The rise of the Indian elite class in Singapore

The Indian community used to be one of the most powerful elite class in Singapore during the colonial days. They are second only to the Seranis or Eurasians in power and influence. They were initially transferred from the East India Companies, the unofficial trading arms of the British Empire. And they spoke and wrote English which gave them that special advantage over the non English speaking locals. They were like the extended arm of the British colonial masters.

After the British departed, the Indian elite continued to dominate the civil service and occupied most of the senior positions, in politics, in the judiciary, in the uniform services and in many of the ministries and stats boards.

The dominance of the Indian elite was challenged when the other races took up English education and started to use English as the medium for communication. The public service employment pie was subsequently shared more evenly relative to the racial composition of the population. Even then, the Indian elite still enjoyed a much bigger share of the pie relative to the size of their population.

Today, the Indian elite is entering its golden years in this city. They are everywhere in the top echelon of management, from politics, the govt ministries and to the industries. The Mediacorp has just appointed Walter Fernandez as the Group Editor In Chief. And there is Warren Fernandez, the Editor of the Straits Times and Patrick Daniel as Editor in Chief of the Straits Times. The three of them would have a big say the in content of the Media and wield great influence on what the readers shall read.

In the Cabinet there is the Dep PM and Fin Minister in Tharman, Law and Foreign Affairs Minister in Shanmugam, MEWR in Vivian, and another minister Iswaran in the PM’s office, also Second Minister in Home Affairs and Trade and Industry.

In the judiciary the Chief Justice is Sundaresh Menon and Indian high court judges have always been a part of the bench. Then there are many prominent senior counsels in practice.

The Chief of Army is MG Ravinder Singh.

Most notable is that the Indian elite distinguished themselves in finance. Other than Tharman as Finance Minister, there is Ravi Menon as MD of MAS. And the CEO of DBS, the national bank, is Piyush Gupta. There are many top Indians in the foreign banks as CEOs or in top management, and also in GIC and Temasek, including Dhanabalan as the latter’s Chairman. Their dominance in finance is unchallenged and this will grow bigger over time.

In the academia there are many prominent professors heading many departments. So is the field of medicine. The Indian elites are everywhere stamping their influence and authority in their respective fields.

The field of IT is more or less dominated by Indian professionals mainly from India. There is however a strange phenomenon, that the local Indians are somehow not very good in IT. And there is an increasing community of very rich Indian PRs and new citizens finding residence in the City. And they brought along their businesses, now the biggest group among the foreign investors here.

The Indian community is now a very formidable force to reckon with in all fields of enterprise in the island and will play an increasing role in the growth and development of the country. Not forgetting we had two past presidents in Nair and Nathan, not counting the numerous very rich individuals among them. Singaporeans will have to be better acquainted with this development and acknowledge the bigger role played by the numerically small Indian community. But this is set to change with CECA and the India Indians finding this island a very conducive and good place to do business and bringing up children.