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Tamil literature, culture, and lifestyle have always been strongly influenced by the geography of the homeland. It is only in Singapore that Tamils first found their literary inspiration became detached from the surrounding landscape. Called Thinai in Tamil, this literary concept of classical Tamil poetry maps specific types of physiographic landscape to specific kinds of psychographic emotional state of literary characters, as evident in Sangam literature. Thinai incorporates not just the physical aspects of the soil but also an all-embracing ecosystem including the flora and fauna of that landscape and relates them to the moods and motives of the characters in a highly stylised and systemic manner. When Tamils moved to a small compact island that did not afford them the space to sink any roots and where they merely intended to be transient, the neural connections between land, language and emotions began to dissolve and a new kind of voice emerged—a voice liberated from the landscape. As such, Singapore Tamil literature differs in content and approach from Tamil literature originating from written in India, Sri Lanka and even neighbouring Malaysia. It can perhaps be considered the beginning of the post-land or post-Thinai literature of migrant Tamils. This chapter explores the contours of the literature that Singapore Tamils have produced since their migration in colonial times.
A separate Singapore Tamil identity beyond the confines of caste, class and religion started taking shape only approximately 100 years after Tamil migration to Singapore commenced in the early 1800s. Tamils here benefited from Singapore’s multi-ethnic and multi-religious setting and were better exposed to global historical, social, cultural and intellectual developments than their brethren back in India. They used these experiences and perspectives to anchor a strong linguistic and cultural identity, which was the basis, achievement and end-goal of Singapore Tamil literature.
Among the writings of Singapore Tamil poets like N Palanivelu, A Ulaganathan, K Perumal, Amallathasan and KTM Iqbal, lines as diverse as “Indian independence is the independence of our race”, “Malaysia is indeed our country” and “Singapore our land, where the four races live in harmony” can be found. They wrote these different lines within a single lifetime. These cannot be construed as the shifting of allegiances but as an effort to establish Tamil as a constant and unifying basis of social and cultural identity even when shifting national identities were being negotiated. Apart from literary merit, the socio-cultural context of the works and whether they are sincere representations of the community’s concerns at a particular point in time would be useful barometers in assessing their importance and contributions.
Differentiating Features of Singaporean and Malaysian Tamil Literature
Tamil literature in Malaysia and Singapore was largely known as Malayan literature until the 1970s and it mainly followed the same trajectory until then. Yet, Malaysian Tamil literature is intimately linked to its land while Singapore Tamil literature developed with very little contact with the land.
Tamils who migrated to Malaysia largely worked in estates and were able to transfer the land-based lifestyles in their former homelands to their new homes. Their literary works reflect a sense of pride and belonging towards the land they helped clear, cultivate and laboured in.
Many Malaysian Tamil literary works show Malaysian Tamils proudly referring to the estates in which they worked as “our land”, even if their own life was spent in hardship and deprivation. K Punniyavan’s poem summarises this well:(註1)
இவன் நட்ட மரங்கள்
நிமிர்ந்து விட்டன
இவன் நடும்போது
குனிந்தவந்தான்
இன்னும் நிமிரவே இல்லை.The trees he planted are
Now straight and tall
Having bent down
To plant them then
He never straightened up again
Major Indian political struggles over time such as the labour agitation led by Malaya Ganapathy from 1936-1938, the All-Malaya Trade Unions Federation started by him, the Klang Revolt which broke out in 1941 right up to the 2007 Hindraf protests can all be traced to this fierce sense of belonging to the land.
Works such as M Kumaran’s ‘Semmannum Neela Malargalum’ (The Red Earth and Blue Flowers), Rengasamy’s ‘Karunkaadu’ (Black Forest), short stories by M. Ramaiah, C Muthusamy as well as countless poems speak about the Tamils’ desire to belong to their own land. Even recent works such as, A Pandiyan’s 2018 story ‘Ringgit’ detailing the riots before the notorious May 1969 riots and Selvan Kasilingam’s ‘Michamiruppavargal’ (Those Who Remain) on the 2007 Hindraf protests, chronicle the readiness to struggle for their land (country) and show the development of a land-linked Malaysian Tamil literary tradition.
Singapore Tamil literature does not speak about such a fierce devotion to land mainly because the lives and occupations of the Tamils were detached from the island’s land and the sea that surrounded it. Even when rubber and sugarcane plantations existed in Singapore, only a minuscule proportion of workers employed there were Tamils. Most Tamils worked in the service sector, the public works department or in trade.(註2) While Singapore Tamils have written poems about the flourishing port, they did not relate to the life of the sea as, for instance, the Malays do.
On another note, the Tamil literary tradition in Malaysia has been continued mostly by people who were born and grew up in that country. However, in Singapore, new migrants, transient foreign workers and only a small number of homegrown writers make it possible for Tamil literature to thrive.
Existence in Silos
The discussion of the Singapore Tamil community at any point in our history will need to take into account the fact that it is not only made of past migrants but continues to be regenerated by by new migrants all the time. Both written and oral histories clearly show that developments in the Singapore Tamil community is intimately linked with migrant activity.
Early Tamil migrants who contributed to Singapore’s Tamil literature included members of the working class Tamils, Chettiars, Tamil Muslims, and Sri Lankan Tamils. The first phase of the development of Singapore Tamil literature consists of literary endeavours by these four groups. However, they later became subsumed under a greater over-arching Tamil identity fostered by a rising Tamil nationalist consciousness, breaking down previously erected barriers.(註3)
A large majority of Indian/ Tamil migrants worked in menial jobs in the public service, the service sector and infrastructure projects. Convicts deported from India to Singapore from 1825 formed a significant number of these labourers.(註4) These migrants expected to break away from the caste and economic oppression they had faced in their homeland.(註5) However, that was not to be in the 19th century.
Elangovan’s Oodaadi (Medium) drama sets out caste divisions and economic inequalities among the Tamil community, as well as the many social structures that conspired to keep them poor and disenfranchised.(註6) Oodaadi continues to be an important social documentation of this period, due to its authentic dialogue and eye for historical detail.
Palanivelu’s 1947 poem “Malayavil Indiar Nilai” (The State of Indians in Malaya) succinctly captures how Tamil labourers were deceived into coming here, and how their contributions to the region’s economic growth had faded away from public memory:
காட்டினையே களைந்திட்டோம் பள்ளந்தூர்த்தோம்
கழனிகளில் தானியங்கள் விளையச் செய்தோம்
தோட்டத்தில் மரம்வெட்டி ரப்பர் சேர்த்தோம்
தோண்டி எடுத்தோம் ஈயம் ‘துரைமார்’ கட்கே
போட்ட முதலைப் பெருக்கும் சொக்கத் தங்கம்
பூரிப்பால் அவர் கொழுக்க நாமும் தேய்ந்தோம்!We cleared forests, filled the hollows
We cultivated grains in the fields
We tapped the trees and collected rubber
We dug out tin for the British masters –
The gold that increased their wealth –
They fattened with happiness, we faded away
Oh The drum of Labourers! Proclaim this truth
So that the whole world may know.(註7)
The Singapore Tamil Muslim community has historically played a very significant role in the development of Singapore Tamil literature, as well as early Singapore Malay literature.(註8) Researcher N Balabaskaran who makes note of this key role, also states that close to 40 Tamil publications had been published in Singapore from 1875 to 1941.(註9) Mahudoom Saiboo who played an important role in the publication of Singapore’s earliest Tamil newspapers (註10) – including ‘Singai Varthamaani’ (1875), ‘Thanghai Nesan’ and ‘Singai Nesan’ – also owned Deenodhaya Publications which printed many early Singapore Tamil books.
The Tamil Muslim community, which functioned at a distance from other Tamil social groups till the 1930s, used religion and Tamil language as tools to preserve its unique culture and identity. This is partly evident from the fact that of all the Tamil books published in Singapore before the 1940s, 13 were religious works composed by Tamil Muslim poets (註11) including the earliest extant Singapore Tamil work, Nagoor Muhammad Abdul Kathiru Pulavar’s ‘Munajaath Thiraththu’(註12) published in 1872.
The intense propaganda of the Tamil Reform Movement that gained pace in the 1930s eventually fostered the development of a Tamil linguistic identity as different from religious affiliations. The social mood of this reformist period can be seen in the works of Singapore Tamil poet A Abdul Rahman who published under the pen name, Singai Mugilan. His works such as ‘Tamil Oli Geetham’ (Song of Tamil Light), 1939, and ‘Dravida Mani Geetham’ (Song of the Dravidian), 1940 exhibit the reformist bent of the Tamil nationalist movement (註13).
Compared with their counterparts in other South-east Asian territories, the Chettiars in Singapore did not have extensive landholdings or engage in land-based activities intensively. They were more focused on private finance and trading. Novels like P Singaram’s ‘Puyalile Oru Thoni’ (A Sailboat in the Storm) and short stories like Ilankannan’s “Ang Pow” and “Samarthiyam” (Cleverness) describe the functioning of the many kittangis (shop houses) that the Chettiars owned in Singapore.(註14) These works also speak of how the Chettiars predominantly saw Singapore as a place of transit where they could make their fortunes.
The Chettiars recorded their affiliation to the Tamil deity Murugan and sustained the strong religious character of their community by building temples, and by focusing their daily activities around these temples. The earliest Tamil books written by Chettiars such as Muthukkaruppan Chettiar’s ‘Penangu Thanneer Malai Vadivelar Peril Asiriyar Virutham’ (A Poem on the Muruga Deity at Waterfall Hill in Penang), which is considered the oldest Tamil literary work in Malaya, were all religious in nature.(註15)
Sri Lankan Tamil literary works written in Singapore reference many similar problems faced by diaspora Sri Lankan Tamils today—namely, nostalgia for their homeland, as well as the need to ensure inter-generational transmission of cultural identity. C N Sadasiva Panditar who published a collection of poems in the 1880s comprising ‘Vannai Anthathi’ (Poem on Vannai City), ‘Vannai Nagar Oonjal’ (Oonjal Genere Song on Vannai City) and ‘Singai Nagar Anthathi’ (Poem on Singapore City) describes the Tank Road Thendayudhapani Temple apart from mentioning key features of his own hometown and its land-linked life.
K Dominic’s 1936 novel ‘Azhagananda Pushpam’ (Flower of Beauty and Joy), published in Singapore’s Victoria Press, chronicles the tussle between those who held onto old traditions and those who equated Westernisation as modernity. Many of these early works also expressed concern that second- and third-generation Sri Lankan Tamils had lost their ties with their mother tongue. Focusing on Tamil and Saivaite Hinduism, they used both as markers of high social status, says Nadaraja Selvaraja in his ‘Nooltheththam’ (Bibliography).(註16)
A Unified Tamil Identity
Apart from a few published in the early 20th century, most Tamil books published in Singapore until 1939 were largely religious texts. According to Kotti Thirumuruganandam,(註17) these included about 13 Islamic works and 19 Hindu works. These books were the result of counter-missionary work undertaken by the Sri Lankan Saivaite scholar Arumuga Navalar, who, from 1843, developed a Tamil and Saiva religion-based revival to counter Christian missionary efforts under the colonial administration. As part of this effort, early Tamil Hindu works printed in Singapore promoted unity centred around a religious-linguistic identity.
However, two new social developments helped transform the Tamil literary milieu from its previous emphasis on a religious identity, to linguistic identity as the lynchpin of the Tamil community. One was the nationalist movement in Tamil Nadu that gained momentum in the early 20th century. The second was the emergence of the Tamil publishing industry in the late 19th century that inspired the rapid growth of Tamil books (both new works and old classical texts) and newspapers. These developments proved to be more successful than political movements as a result of their overarching focus on Tamil identity, which resonated far more closely with the Tamil psyche than political slogans. Besides, these movements proposed an alternate and attractive world view of an enduring Tamil identity, culture and history in contrast to the prevailing narrative that the Sanskrit Vedas were the basis of the Indian identity. The impact of these movements was keenly felt in Malaya and Singapore, and inspired the reformist work of personalities such as A C Suppiah, S S Chinnappanaar, G Sarangapany and M K Bahruddin. The consciousness of a separate Tamil identity strengthened the sense of community amongst the Tamils here and served as the catalyst for the growth of Singapore Tamil literature.
Dravidian Thought Informs Distinct Singapore Tamil Literature
The Dravidian movement gained traction among the working class in Malaya and Singapore through the work of E V Ramasamy, a key founder and ideologue of the Dravidian movement in India. Ramasamy, referred to as Periyar (Great One) by followers, wrote and spoke extensively on the need for self-respect, abolishment of caste system and of superstitious religious customs.
Suppiah and Sarangapany set up the Tamils’ Reform Council (TRC) in Singapore in 1934, adhering to Ramasamy’s ideology. These two men and their co-workers were instrumental in bringing together Tamil migrants who had hitherto been divided on the basis of birth-town, caste and class, under a unifying Tamil identity. The publications started by them, Munnettram (Progress) and Tamil Murasu (Tamil Drum), served as propaganda mouthpieces for the Tamil reformist movement in Singapore and Malaya. The literary works included in these publications reflected Dravidian convictions. These works focused also on elements of the rationalist agenda, including widow remarriage, abolishment of caste which, along with the preservation of Tamil language, upliftment of Tamils and social advancement, were seen as progressive policies that there were relevant for Singapore.
Sarangapany was active in bringing forward the Dravidian agenda in Malaya and Singapore from the 1930s to 70s. He established the Tamilar Thirunaal (Tamils Great Day) celebrations as a unifying celebration for the Tamil community in the 1950s. Through these celebrations and through Tamil Murasu, Sarangapany paved the way for the unification of the Tamil community under a single linguistic identity and the growth of a distinct Singapore Tamil literature.
Bharat and the Indian Identity
The Indian independence movement gained momentum at the same time as the Dravidian movement was making inroads in Malaya and Singapore in the 1930s and 40s. The independence struggle in India set forth the idea of Bharat or India as a distinct nation-state. Tamils in Malaya and Singapore increasingly saw themselves as a separate Tamil community and chose to celebrate and emulate Dravidian poets, particularly Bharathidasan. Several Singapore writers saw Bharathidasan as their literary role model, including senior poet Palanivelu.
However, it is interesting that even strong proponents of Dravidian thought such as Sarangapany rallied under the Jai Hind (Long Live India) war cry of Subash Chandra Bose’s Indian National Army (INA), and that the INA itself was established in Singapore, with the aim of cooperating with the Japanese to overthrow British rule in India.
Ilangkannan’s novel Vaigarai Pookkal (Flowers at Dawn)(註18) captures the dilemmas of ideology and identity faced by Singapore Tamils during this period. Characters in the novel are initially proud of being employed by the British colonial masters while voicing support for the struggle for Indian independence. These characters hang Subhash Chandra Bose’s picture in their homes while still praising Mahatma Gandhi and extolling his principle of non-violence. Eventually they join Bose’s INA. This novel clearly shows the shifting of identities among Tamils according to the socio-political forces of that time.
The Citizenship Dilemma
The end of World War II saw the emergence of nationalist sentiment among the peoples of Malaya and Singapore. People of all races were shaken by the defeat of the British forces and had been scarred by the war. In line with Benedict Anderson’s theory of imagined communities, this shared suffering brought different racial groups together and gave them a sense of nascent nationhood. However, the Tamils were not able to easily accept this as their new homeland and chose to look back towards Tamil Nadu.(註19) Several Tamil works including Illangkannan’s Ninaivugalin Kolangal (Thought Patterns) and SVShanmugam’s Singapore Mappillai (Singapore Bridegroom) describe the desire of migrants to marry girls from India in order to maintain familial ties.
After India gained its independence in 1947, Sarangapany attempted to persuade Tamils here to take on British Malayan citizenship, and offered free legal assistance to those who wished to do so. However, many were afraid of losing the right to return to India if they did so. The high unemployment rate, corruption and poverty in post-war Singapore also contributed to their hesitation. Works such as M K Gurusamy’s short story “Vaazvu Enge” (Where is Life?), Murugadasan’s long-form poem “Sangamam” (Confluence) and Amallathaasan’s “Tamilar Thalaivar Tamilavel” (Tamilavel, the Leader of Tamils) discuss this dilemma and the challenges they faced due to this indecision.
Political Change
Constitutional changes that came into force from 1955 provided for universal suffrage. As a result, the locus of influence moved from the English-educated and non-Tamil Indian elites into the hands of reformist Tamil leaders who were able to directly influence rank and file voters in the Tamil community. The People’s Action Party (PAP) launched a vigorous campaign to build a new unified national identity. The Tamils Representative Council and the Singapore affiliates of the Dravidian Progressive Party (the DMK) campaigned actively in support of the PAP.(註20) This active participation partly influenced the PAP’s decision to include Tamil amongst Singapore’s official languages.
Although the local Tamil community was actively involved in Singapore politics from the late 1950s, apart from Elangovan’s poems and plays, most other Tamil literary works here do not speak about political challenges and pressures faced by a minority community. At the same time, Tamil works here were concerned about national issues and challenges. Singapore Tamil writers wrote poems and stories opposing the Konfrontasi by Indonesia at that time. A Ulaganthan wrote the “Puthiya Por Parani” (New War Song) in the Tamil Malar daily. J M Sali, Malabar Kumar (Kumaran), R Balusamy and Saba Ramakrishnan together wrote a novella entitled “Thoduvaanam” (Horizon) with Konfrontasi as a backdrop in Tamil Murasu.
New Challenges in a New Country
Independent Singapore strengthened its governance and undertook a massive economic effort to slough off its Third World status. Singapore’s post-independence economic, social, education, housing and cultural policies had a deep impact on the forms, themes and styles of Tamil literary works produced after 1965. However, it has to be noted that relatively fewer Tamil writers emerged here after independence till the 1990s.
The impact of new housing policies on the lives of ordinary Tamil Singaporeans was recorded in P Krishnan’s long-running radio play Adukkuveetu Annasamy (HDB Flat-owner Annasamy).(註21) Ilangkannan’s novel Ninaivugalin Kolangal describes how Singaporeans moved from the close-knit kampong life to high-rise apartment living. Rather than focusing on nostalgia, these works promoted the idea of a better and cleaner living environment.
The cultural dynamics of Tamil families changed when hundreds of women entered the workforce. Many Singapore Tamil works then – and now – discussed the effects of women going to work and its impact on children and elderly folk as well as the moral ‘degradation’ caused by women going ‘out of the home’.
The Search for Social Mobility
The caste and class divisions within the Tamil community that had largely been subsumed under a single Tamil identity began to resurface in post-independent Singapore. To counter that, Tamil works here began emphasising education as the pathway for socio-economic upliftment in a meritocratic society like Singapore. R Kannabiran’s Nadodigal (Gypsies) centres on the son of a nightsoil collector who tries to eradicate his caste status by excelling in studies. However, he leaves for Australia after he realises that he can never escape caste stigma in Singapore’s Tamil community. In Govindasamy’s short story “Mathippeedugal” (Valuations) a descendant of a convict labourer seeks a new identity and respectability in Singapore. Writers of this period, including Ilangkannan, Govindasamy, Kannabiran, P Sundararaju and M R Gurusamy started to reflect the aspirations and emotional struggles of the working-class Tamils in their works. These works identified economic disparity as the cause of social inequality and used everyday situations to highlight hidden power structures in the Tamil community.
In Ilangkannan’s short story “Mee Goreng”, the protagonist Muthu Maraikkar is a hawker who strives for social mobility through his son’s education.(註22) In Sundararasu’s short story “Kuzhandhai” (Child), Murugan, a daily-rated grass cutter, marries a Chinese girl adopted by a Tamil family to ensure that his children are not dark like himself.(註23)
The Impact of English on Tamil Writing
Singapore continued to maintain English as her working language with the aim of strengthening the country’s economic future, competitiveness and as a means of communication between the various races. English began to overwhelm the multi-lingual public sphere and, over time, became the dominate language for all ethnic communities. In the face of the onslaught of English, the upper crust of the Tamil community yielded more readily than most and became deracinated from both Tamil language and culture. Some Tamil writers again took up the Tamil cause as their landscape for writing, lamenting its decline and arguing for its resurrection. Several works including Paranan’s poem “Tamil-lah”, Kannapiran’s “Vaazhvu” (Life) and Thangarasan’s many poems speak of the decline of Tamil language and the loss of Tamil cultural heritage in Singapore. While Tamil writers see this mainly as a failure on the part of the community, they have not adequately discussed the impact of the policy changes in mother tongue education on Singapore’s Tamil culture and literature.
The Rise of ‘Singapore Tamil Literature’
The mid-1970s saw yet another revival of interest in language and culture, through the efforts of a new generation. At the forefront of this were A Veeramani, N Govindasamy and the Tamils Representative Council under the leadership of G Kandasamy. This led to the notion of a ‘Singapore Tamil Literature’ seeping into the consciousness of the community. The contributions of CV Devan Nair, former trade union leader and former President of Singapore, should not be forgotten as he was instrumental in setting up the Tamil Language and Cultural Society in 1980.
The visit by eminent Indian Tamil writer Akilan to Singapore in 1975 gave the literary community new vigour.(註24) His visit resulted in the setting up of a Tamil Language Society in the University of Singapore, the Association of Singapore Tamil Writers and Ilakkiya Kalam (Literary Forum), an interest group to facilitate literary criticism and discussion. The fledgling Tamil Language Society became active through its research journal and its first Tamil Language and Literature Conference Seminar” held in 1977.(註25) Some of the papers presented there, especially Govindasamy’s papers, are the first works of research into Tamil literature in Singapore. At the first Tamil Language and Literature Conference Seminar in 1977, Nair, then the leading trade unionist and a highly influential political leader in the PAP, made a keynote speech emphasising the importance of Tamil in Singapore.(註26)
New Blooms
Together, these developments led to an increase in writing efforts till 1990. Young writers like Elangovan, Udhuman Ghani, Manivannan, R Pandiyan and T Durairajoo emerged and showed promise. The late 1980s saw a shift from national integration towards a new narrative which posited that each racial community’s vibrant culture was a vital part of a distinctive Singapore identity. The political leadership began to devote attention and resources to enriching the nation’s culture and arts. This resulted in more institutional support for Tamil literary development and spotting new writing talent.
In 1990, 25 Tamil books by Singapore writers were launched during Indian Cultural Month festivities that were held to celebrate Singapore’s 25 years of independence. These included poetry and short fiction by new writers. During the same period, selected entries from writing competitions held by the Ministry of Education and senior Tamil teachers were compiled into two short story collections.
The National Arts Council that was formed in 1991 with the objective of creating a vibrant cultural environment and the setting up of arts centres and libraries, resulted in more formal support for literary development. Tamil writers and their writings entered the mainstream through platforms like the literary journal Singa, the then Singapore Writers Week and the SPH/NAC National Short Story Competition, which later became the Singapore Writers Festival and Golden Point Award respectively.
However, these efforts did not quite produce the intended result as most of the new talents did not continue creative writing. While government support for language, literature and culture had increased, socio-economic pressures had led to a one-dimensional definition of success. Young Singapore Tamils had little to gain by writing.
Migration Policy and Growth of Tamil Literature
The Singapore Government in 1990 began to welcome foreign talent to boost Singapore’s economic development.(註27) Besides boosting the economy, these foreigners contributed immensely to the growth of the Singapore arts scene. Though some senior writers such as Kamaladevi Aravindan and Singai Tamilselvam wrote relentlessly, most had wound down their literary activities by the late 1990s. It was then that new migrant Tamil writers such as Indrajit, Chitra Ramesh, Jayanthi Sankar, Pichinikkadu Elango, Nepolian and Mathangi wrote extensively in local newspapers, magazines, web platforms and also published books.
Through the efforts of new Tamil migrants, organisations like the Association of Singapore Tamil Writers, Kavi Malai, Thangameen and Vasagar Vattam have spearheaded activities to encourage reading and new writers, resulting in a proliferation of new Tamil literary works. Shanavas, Azhagunila, M K Kumar, N V Visayabaharathi, Yusoff Ravuthar Rajeed, Ram Chander, Sivanantham Neelakandan and several others have become the next generation of Singapore Tamil writers. Many of these new entrants used their knowledge of modern Tamil literature, the global Tamil community linked through the Internet and their extensive contacts with Tamil writers to build a wide readership. However, these writers—used to the wide social spaces afforded by their homelands—tend to find writing about the nuances of life within the confines of Singapore city a challenge. Apart from a few exceptions, they focus on exterior markers such as lonely old people, foreign construction workers and domestic helpers to depict ‘Singaporeanness’. At the same time, these writers have created a global audience for Singapore Tamil literature and in continuing a Tamil literature unshackled from the land.
Amongst the cluster of new writers, a handful of younger, second and third-generation Singapore Tamils have started writing. Suriyarethna and Sithuraj Ponraj explore hidden complexities in the Singapore Tamil community through works like Paramapatham (2014) and Maariligal (2016) respectively. Their works discuss the sub-cultures in gangs, Indian pubs, dilemmas faced by middle-aged Singaporeans, modern relationships and their problems.(註28)
In addition, a new generation of young enthusiasts are involved in literary activities and stand at the threshold of literary writing. This renewed interest in the Tamil linguistic and literary landscape partly stems from the emphasis of Tamil as a source and marker of cultural identity. Another factor is the realisation that involvement in these spheres can accrue social and cultural capital. Activities and opportunities for funding by government organisations and affiliated bodies such as the National Library Board, National Arts Council, and the Tamil Language Council have also contributed to this shift in perspective.
At the Bicentennial
When the Tamil migrants of yesteryears came here seeking an existence, writing was mostly a thin thread that tied them to their old homeland. As they became settlers, Tamil language and literature became useful tools for the social integration of the disparate groups of Tamils. For the next generation of Tamils, Tamil language gave them a distinctive identity. Today, Tamil language has evolved as a bridge that unites both yesteryears’ migrant Tamils and new migrants.
Speaking at the opening of the Chinese Cultural Centre in Singapore in May 2017, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong stated that the distinct cultural identities belonging to Singaporeans of various races were a source of confidence, and that they contributed to Singapore’s uniqueness.(註29) Building this unique identity continues to be both Singapore’s strength and challenge. For, while literature can play a vital role in building a sense of belonging and common identity for a community removed from its cultural homeland, it also has to integrate with other communities with their own identities. The challenge of finding unity in diversity is no mean task. Tamil literature in Singapore has tried to find new ways to describe a Tamil way of life in an environment devoid of traditional landscape-linked literary conventions and one in which this language has little economic utility. If Tamil literati unravel the complexities of this land-deprived urban life with self-inquiry, Tamil literature in Singapore may move to its next stage of development.
Kanagalatha (Latha) has published three collections of poetry in Tamil: Theeveli (Firespace) (2003), Paampuk Kaattil Oru Thaazhai (A Screwpine in Snakeforest) (2004) and Yaarukkum Illaatha Paalai (No man’s desert) 2016. She has also published a short story collection Nan kolai Seyium penkkal (Women I Murder) in 2007, which won the biennial Singapore Literature Prize in 2008. The English translation of her short story collection The Goddess in the Living Room published in 2014. Her poems and short stories have been published in multilingual anthologies in Singapore and various Tamil literary journals in India, Malaysia, France and Sri Lanka. Her works have been translated into English, French and German. She has edited Letters from grandma and grandpa (published by NLB, 2008), G.Sarangapany’s Literary Leagacy (published by NAC & Tamil Murasu, 2013). Kanagalatha is one of the founding directors for Poetry Festival Singapore. She is currently the Associate editor of Tamil Murasu, Singapore’s Tamil daily newspaper.