Indra Iswaran – Ceylon Tamils of Singapore & Malaya Part 1 | Chronicles of Old Singapore

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Indra Iswaran is an active member of the Ceylon Tamil community in Singapore and the only female president in the history of the Singapore Ceylon Tamils Association. She talks about her ancestry in Malaya and Singapore dating back to the 1790s, the Ceylon Tamil pioneers and their allegiance to the British Crown, the matriarchal society, and the importance of the Tamil language. Part 1 | https://youtu.be/w3l_GeXcQZw Part 2 | https://youtu.be/nvHdNw7Jous Part 3 | https://youtu.be/tn2RiPQq2k4 00:00 Introduction 01:59 A Convent Girl 06:24 Ancestry from the 1790s 18:28 Arranged Marriages 20:52 The Pioneers 29:16 Allegiance to the British Crown 32:51 Similarities & Differences with Indians 39:50 The Matriarchal Society 44:23 The Tamil Language I’m Dr Loh KS, the people’s historian. I’m interested in the history of Singapore and the lives of its people. In Chronicles of Old Singapore, I speak to people about their memories of Singapore before it became a global city today. We discuss three topics: 1. People and places. 2. Change and continuity. 3. The importance of heritage. As a historian, I try to stay true to the oral history method on a video format and social media platform. I let the interviewee speak, as the ‘voice of the past’ as Paul Thompson put it. No clickbait, no BS, no posturing. The aim is to canvas a wide range of voices on various aspects of Singapore history and heritage – physical, social, cultural, economic. Do like the video, share your memories below and subscribe to the channel for future episodes. Write to lohkahseng@chroniclesresearch.com if you have any of these stories to share: • Old places or kampongs. • Communities – their way of life & culture. • Childhood & schools. • Work or business. Support Chronicles of Old Singapore on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ChroniclesofOldSingapore Follow the channel on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61551786759344 Spotify: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/loh-ks TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lks992002 Chronicles Research & Education is my research consultancy on the history of Singapore: https://www.chroniclesresearch.com/ Caveat: this is above all a podcast based on personal memory. As has been well-documented in oral history, memory is not always reliable and what is recalled here should not be taken as fact. However, as Alessandro Portelli noted, the subjectivity of oral history is also its great strength, and what is inaccurately remembered may point to how deeply meaningful the past is to people. #singaporehistory #memory #heritage #nostalgia #oralhistory #socialhistory #history #singapore