The Indian community in Singapore is the product of multiple journeys — movements dating to the founding of the British colonial settlement, which have continued to this day, 50 years since Singapore’s independence. Collectively, the sojourners and settlers from the subcontinent created the basis for a small but significant diaspora that has remained ifluential throughout the modem city‘s development. In 2014, Indians comprised 9.1% (353,021) of the country’s resident (i.e. citizen and permanent resident) population of 3.87 million (Singapore Department of Statistics, 2014, 39). If one is to include the non-resident number, the Indian presence on the island is substantially larger — cumulatively, about 700,000 in the total (resident and non-resident) population of just under 5.5 million (2015). The multi-layered fabric of the Indian diaspora in Singapore has been produced by multiple trajectories of emigration across the Bay of Bengal, and this, along with the complex economic topography of the city, has informed its diversity. Viewed in ethno-linguistic terms, Tamil speakers form the largest segment of the Indian population, although the diaspora also includes sizeable numbers of Malayalam, Hindi and Punjabi speakers. Hindus comprise nearly 60%, Muslims a quarter, Christians one-eighth, and along with smaller numbers of Sikhs and Buddhists, inform the diverse religious composition of Indians here. In socio-economic terms, they have prospered in the city — the average monthly income of Indian households exceeded S$7,600 in 2010 (Singapore Department of Statistics, 2010, x) — a figure that, at the last official census, was higher than any other major ethnic community (Chinese and Malays). That said, differences in income distribution amongst Indians in Singapore are also purportedly greater than any of the other major ethnic communities.

The following sections are included: Introduction, Malay Food at the Crossroads, Cosmopolitanism and Extending the Boundaries of “Malay Food”, References.

Approaching migration as the singular, unidirectional movement of individuals is limited. ‘Diaspora’ is a hugely contested term with little consensus over its conceptual boundaries. Debates about extending the meanings and connotations of the term to encapsulate the experiences of ‘other migrants’ continue vigorously. The chapter surveys the debates in diaspora studies about the concept and reflects on its continued value for theorizing mobilities, including the case of Indian diasporas. Using historical and ethnographic materials from Singapore’s Indian communities, the author demonstrates the limits of the term ‘diaspora’, especially its embedded assumptions. Rather than conclude that ‘diaspora studies’ and the concept ‘diaspora’ have both run their courses, the author proposes that it is precisely the observing of limits in the concept and the field that is productive. Ultimately, the author makes a case for reconceptualising the notion of ‘diaspora’ in imagining an alternative analytical lens for theorising the complex phenomenon of global mobilities.