I had to ask myself who lied about 1915 mutiny: Author
Singapore diplomat's new book is an expose of the global Indian resistance against British rule
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Some mutineers being executed outside Outram Road Prison after the revolt in 1915 by more than 400 sepoys - Indian soldiers under British employ - stationed in Singapore. The mutiny led to 44 British soldiers and civilians killed, and five deaths in the local population. More than 200 sepoys were also court-martialled and more than 47 were given the death sentence.
PHOTO: ST LIBRARY
In 1915, a six-year-old boy peeked out from among the legs of a crowd in Outram Road Prison, as five mutinous sepoys were frogmarched out and shot.
The memory of one of their faces would haunt him for the next 87 years of his life.
"I have tried to have as much dignity and honesty in my life as he had in those few seconds," said Mr Chan Chon Hoe, who later fought in World War II, towards the end of his life.
That is how Mr Umej Bhatia's account of the 1915 Singapore Mutiny begins - through the eyes of a child.
His book, Our Name Is Mutiny, was launched last week at HortPark, where the first bullet of the revolt was fired.
Tackling what he describes as a "hidden history", it is an expose - of the perspectives of the small characters of history, of a little-understood chapter in Singapore's past and of the complex links with broader global developments that writers tend to give short shrift to.
At its centre is the revolt by more than 400 sepoys - Indian soldiers under British employ - stationed here.
Taking place during World War I at a time of British vulnerability, the mutiny led to 44 British soldiers and civilians killed, and five deaths in the local population.
More than 200 sepoys were also court-martialled and more than 47 were given the death sentence.
Mr Bhatia's account situates the mutiny within the global Indian resistance - from San Francisco to Calcutta - against British rule in the early 20th century.
He takes readers on a journey that reads more like a novel than a historical text, giving individuals the space and compassion usually reserved for fictional works.
To do this, Mr Bhatia, 48, said he read everything from newspaper articles to shopping catalogues and weather reports.
"One of my biggest frustrations was not being able to find out about certain characters who seemed to have wanted to disappear from history," he said.
The Singapore diplomat said he was fortunate that several online history groups shared information with him.
A fortuitous incident, where "one kind soul in London" sent him photographs of British officers' regimental diaries and confidential reports, also helped.
Through these, Mr Bhatia said, he strived to create a very human story of "bumbling officials with their egos and blind spots, along with noble individuals who showed resilience and courage".
Taking the British unawares, the Singapore mutiny became a colonial shame, with officials in Singapore after the event censoring and reinterpreting the mutiny to minimise the significance of their subjects' disobedience.
In a chapter titled Lies, Sex And Spies, Mr Bhatia tells of how the British denied the sepoys' political motivations, instead putting the mutiny down to "jealousy... concerning promotion".
His book traces how Indians actually joined the cause for a diversity of reasons: from racist slights and a refusal to be deployed against their Muslim brothers to craving a sense of adventure.
Mr Bhatia also accessed a British report embargoed for 50 years after the mutiny until Singapore's independence.
He said he treated it as a biased document which revealed more about British priorities than objective truth, joining other post-colonial historians before him in reading colonial sources against the grain.
He said: "Of course, it had to be used judiciously because of the power dynamics between colonial officials and sepoys put on the stand and accused of being mutineers. I had to continually ask myself who was lying, who was spinning stories, who was telling the truth.
"As a historian, you become a judge - examining evidence but without the benefit of live witnesses."
Writing in the book's preface, he said: "This unfiltered history may have been deemed unfit for consumption in the colonial era, but the pieties of expired historiography should be discarded as Singapore completes its bicentennial commemoration."
Mr Bhatia said he hopes Singaporeans will see some parallels with themselves in his account.
"It is a story of how a small island settlement was hostage to the fortunes and failings of an empire."
He added that, as discovered by the countless Chinese, Malay, Indian, European or Eurasian individuals "who rallied to defend the island when the British Empire failed to protect them", there are "dangers of dependence and not being able to decide your own destiny".
The 378-page book, published by Landmark Books, is available for $39.90 (with GST) in bookshops.
