Indian Heritage Cooking

There were yet other groups of Indians who migrated to Singapore from the Malay states. These included the Chitty Melaka, or Peranakan Indians, the mixed descendants of wealthy South Indian merchants who brought their trade to Melaka in the 15th century; and Tamils who were at first brought in as rubber plantation workers and who later came seeking a better life in 20th-century Singapore. These were however not the first Tamils in the region, as proven by the origin of the Chitty Melaka community.

In fact, the Tamil influence in Southeast Asia dates back to kingdoms such as Sri Vijaya in the fifth century, when trade flourished on the Spice Route between India and China. These kingdoms brought with them the ancient Sanskrit epics Ramayana and Mahabharata, which contain the fundamentals of Hindu history and teaching. The magnificent Angkor Wat in Cambodia, built in the 12th century, bears the influence of early South Indian religious architecture.

The term Indian covers a smorgasbord of ethnic and religious backgrounds. While more than half (just over 54 per cent) of Indians in Singapore are of Tamil ancestry, three other dialect groups have a significant presence amongst the island’s Indians: Malayalee (7.6 per cent), Hindi (3.8 per cent) and Sikh (3.7 per cent). Other dialect groups including the Punjabi, Hindustani, Urdu and Gujarati make up the rest of Singapore’s Indian population.

The census also shows that English seems to be the most popular language amongst Indians in Singapore, used most often at home by almost 42 per cent of the Indian population. Tamil is a close second, used most often at home by almost 37 per cent of the Indian population, while the rest tend usually to speak Malay and other languages at home.

The large majority (just under 59 per cent) of Indians in Singapore are Hindus, just as their ancestors were, followed by Muslims (almost 22 per cent) and Christians (close to 13 per cent). The rest profess Sikhism, Buddhism and other religions, while just over 1 per cent of Indians in Singapore have no religious affiliation.

While India’s diversity spans the entire subcontinent back home, the parts of it that have thrived in tiny Singapore interact at close quarters, not only within the Indian community but also with other races here. This has produced various fusions and innovations in local Indian cuisine.