'Home' away from home

SINGAPORE society is largely made up of foreigners who come to its shores seeking a better life. Despite the country’s varied and vibrant mix of cultures, being away from home for most people isn’t the most comforting feeling.

Likewise for the Indian community, it not only deprives them of the strong family support system back home but a way of life they find hard to let go of.

In these circumstances, it is the various Indian societies in Singapore where this migrant population finds its solace.

A case in point is Mrs Tulika Singh who, in her second stint in the country, came here in 2010. The 33-year-old and her family are from the state of Bihar. She became a member of the Bijhar society, a cultural and social group of people belonging to the Indian states of Bihar and Jharkhand.

She tells tabla!: “Joining the society became a comfort factor for us. We met so many people from our community. I think it helped us in a big way in adjusting to the new life here.”

The highlight of the experience as a member of the society for Mrs Singh is the celebration of traditional regional festivals like Chhath and Makar Sankranti that she didn’t think would be celebrated in such a big way in Singapore.

Bijhar’s co-founder and life trustee Rajesh Anand says that besides Diwali and Holi celebrations, the society organises events like picnics, get-togethers, retreats, knowledge-sharing sessions, cricket matches, visits to old folks’ homes and homes for the physically challenged, fund collection and charity drives, which helps in bringing the newcomers in the country closer to the local people.

“The importance of integration into Singapore society is of great importance to us,” he says. Bijhar, which started as a 20-member society, has more than 300 people today on its roster.

Like Bijhar, the Bengali Association Singapore has been bringing people together since 1956, the year it was set up.

This association is for people who share a common Bengali heritage but is open to anyone irrespective of where they come from.

Its president, Mr Nikhilesh Gupta, says the association focuses mainly on cultural activities through which they try to expand into the local Singaporean culture.

Mr Gupta, 51, who has been a member of the association for the last 22 years, says: “Our biggest integration platform is undoubtedly the Durga Puja, which takes place in October. More than 3,000 people visit the celebrations organised by us every day, during the course of the Puja.”

He adds that Bengalis come no matter where they are. But the gathering is special because it brings together all Indian communities along with the local Chinese and Malays.

Year-round the Bengali association organises almost seven big cultural events which play a big role in socio-cultural integration.

One of the most culturally active Indian organisations in the country is the Singapore Gujarati Society, which organises a host of activities, bringing together a melange of people. The society is more than 100 years old and boasts more than 700 members.

Its most popular event is the nine-day Navratri event, a spectacular mix of bright colours, Gujarati music and exotic costumes.

The society’s president, Mr Biren Desai, tells tabla! that the event is a great melting pot, in which people from every community take part.

He believes that cultural societies play a large role in integrating newcomers into Singapore society. “A country where one doesn’t have a community to belong to can be cold despite every attempt by its government to help newcomers. A community or a society is like a gentle buffer. With its help, the merging with the larger Singapore society becomes easier and overlapping,” Mr Desai says.

The Kannada Sangha, an association for people from the state of Karnataka and the Kannada-speaking community which came into existence in 1996, goes beyond cultural events in bringing people together. Besides religious festival celebrations, the association holds literary competitions, business forums and conventions bringing together the brightest minds from India and other parts of the world to share their ideas.

It places great importance on keeping alive the traditions of Kannada music and dance by organising events attended by large gatherings.

Mr Suresha Bhatta of the Kannada Sangha tells tabla! that the Sangha has the vision of being a leading Kannada organisation worldwide, “to continue to preserve, nurture and support Kannada language and culture, provide opportunities to artists and writers and to help newcomers to connect and integrate with the larger Singapore society”. He says the association also plans to have its own building in the country.

The Singapore Malayalee Association, founded in 1917, caters to the large Malayalee population in Singapore with roots in the southern Indian state of Kerala. It organises one of the largest Onam celebrations in the country attended by more than 1,800 people.

The association’s president P.K. Koshy says it uses sports and games as a means of bringing together people, which attract “not only Malayalees but people of all races and origins”.

He stresses that the organisation plays its part in welfare activities by raising funds to help the needy in Singapore. “We’ve helped accident victims by paying their hospital bills, donated wheelchairs and provided scholarship to deserving students among other things,” Mr Koshy says. These activities, he believes, help members in understanding that they are a part of the larger whole that is Singapore.

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