YSA_NEWSLETTER__FEB_2018

Khwaish | February 2018
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and bonds between early Sikh
migrants and other settlers in 1930s
Singapore. The film, ‘Singh in the
Lion City’, by Upneet Kaur of Uptake
Media also offered the opportunity
to Ishvinder and me to share the
journey behind the development of
our mobile app. At the launch of the
film, I also had the honour of sharing
the panel with author Balli Kaur
Jaswal as we discussed impressions
and representations of Sikhs in various
local mediums.
Crucially, these projects have also
been important avenues to introduce
a wider audience to the myriad of
histories and stories that animate the
Singapore Sikh community today.
The time is ripe in Singapore for such
ventures. Having marked 50 years
of national independence, many
segments of the local community
are looking back onto their own
pasts. As each group does so, we
find moments of interactions and
exchange across ethnic, religious,
class, and geographical lines. It is in
these crossings that, I suggest, the
heritage of Singapore is made and
preserved.
It is also at such crossings that I come
closer to an answer for the question
most frequently asked of me. Many
are often curious why one of the Straits
Tamil descends would choose to
study an ‘unrelated’ community and
region. This is certainly a fair question,
and one that anthropologists ought to
ask themselves. This seeming paradox
was even the subject of an episode of
Channel NewsAsia’s ‘On the Red Dot’
that featured my work and story. I do
not know if I will ever have a satisfying
answer. (But no, it does not involve
a nice Sikh boy.) What I can say for
now is this – where there were many
available paths, I took the one with
the most questions.
For anyone else who might be
interested in taking up heritage work
in Singapore, or any other passion
project for that matter, I would say
this – you do not have to have the
answers yet, but be prepared for the
questions. The time is now, the funding
is there, with some comes more, there
is support and more will find you, there
are multiple ways to go about it and it
all starts with starting.
These starts that I have had with great
collaborators have also led me here.
In early 2017, I was invited to join the
YSA’s Executive Committee by the
current vice-president Sarabjeet
Singh. Since Sarab was also the
one who suggested I join Khwaish, I
knew he would not steer me wrong.
With YSA, I am currently working
on ways to commemorate Sikh
presence in Singapore as part of
the 2019 Singapore Bicentennial.
As with my other projects, I look
forward to celebrating and creating
more moments of interactions and
exchanges with other communities.
This too is where Singapore’s future
lies – at the crossings, not in the
categories.
These are new shoes to fill, and I am
honoured to walk in them. Since
that cold morning on the parikrama
of Harmandir Sahib, these feet
have worn through multiple pairs
of shoes that have been handed
over to many a gentle sevadar
at gurdwaras, whose soles have
weathered the stony alleys and
tarred highways of many Punjab
summers, and whose laces have
been embraced too fondly by love
grass in Bukit Brown. As I step forward
with YSA and continue working on
celebrating Singapore’s heritage of
exchange, I look forward to crossing
paths with more of you. Come walk
with me!
Ms Vithya Subramaniam is a historian
and anthropologist in training interested
in questions of memory and space. Her
primary research has focused on sites
and objects across Punjab. Vithya holds
degrees from Columbia University and
the National University of Singapore
(NUS). She currently seeks to inspire her
students to ask better questions as a
teaching assistant with the South Asian
Studies Programme at NUS. The views
presented in this article are personal and
do not necessarily reflect those of YSA.