Becoming Singaporean Indian: identity, belonging, and the material world

Thesis

This thesis argues that ‘Singaporean Indian’ is not a fixed identity or static form of belonging, but one that is continually in the process of becoming—emerging through responsive, skilled attunement to Singapore’s material and social world. Rather than taking ‘Indian’ as predetermined by Singapore’s racial-administrative classifications, or as a transposed, essentialised diasporic identity, I propose that ‘Singaporean Indian’ emerges through a dynamic process of dwelling in a plural and entangled society.

Through studies of Indian migration and settlement in Singapore; identity cards and home collections of documents; practices of cooking and eating; the consumption of smells; and the sounded custom of Thaipusam, each chapter in this thesis demonstrates how identity and belonging unfold in everyday life.

Centring a ‘dwelling perspective’, I also draw on the approach to the material world as a meshwork of ‘things’—leaky bundles of relational flows. This focus on ‘things’ offers a critical counterpoint to the dominant representation of Singapore’s multiculturalism and its race communities through the reliance on token objects.

This research is grounded in a year of ethnographic fieldwork—primarily workshops and walking interviews, supplemented by archival material—and informed by my own positionality as Singaporean Indian. As a contribution, this thesis seeks to reframe how race, identity, and belonging are understood in Singapore, particularly by intervening in prevailing discourse around migration and ‘Indians’ by offering the view that ‘Singaporean Indian’ is not a matter of birthright or bureaucratic classification, but an active, ongoing process of attuned dwelling and becoming.

Authors: Subramaniam, V

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-zbjpaa5ea
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: dwelling; indian diaspora; Singapore; materiality
• Subjects: Anthropology; Becoming (Philosophy); East Indian diaspora; Material culture