Exhibition explores little-known history of Tamils in region
Stories featuring Indian pioneers, prominent figures, role of women in community brought to life
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Artist Anurendra Jegadeva explaining his artwork, titled Heart In Hand, A Marriage of Identities, to Ms Yeoh Chee Yan (second from left), chairman of the National Heritage Board (NHB), Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat and NHB chief executive Chang Hwee Nee, during the launch of the exhibition at the Indian Heritage Centre yesterday.
ST PHOTO: KHALID BABA
Tee Zhuo
The first Tamil on record to set foot in Singapore, Naraina Pillai, arrived with Stamford Raffles in 1819, and is known for building the Sri Mariamman Temple in 1827.
Yet, there is no known historical visual representation of Pillai while depictions of Raffles abound - most famously, of course, the statue at the Singapore River.
A new exhibition hopes to make up for this by featuring two petitions signed by Pillai, in Tamil and English to Raffles, asking for permission to erect a shop at the site where his former business had burned down.
With colonial records lacking information on the ethnic minorities that populated Singapore, there are other questions that the exhibition, From The Coromandel Coast To The Straits: Revisiting Our Tamil Heritage, tries to answer.
For example, were there Tamils in Singapore or South-east Asia before 1819? What were they doing? Where are the women in the official narrative?
Launched by Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat last Friday at the Indian Heritage Centre (IHC), it required over a year of preparation, and features over 230 artefacts.
Curator Nalina Gopal told The Straits Times that a key aim is to explore those neglected areas in the history of Tamils in the region.
"History is complex, and there are always many versions. It is important... to look at everything with an eye for curiosity," she said.
Complicating matters is that much of that history was written in the colonial period. "The colonials chose to document themselves, not so much the people they were governing," she noted.
The exhibition also features family histories and over 35 portraits of prominent Tamils, including horse carriage contractor Sangoo Thevar, who came to Singapore in the 1850s.
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VISIT THE EXHIBIT
WHAT: From The Coromandel Coast To The Straits: Revisiting Our Tamil Heritage
WHEN: Nov 23 to June 30, 2020
WHERE: Indian Heritage Centre, Campbell Lane, Level 2
TICKETS: Free for children below six, Singaporeans and permanent residents; $6 for foreigners up to 59 years old, and $4 for those 60 and above.
INFORMATION: indianheritage.org.sg/en
His eldest son, Shanmugam, became the Singapore Telegraph Office's chief clerk in 1912, while his youngest son, Meenachi Sundram, later became Anglo-Chinese School's first Asian headmaster.
His great granddaughter, Avadai Dhanam, married Singapore's third president, Mr Devan Nair.
Another aspect of Tamil history that is often forgotten is the role of women. While men like Pillai are remembered, little seems to be known about their wives, sisters or mothers, Ms Nalina noted.
While Pillai was one of four pioneers honoured with temporary statues alongside Raffles at the Singapore River this bicentennial year, the glaring omission was that none were women.
The IHC exhibition commissioned an installation by Malaysian artist Anurendra Jegadeva, who hopes to correct the gender imbalance in the histories of Tamil migrants by featuring his own daughter as the artwork's central figure.
And while Pillai is known as the first Tamil on record to have arrived in Singapore, new findings on the Singapore Stone suggest Tamil presence in the region as early as the 11th century.
"We have social media but in the past, they didn't have access to such technology. The historian's work becomes much more important for a period where so many events are not documented," said Ms Nalina.
