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This book is the second in a global trilogy looking at the unreported Sikh diaspora comprising mainly the non-English speaking countries. The first one in the Sikh Global Village series was Sikhs in Latin America published by Manohar. This volume covers Sikhs in Asia Pacific countries. The third will be on Sikhs in Europe. The Asia Pacific region is a vital and under-recognized home for the Sikh diaspora. Before 1947, most Sikhs migrated East. In addition to the commonly known destinations, the author also examines lesser known cases of Sikh migration to China, Korea, Japan and the Philippines. The book covers various aspects of the diaspora including the history of migration relating to the British Indian Army police force. The British gave preference in recruiting Sikhs, and encouraged them to build gurdwaras and supported them to keep their Sikh identity. Soon after arrival, these early immigrants encouraged their village compatriots and relatives to migrate in large numbers to avail of the various opportunities for gainful employment or business. Not only is this wave of migration important in its own right, but Sikh migration to North America finds its origins in the Asia-Pacific Sikh diaspora, specifically from Shanghai. The decolonization of Asian countries slowed down the migration and in some cases resulted even in exodus of Indians/Sikhs at the same time as new destinations to North America and UK opened up. Migration to each country has a unique profile, traced vividly in the book. Additionally the author has made an effort to outline the similarities and differences in migration of Sikhs to the East against present migration to the West. Case studies are extensively used.
Far from being a melting pot, multi-racial Singapore prides itself on the richness of its ethnic communities and cultures. This volume provides an updated account of the heterogeneity within each of the main communities — the Chinese, Malay, Indian, Eurasian and Others. It also documents the ethnic cultures of these communities by discussing their histories, celebrations, cultural symbols, life cycle rituals, cultural icons and attempts to preserve culture. While chapters are written by scholars drawing insight from a variety of sources ranging from academic publications to discussions with community experts, it is written in an accessible way. This volume seeks to increase intercultural understanding through presenting ample insights into the cultural beliefs and practices of the different ethnic communities. While this book is about diversity, a closer examination of the peoples and cultures of Singapore demonstrates the many similarities communities share in this Singaporean space.
Religious and ethno-religious issues are inherent in many multiethnic and multi-religious societies. Singapore society is no exception. It has long been multiethnic, multicultural and multi-religious, being at the crossroads of many major and minor civilizations, cultures and traditions, and its religious diversity continues to develop in the current contexts of growing religiosity, religious change and conflict often in the name of religion. Despite this background, there is lack of in-depth knowledge, nuanced understanding and regular dialogue about religions and the meanings of living in a multi-religious world. This volume covering major themes of Singapore's religious landscape, religion in schools and among the young, religion in the media, religious involvement in social services, and interfaith issues and interaction fills important gaps in the knowledge and understanding of Singapore's religious diversity and complexity. A collective effort of researchers and practitioners, it is a timely and useful reference for scholars, decision-makers, leaders and practitioners as well as for concerned citizens and followers.
Keramat, holy graves and shrines, represent physical markers of Singapore’s history as a multi‐ethnic maritime trading center. They offered sanctified spaces not only for Muslims but also for the entire community in which they emerged. Maintained by self‐appointed caretakers, the stories of keramat often interweave fact with folklore that mirror the history and sensibilities of the community. While once an abundant part of the social landscape of Singapore, many keramat were destroyed during the post‐independence rush to develop. These keramat now face a second vanishing with memories of them fading as caretakers and community members age and pass away. In parallel, many modern Muslims consider keramat as a form of shirk, or polytheism, and tacitly consent to their destruction. This book concludes by critically examining the often‐tense relationship between keramat and authority, both secular and religious, from colonial to modern times. The dilemmas of grappling with puritanical norms and grassroots elaborations in varying modes of preservation are investigated using case studies from Singapore and the wider region. A vital resource for scholars, this work contributes to a people’s history of Singapore, one that both deepens and problematizes official historical accounts.
The International Bibliography of Sikh Studies brings together all books, composite works, journal articles, conference proceedings, theses, dissertations, project reports, and electronic resources produced in the field of Sikh Studies until June 2004, making it the most complete and up-to-date reference work in the field today. One of the youngest religions of the world, Sikhism has progressively attracted attention on a global scale in recent decades. An increasing number of scholars is exploring the culture, history, politics, and religion of the Sikhs. The growing interest in Sikh Studies has resulted in an avalanche of literature, which is now for the first time brought together in the International Bibliography of Sikh Studies. This monumental work lists over 10,000 English-language publications under almost 30 subheadings, each representing a subfield in Sikh Studies. The Bibliography contains sections on a wide variety of subjects, such as Sikh gurus, Sikh philosophy, Sikh politics and Sikh religion. Furthermore, the encyclopedia presents an annotated survey of all major scholarly work on Sikhism, and a selective listing of electronic and web-based resources in the field. Author and subject indices are appended for the reader’s convenience.
In the Punjab, Pakistan, a culture of migration and mobility already emerged in the nineteenth century. Imperial policies produced a category of hypermobile Sikhs, who left their villages in Punjab to seek their fortunes in South East Asia, Australia, America and Canada. The practices of the British Indian government and the Canada government offer telling instances of the exercise of governmentality through which both old imperialism and the new Empire assert their sovereignty. This book focuses on the Komagata Maru episode of 1914: This Japanese ship was chartered by Gurdit Singh, a prosperous Sikh businessman from Malaya. It carried 376 passengers from Punjab and was not permitted to land in Vancouver on grounds of a stipulation about a continuous journey from the port of departure and forced to return to Kolkata where the passengers were fired at, imprisoned or kept under surveillance. The author isolates juridical procedures, tactics and apparatus of security through which the British Empire exercised power on imperial subjects by investigating the significance of this incident to colonial and postcolonial migration. Juxtaposing public archives including newspapers, official documents and reports against private archives and interviews of descendants the book analyses the legalities and machineries of surveillance that regulate the movements of people in the old and new Empire. Addressing contemporary discourse on neo-imperialism and resistance, migration, diaspora, multiculturalism and citizenship, this book will be of interest to scholars in the field of diaspora studies, post colonialism, minority studies, migration studies, multiculturalism and Sikh /Punjab and South Asian studies.
Contributed seminar papers.
Belonging across the Bay of Bengal discusses themes connecting the regions bordering the Bay of Bengal, mainly covering the period from the mid-19th through the mid-20th centuries – a crucial period of transition from colonialism to independence. Focusing on the notion of 'belonging', the chapters in this collection highlight themes of ethnicity, religion, culture and the emergence of nationalist politics and state policies as they relate to the movement of peoples in the region. While the Indian Ocean has been of interest to scholars for decades, there has been a notable tilt towards historicizing the Western half of that space, often prioritizing Islamic trade as the key connective glue prior to the rise of Western power and the later emergence of transnational Indian nationalism. Belonging across the Bay of Bengal enriches this story by drawing attention to Buddhist and migrant connectivities, introducing discussions of Lanka, Burma and the Straits Settlements to establish the historical context of the current refugee crises playing out in these regions. This is a timely and innovative volume that offers a fresh approach to Indian Ocean history, further enriching our understanding of the current debates over minority rights and refugee problems in the region. It will be of great significance to all students and scholars of Indian Ocean studies as well as historians of modern South and Southeast Asia.
During the nineteenth century, the colonial Straits Settlements of Singapore, Penang, and Melaka were established as free ports of British trade in Southeast Asia and proved attractive to large numbers of regional migrants. Following the abolishment of slavery in 1833, the Straits government transported convicts from the East India Company’s Indian presidencies to the settlements as a source of inexpensive labor. The prison became the primary experimental site for the colonial plural society and convicts were graduated by race and the labor needed for urban construction. Hidden Hands and Divided Landscapes investigates how a political system aimed at managing ethnic communities in the larger material context of the colonial urban project was first imagined and tested through the physical segregation of the colonial prison. It relates the story of a city, Singapore, and a contemporary city-state whose plural society has its origins in these historical divisions. A description of the evolution of the ideal plan for a plural city across the three settlements is followed by a detailed look at Singapore’s colonial prison. Chapters trace the prison’s development and its dissolution across the urban landscape through the penal labor system. The author demonstrates the way in which racial politics were inscribed spatially in the division of penal facilities and how the map of the city was reconfigured through convict labor. Later chapters describe penal resistance first through intimate stories of penal life and then through a discussion of organized resistance in festival riots. Eventually, the plural city ideal collapsed into the hegemonic urban form of the citadel, where a quite different military vision of the city became evident. Hidden Hands and Divided Landscapes is a fascinating and thoroughly original study in urban history and the making of multiethnic society in Singapore. It will compel readers to rethink the ways in which colonial urban history, postcolonial urbanism, and governance have been theorized by scholars and represented by governments.