian merchants and traders had been arriving in the region long before then, and joined later by sepoys and lascars. Convicts and political prisoners arrived after the middle of the nineteenth century along with workers who came under an unregulated system of indentured labour. With time, the community diversified as its numbers increased, factions developed and social and educational institutions emerged. In a chapter titled 'Diasporic formations in the inter-war years', Rai describes the social and cultural evolution of the Indian community (religion, vernacular language education, regional and subregional movements), and the impact on the Singapore Indians of political and religious tensions and frictions on the Indian subcontinent, though not to the extent of having a 'monopolistic hold on diasporic political loyalties' (p. 195). Nonetheless, in contrast to other areas where Indian immigrants settled, the Indian influence on social and political developments in Singapore was far greater. Given the physical proximity of Singapore to India, it could not have been otherwise. The persistence of caste politics and prejudices among Singaporean Indians and the presence of the sectional, South Indian 'Dravidian Movement' among them are illustrations of this. These developments and others like them had no resonance in the more remote sugar colonies across the globe. …