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The
Indians - (6.5% of Singaporeans)
Since the ancient time, the
Indians had visited the Malay Peninsula even before the birth of
Christ. They roamed in search of tin, gold, emerald, spices, and
other valuables for trades. However, the Indian immigration
started mostly in the middle of 19th century, when the British
recruited mass laborers for the plantation industry in Malaya.
Most of these Indian laborers remained settled in Malaya, but
many of them migrated further to Singapore.
By 1860, the Indians became
Singapore's second largest community because of the liberal
policies in registration and open opportunity for employment. As
of the matter of gender, the male Indians did outnumber far more
than the female ones, so a large number of Indian men had to
marry the Malay women.
The Indian population comprises
of 60% Tamil, 20% Malayali and the rest from all over India. In
early Singapore, most of the Indians were from the Northern part
of India, but later the southern Indians (or Tamil) grew much
larger in number.
Tamil is one of four official
languages in Singapore along with English, Mandarin, and Malay.
Surprisingly, the recent research indicates that more Indians
nowadays understand Malay better than Tamil. It is most likely
caused by the combination of Indian and Malay cultures.
Today, most of the southern
Tamils reside on Chulia Street, located in Chinatown, and work
as fishermen and laborers, while the northern Indians reside
mainly on High Street and work as textile merchants, tailors,
businessmen and policemen.
Recently, a serious problem
about the Indian issue is the brain-drain of many educated
Indians who emigrated from Singapore to the other countries.
This emigration started as a result of Hong Kong being returned
to the China in 1997. Many Chinese ethnics of the elite class
migrated from Hong Kong to Singapore and they were given good
favor by the Singapore's government, thus aroused a feeling of
prejudice among the Indians. Even though the government has
announced to keep the racial balance remained in Singapore, the
situation does not appear to be improved.. The more educated
Indians leave, the worse Indian society in Singapore will be.
The Articles about
Singaporean People & Population:
This article is authored and
copyrighted by
Royal Exclusive Travel
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