The statue of Stamford Raffles in the heart of the city-state of Singapore is a constant reminder of the imperial connection: India and Singapore Relationship Essay, NTU, Singapore

The statue of Stamford Raffles in the heart of the city-state of Singapore is a constant reminder of the imperial connection to its citizens, residents, and tourists, a saga that started 200 years ago in 1819. Britain’s acquisition of Singapore certainly changed the momentum of its trade, commercial and political relations in Asia.

It also created a unique identity for Singapore in Southeast Asia by connecting it, from the midst of the Malay World to the global economy. British policy and governance shaped the economy, landscape, institutions, and demography with significant reverberations in the contemporary state.

The British enforced a seamless connection and mobility of men, money, and authority across the region, redrawing existing circuits of trade and commerce, migration, and power. In extending the Empire’s reach from the subcontinent to Southeast Asia, they also reversed the trajectories and the importance of the once-active Indian presence in the region. New dynamics of accommodations and contestations arose between and among local and colonial powers in the competition to gain supremacy over Asian markets and resources.

This article brings to light one of the less-studied narratives of diasporic Indian history: the development of Indian transnational business networks in Singapore, and their integral role in inflows of capital, which has often been overshadowed by the parallel history of Indian labor migrations across the Indian Ocean.

It is well recognized that the mobility of Indians between the subcontinent and Singapore was circumscribed by colonial strategy, leading to both involuntary and voluntary migrations. What is not often discussed is the difference in the way the British strategized the economic growth of India and Singapore quite distinctly, leading to not only different economic archetypes, but also different paradigms of interactions between races and communities through similar administrative machinery.

While the vast Indian subcontinent provided a market for selling products from the factories of Europe and sourcing (and producing) necessary raw materials, Singapore, a much smaller geographical entity, was developed as a trading hub to enhance economic connectivity with China and the Eastern world. Indian communities were to play a significant part in the economic story of both geographies in different ways.