The historical relationship between traders from India and Southeast Asia including Singapore has been blossoming since times immemorial and Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong added another page in this rich interaction when he launched the Indian Heritage Centre. He laid special stress on the Sanskrit roots of the country’s Malay name, Singapura, that is also mentioned in the national anthem.
“To distill the 4,500 years of rich history, connects the dots from India to Singapore, and tell the stories of Singaporean Indians in an Indian Heritage Centre is no mean feat,” Lee said applauding the work on the community displayed, collected and preserved in the four-storey building built on a S$21 million grant from Singapore government along with generous donations from well wishers and philanthropists in India, Southeast Asia and UK.
Speaking on the historic occasion on May 7, Lee pointed out that the Indians introduced religions and ideas of governance in Southeast Asia, which led to establishment of Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms like Angkor (now in Cambodia), Srivijaya and Majapahit (in Indonesia).
“In fact, old Singapore was a tributary of the Majapahit empire. Even the name ‘Singapura’ has Sanskrit roots,” Lee elaborated. Singapura is the Malay name for the city state.
The contact and interaction between Singapore and India continued in the modern age. Ever since the Jamaica-born British statesman and former governor general of the Dutch East Indies, Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles arrived in Singapore in 1819 with 120 sepoys, the Indian connection was firmly etched in the history of the island nation. Indian soldiers led by British officers were a major part of Raffles’ contingent. His bazaar entourage also included washermen, tea-makers (chai-wallahs), milkmen and domestic servants of Indian origin.
Needless to say, the Indians didn’t come to Singapore alone and as happens in case of mass migration, brought with them their customs, culture, skills and trades. “They have left a deep mark on Singapore (as) many of the country’s early colonial buildings were built by Indian convict labour,” Lee recalled. These buildings include the Istana, or the Presidential Palace, he said.
The Prime Minister made a special note of the tremendous diversity in communities of India. “Notwithstanding and despite the diversity (in India), the wider Indians diaspora of all hues is bonded together in Singapore for the sake of common good of the community”.
The new heritage centre showcases Indian culture and arts, particularly as manifested in the Singapore Indian experience, he noted.
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