Sikhism in Singapore

Overview

Sikh settlement of Singapore was part of the greater Sikh settlement of Malaya (including the Malay states and the Straits Settlements) that was facilitated by the British Empire, with their settlement occurring in three distinct waves (minus the earliest migrants, who arrived as convicts):^[4]

• First wave occurred between the 1870s and 1914, with Sikhs of the British Indian Army working in Singapore for security and policing roles^[4]
• Second wave occurred between 1914 and 1945, with educated, business-minded Sikhs coming to Singapore to work in the colonial auxiliary services and as business-owners^[4]
• Third wave occurred from 1945 to the 1950s, with it consisting of partition-refugees, family-reunifications, and regional twice-migrations, such as from Thai Sikhs^[4]

The Sikh settlers in the colonial-period mostly derived from the peasantry of the Majha, Malwa, and Doab regions of British Punjab. Most of the Sikhs of Singapore today are descended from Sikhs who arrived during the colonial-period as there has been little modern migration of Sikhs from India or elsewhere to Singapore.^[4]

19th century

Earliest arrivals

The earliest Sikhs in Singapore arrived as convicts in the 1850s.^[4] Some of the first Sikhs to migrate, albeit not voluntarily, to Singapore were Maharaj Singh and Khurruck Singh in 1850; Maharaj Singh was sent there as a political prisoner by the British Empire after the Second Anglo-Sikh War.^[5][6] They both arrived in Singapore on 14 June 1850 whilst other sources claim their date of arrival in Singapore to be 9 July 1850.^[7][8]

Aside from them, there is scant evidence of a prominent Sikh presence in Singapore prior to 1881, however Tan Tai Yong speculates that some Sikhs may have been present in Singapore from the time of the earliest British settlement in the early 19th century as sepoys, domestic servants, and convicts.^[9] According to Yong, Sikhs began migrating out of the Punjab for economic reasons ever since its annexation in 1849 by the British.^[9]

In the second half of the 19th century, the majority of Sikh migrants to Singapore were employed in the police or security forces.^[9][10] When these migrants returned to their native villages in Punjab on vacation, they spread word about the prospects of Singapore for settlement, leading more of their kind to come, increasing the Sikh diaspora in Singapore.^[9]

This marked the start of a proper Sikh community in Singapore as prior to this, the Sikhs that were sent here were convicts as Singapore served as a convict colony, and did not form a community. However, this stopped in 1857 when Andaman Islands became the new convict colony, since then, up till the formation of the Sikh Police Contingent, there were no records of Sikh migrants in Singapore.^[11]

Police and military recruits

A factor which led to Sikhs joining the military or migrating out of Punjab was also the local economic situation in Punjab during the British-rule. Due to the political stability and economic growth in the Punjab after its annexation by the British, profits from agricultural output increased which led to the prices for arable land to rise.^[9] Thus, peasants started to use land as a collateral to borrow money from moneylenders, especially in the Majha region.^[9] They used these funds to purchase more land, fund a conspicuous lifestyle, and pay their land revenue taxes.^[9] However, there was a risk of them losing their land if they could not pay off their loans, thus these Sikhs began to join the military to supplement their income, as military service provided regular pay and pensions.^[9] The British preferred to recruit Sikhs belonging to the Jat caste from particular districts in the Majha region.^[9] Many Sikhs who were not able to be recruited in the colonial military looked elsewhere and either set westward to the canal-colonies or moved abroad looking for work, such as in North America (Canada, USA) or in southeast Asia (Thailand, Malaya and the Straits Settlements).^[9]

The Sikhs were idealized as a martial race^[4] and admired by the British, especially after encountering how the Sikhs fought during the war against British in Punjab, also known as the First Anglo-Sikh War, which happened from 11 December 1845 to 9 March 1846.^[11] Jat Sikh recruitment into the Indian British military increased after the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857.^[9] The Sikhs were known as martial Indians, known for their bravery and their well-built body.^[12] The uprising of Singapore Societies along with the local police not deemed fit by the British lead to the recruitment of the Sikhs.^[11]

In 1879, the Commission of Enquiry of the Straits Settlement Police Force in Singapore made a recommendation for the recruitment of Sikhs from the Punjab for the purposes of policing Singapore.^[9][13] This led to the eventual establishment of the Sikh Police Contingent (SPC) in Singapore in 1881,^[4] with the first batch of 54 Sikh recruits arriving in Singapore on 26 March 1881 and another 65 in August that year.^[14][13] Around 200 Sikhs arrived to Singapore Island to form a new Sikh police contingent to augment the local police force.^[3] A total of 165 Sikhs from British Punjab arrived on the island to form the new police contingent in 1881.^[9][3] Thus, Sikhs began migrating to Singapore in-hopes of being recruited by the Straits Settlement Police Force.^[3] The Sikh policemen were deployed at the Tanjong Pagar Police Station as well as the Tanjong Pagar Dock Police Station.^[15] The Sikhs responsibility was to counter Chinese Secret Societies as well as the security of the docks, harbors and the godowns.^[15] However, not all Sikhs that arrived are recruited as policemen as the British had stringent requirements – recruit has to be younger than 25 years old, have a minimum height of 5 feet 6 inch (1.68m) and a minimum chest measurement of 33 inch (84 cm).^[15][9] On top of that, it was also revealed in the General Orders that only non-English educated Sikhs who came from the farming community (known as Jat Sikhs) are to be recruited. This is to ensure that the British will be able to control these Sikhs, as they were considered obedient and will follow blindly to those who they have taken the oath of obedience to. Hence, those who failed to be selected found work as security guards and watchmen with private employers.^[11][9]

In 1898, a Sikh from Hong Kong named Lal Singh acted as a leader for the community during meetings, successfully gathering funds for the establishment of a dharamshala.^[16]: 66

At the time, Punjabis and Sikhs were not the only group of Indians in Singapore, there were also Tamils, Malayalis, Telugus, Ceylonese, Gujaratis, Sindhis, Biharis, and Bengalis.^[3]

20th century

By the turn of the century, the community was still small but settled (concentrated in the town areas), and predominantly male.^[9] These were mostly transitory migrants who had no true intentions of permanently settling in Singapore, with them having the goal of eventually moving elsewhere or returning to their homeland.^[9] There were smaller amounts of Sikh females but they were usually the wives of Sikh policemen.^[9] The reason for limited amounts of Sikh females is due to the unfamiliar environment, lack of employment options, and the living standards.^[9] It was typical for married Sikh men to leave their wives back in Punjab and reside in Singapore without them or for single Singaporean-Sikh men to return to Punjab in-order to find a wife and get married, after they had saved-up enough funds for the purpose.^[9] Most Singaporean Sikhs in the early 20th century were employed as policemen, security guards, or caretakers.^[9] However, some Singaporean Sikhs at the time pursued work in agriculture, such as by being dairy farmers and bullock drivers and keeping some heads of cattle on the outskirts of town.^[9] Many of the Sikhs, especially watchmen, were working multiple jobs or side-hustles (especially in money-lending) in-order to bring-in as much income as possible and to send funds back to their homeland in the form of remittance.^[9] Some of them aimed to eventually return to Punjab as wealthy individuals and thus worked hard to achieve their dream.^[9] Often, retired policemen took-up new jobs as watchmen, which afforded them to become moneylenders as well.^[9] The Singaporean Sikh policemen were barracked at Pearl’s Hill whilst those working as watchmen or security-guards resided near their places of employment, which were usually go-downs, banks, and offices located within the municipal area.^[9]

In 1912, the Journal des Voyages published a satirical print of Sikh policemen rounding up Chinese criminals by their queues in Singapore.^[17] In 1915, the Sikh Advisory Board was formed as a government body to inform the government on issues related to Sikh religion and custom.^[4]

After WW1, especially in the 1920's and 1930's, a new type of Sikh commercial migrants started to arrive in Singapore, these were business-minded Sikhs who worked as petty traders, pedlars, shopkeepers, and merchants, particularly in textiles.^[9][3] They are to be distinguished from the Jat Sikh migrants sourced from the peasantry that had characterized and dominated the ranks of the prior Sikh arrivers.^[9] They started to build-up commercial enterprises, such as in textiles, which catered to both the Indian and European segments of the Singaporean population as wholesalers and retailers.^[9] Singapore was sort-of a second-choice for Sikh textile workers, as they preferred Bangkok in Thailand, which was the distribution centre of the textile trade in SE Asia.^[3] In 1931, the Singapore Khalsa Association was founded by young Sikh Singaporeans who wanted an organisation that met their needs, such as by hosting educational lectures and discourses on Sikh topics and also sports.^[4]

During the Japanese occupation of Singapore from 1942–45, the Gurdwara Sahib Silat Road housed war widows and orphans.^[4] The Sikh Police Contingent of Singapore was abolished in 1945.^[13]

Post-1945, more Sikh commercial migrants arrived due to the aftermath of the partition of Punjab, with some urban Sikh refugees from West Punjab moving abroad to Singapore, Malaya and Thailand, and also due to increased business opportunities as the Korean War raged-on.^[9] From 1950–52, many Sikh businessmen from Bangkok moved to Singapore to benefit from the better banking system.^[3] Some of the Sikh-owned textile business in this era were Hardial Singh & Co. and Gian Singh & Co.^[18] After the independence of India in 1947, it became difficult for Indian Sikhs to migrate to Singapore due to the imposition of Indian citizenship on inhabitants of India and the enactment of the 1953 Immigration Ordinance introduced by the British colonial authorities in Malaya, thus Indian Sikh migration to Singapore mostly ended in the late 1950s.^[4]

After the creation of Singapore in 1965, local Sikhs worked in the paramilitary and civilian police forces, the railways, in road construction, as dairy farmers, security guards, clerical staff, and as cart drivers, with lesser numbers being involved in small businesses and money-lending. Lee Kuan Yee praised the Singaporean Sikh community in 1967 for their efforts in developing Singapore. The Sikh Advisory Board became a statutory body under the Ministry of Community Development of the Singaporean government. Sikhs are on good-terms with the Singaporean government but there was strain during the 1984 Operation Blue Star incident and Punjab insurgency. However, the Sikh Advisory Board conducted the Seminar on Sikh Youth and Nation Building in the 1980s to deal with the controversies of the era related to Sikh radicalisation and Khalistani separatism. In 1979, the Sikh revivalist organization Sikh Sewaks Singapore was established, which operates sammelans (religious/cultural camps) to cater to the Sikh youth, such as the Youth Kirtan Darbar and its Bahadur Bachey ("brave children") camps. The group worked with the Sikh Dharma of the Western Hemisphere (3HO) organization at some points, which led to the introduction of yoga and bhajan to Singaporean Sikhs.^[4]

In 1989, the Singaporean government declared the Punjabi language as a mother tongue to be studied. The facilitate the learning of the language, the Singapore Sikh Education Foundation was founded in 1990, with four Punjabi learning centres being established by the early 1990s. One school is the Khalsa Punjabi School of the Singapore Khalsa Association. In 1995, the Sikh Welfare Council was set-up to assist downtrodden sections of the community.^[4]

21st century

The Sikh Centre was established in 2000 to cater to the religious, cultural, economic, and educational needs of the Singaporean Sikhs. It hosts the Gurmat Sangeet Academy. For parental and children's education and development, it hosts the Sikhi for Children and Raising a Sikh Child programes. In 2003, the Young Sikh Association was founded to help the youth navigate modern Singapore while maintaining their Sikh identity.^[4] The Central Sikh Temple was built to commemorate the 518th anniversary of Guru Nanak, the first Sikh guru. The temple boasts a skilful blend of modern and traditional architecture. The Guru Granth Sahib, or holy book, is enshrined in a prayer hall which has a 13-metre wide dome. The Singapore Khalsa Association manages the observances of Vaisākhī and Lohṛī. The association has a women's wing and a youth wing (Young Khalsa). Some prevalent Singaporean Sikhs include Kartar Singh Thakral (Thakral Holdings), Choor Singh (supreme court judge), Daveinder Singh (member of parliament), Inderjit Singh (member of parliament), Pritam Singh (member of parliament), and Ravinder Singh (chief of army).^[4]

Whilst in the latter half of the 20th century Indian Sikh migrants have settled in Western countries, they have seldom settled in Singapore and other southeast Asian countries due to the local governments of these countries discouraging transnational migration of Indian Sikhs to their state. However, the IT industry and the financial and services sectors in the 21st century has attracted some Indian Sikh immigrants to Singapore but they do not interact much with the local Sikh descended from colonial-era settlers.^[4] The community has been praised for its advancements made in Singaporean society whilst still holding onto its cultural and religious traditions.^[19] The Sikhs are heavily integrated professionally and economically and have comparatively high amounts of resources when compared to other Indo-Singaporean communities. They place a heavy focus on English-language education. However, there is a decline of Punjabi and Sikh cultural traditions, especially amongst the younger generations, due to this globalization of their lifestyle, declining attendances at gurdwaras and other Sikh sites/festivals, and also issues related to drugs, crimes, sexual abuse, and religious conversion. The Marriage Preparatory Course was introduced at the Central Sikh Temple to assist Sikh couples experiencing relationship issues.^[4]

List of operational gurdwaras

There are currently seven gurdwaras operating in Singapore, with the most revered being Gurdwara Sahib Silat Road as it contains the tombstone of Bhai Maharaj Singh. At-least two of the gurdwaras are under the management of the Central Sikh Gurdwara Board established by the Central Sikh Gurdwara Act, namely the Central Sikh Temple and Gurdwara Sahib Silat Road.^[4] A list of the operation gurdwaras of Singapore is as follows:

• Central Sikh Temple
• Gurdwara Sahib Silat Road^[20]
• Gurdwara Sahib Yishun^[21]
• Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha
• Gurdwara Silat Road Sikh Center
• Gurdwara Khalsa Dharmak Sabha
• Gurdwara Pardesi Khalsa
• Gurdwara Katong Sri Guru Nanak Satsang Sabha

List of former gurdwaras

• Pearl’s Hill Gurdwara^[20]
• Tanjong Pagar Dock Sikh Police Gurdwara (demolished in 1912)^[20]
• Naval Base Sikh Temple (1925–1971)^[21]
• Sembawang Sikh Temple (1936–1995)
• Jalan Kayu Sikh Temple (1930's–1995)^[21]

Bukit Brown

Bukit Brown ("Brown's Hill") is a Chinese cemetery in Singapore that features 25 pairs of guardian statues depicting Sikh men guarding the tombs.^[22]: 74 The height of the Sikh guardian statues in the cemetery ranges from 3 to 6 feet.^[22]: 74 They are placed to the front-right and front-left of the tombstone, with one exception of the Sikh guardian statue being placed behind the tombstone.^[22]: 74 They were arranged in this manner as per feng shui principles.^[22]: 74 The Sikh guardian statues were positioned just after the guardian statues of Chinese faeries.^[22]: 74 The Sikh guardian statues of the Chinese cemetery are a reflection of the Singaporean Sikh community's reputation in the early 20th century of being superb watchmen.^[22]: 74

• Sikh guardian statues of Bukit Brown Cemetery
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Ethnic breakdown

Below are the ethnic breakdown of Sikhs according to the 2020 Singapore Census of Population as follows:^[29][30]