The weekend of 19-20 September 2015 was an eye-opener to what has happened to the Singaporean Tamil community in the year of SG50 or the fiftieth anniversary of Singapore’s political independence. The demography at the two literary events organized by the Tamil Language and Cultural Society (TLCS) on Saturday 19th September and the Association of Singapore Tamil Writers (ASTW) on 20th September was skewed towards diasporic migrants from Tamil Nadu. A few senior citizens were there too, probably to reflect the changes in Singapore society as well to get some respite from the boredom at home and the haze that had blanketed Singapore’s skies. I wondered where the bona-fide Singaporean Tamils, educated in Singapore’s schools and subjected to all the development processes went. I was told they are busy with their social and economic pursuits.
The event by TLCS was graced by an invited speaker from Tamil Nadu. He appeared to be well known to the audience of the diasporic Tamils. “Thamizh Kadal” (Tamil Sea) Nellai Kannan was the speaker. He was erudite in Tamil literature. His comparisons and criticisms all of Tamil Nadu’s politicians and society, however, would not have been understood by a Singaporean Tamil audience. Intermittently, he did refer to Singapore, with his limited knowledge, as the best nation.
A local poet-cum-writer, Pichini kaadu Ilango who had also migrated here in the 1990s, received the year’s Poet Bharathiyar Award for his literary contributions. In the diasporic tradition he had named himself after the locale from which he hails in Tamil Nadu – the kaadu (forest) of the place Pichini. Kaadu in Tamil refers to a place that has been converted from its forest environment to that of rice cultivation. It was hilarious when he referred as to how the kaadu had attracted him to the President of TLCS, Hari Krishnan whose locale is Kaasang Kaadu, another place named as kaadu (forest). It was the ‘kaadu’ that was to relate him to the President of the TLCS. It appeared as if the award had come to symbolize those who share a psychological relation across the Bay of Bengal with Tamil Nadu.
The audience was spell bound, and as the auditorium at Umar Pulavar Tamil Centre was full, many late comers sat on the carpeted floor. The speaker could have confined to his literary oratory as he had no good information on contemporary Tamil Nadu to share with any enquiring mind. He had not read the wonderful socio-economic analysis of Amartya Sen and others to share the progress that had been achieved by Tamil Nadu. If his speech was published, one would have to edit it carefully for any good use. But the audience enjoyed while a few of us rooted in Singapore felt it boring. Such events are unattractive except to make the diasporic Tamil residents reminisce about their homeland. It could never attract the bona-fide Singaporean audience of Tamils.
The event by ASTW was again dominated by people who had made Singapore their home in the last two decades and some senior Singaporean Tamils. It was evident that they celebrated the years of their lives in Singapore and provided the historical backdrop to what they had come to know of Tamils in Singapore. I received two Tamil books that had not been reviewed carefully before publication. The books were funded by the SG50 celebrations funding from the government. As the funds had come from tax-payers money the books were given away as complimentary take-away. It was claimed by a commentator on stage that the books had everything about Singapore and Tamils / Tamil language. I found them to have some useful information but no sincere reflection nor analysis.
Both the events made me wonder whether there is a conceptual as well a physical divide between Singaporean Tamils and the diasporic Tamils who have come to dominate the Tamil social / literary scene in the last 15 years. Are Singaporean Tamils boycotting all events taken over by diasporic Tamils? I could only reflect on a line from the great Tamil epic by Ilango Adigal (இளங்கோவடிகள் – சிலப்பதிகாரம்) and wonder whether the Singaporean Tamils had become the personification of the lines of his great epic: “the people of the land, in exasperation (my emphasis), had put up their hands on their head” (கறை கெழு குடிகள் கை தலை வைப்ப…). Poet Bharathiyar too has many lines that may well explain the current trends in Singapore.
Written by
Professor A Veeramani ( A Mani )
Singapore / Japan
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