VR Nathan: Community Servant Extraordinary 9789814379854

Table of contents :
Contents
Foreword
Message
Preface
Acknowledgements
1. VR’s Inter-religious Leadership
2. An Immigrant who Made Good
3. Introduction to Temple Management Affairs
4. Invitation to Help out HEB
5. An Era of Change in HEB
6. VR’s Signal Contribution to HEB’s Transformation
7. Celebrating Hindu Festivals
8. Transforming the Temple Scene
9. VR’s Views in Public Deliberations of Issues Affecting Indians
10. VR’s Legacy
Appendix
About the Authors

Citation preview

VRNATHAN

COMMUNITY SERVANT EXTRAORDINARY

BALA BASKARAN SAID ABDULLAH ARUN SENKUTTUVAN

I5EI5 INSTITUTE OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN STUDIES Singapore

First published in Singapore in 2012 by ISEAS Publishing Institute of Southeast Asian Studies 30 Heng Mui Keng Terrace Pasir Panjang E-mail: [email protected] Singapore 119614 Website: http://bookshop.iseas.edu.sg The authors and ISEAS are grateful to the following for their generous donations towards the cost of writing and publishing this book: Singapore Buddhist Lodge, Hindu Endowment Board, Jamiyah, VR Nathan’s family and other friends. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without written permission of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. © 2012 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore The responsibility for facts and opinions in this publication rests exclusively with the authors and their interpretations do not necessarily reflect the views or the policy of the publisher or its supporters. ISEAS Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data Baskaran, Bala. VR Nathan : community servant extraordinary / Bala Baskaran, Said Abdullah and Arun Senkuttuvan. 1. Nathan, V. R. 2. Endowments—Singapore—Officials and employees. 3. Hindu Endowments Board (Singapore) 4. Hindu temples—Singapore—Management 5. Hinduism—Singapore—Relations. I. Said Abdullah. II. Senkuttuvan, Arun. III. Title. HV400.67 N27 2012 ISBN 978-981-4379-84-7 (soft cover) ISBN 978-981-4379-85-4 (e-book, PDF) Typeset in Singapore by Superskill Graphics Pte Ltd Printed in Singapore by Mainland Press Pte Ltd

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Contents Foreword  vii Message  xi Preface  xiii Acknowledgements  xix 1 VR’s Inter-religious Leadership  1 2 An Immigrant who Made Good  20 3 Introduction to Temple Management Affairs  27 4 Invitation to Help out HEB  32 5 An Era of Change in HEB  35 

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6 VR’s Signal Contribution to HEB’s Transformation  45 7 Celebrating Hindu Festivals  59 8 Transforming the Temple Scene  84 9 VR’s Views in Public Deliberations of Issues Affecting Indians  112 10 VR’s Legacy  130 Appendix  134 About the Authors  136

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Foreword The late VR Nathan was an ordinary Hindu Singaporean, who was initially inducted into the Hindu Temple scene only to undertake the specific task of sorting out the financial state of affairs of the Hindu Endowments Board (HEB) that had remained unaudited for five consecutive years. With that task accomplished, he began looking into the operations of HEB and discovered the attendant problems of the HEB; poor management of its four temples and their finances; lack of supervision of the services they provided and the absence of proper controls of expenditures, among others. He came to grips with these weaknesses and discovered the range of problems that needed to be addressed. He began to set them right with hands-on engagement. With the help of HEB’s then Secretary – the late P Adistham – VR Nathan overcame the more serious problems needing urgent attention. These and his many other contributions towards the transformations of our temples, his attempts to profile the HEB as more than a temple management organization are well covered in this book by my dear vii

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friend Arun Senkuttuvan, such that it requires no further elaboration from me. He made HEB a more important social orgainsation reflecting the aspirations of the community to be an important element of our multi-racial and religious society. When VR Nathan came into our temple scene, he was a bank executive, quietly devoted to the practices of his faith. The temple scene was not what it is like today, where our temples are well furbished, operated with decorum and very much on their own, reflecting the respect and appreciation Hindus in our society enjoy in the eyes of those practicing other faiths. In the past, our temples were dominated by community leaders, whose only claim to leadership had been inherited from their ancestors or by right of their dominance in the South Indian caste practices of the Tamil Nadu. Perhaps the only exception was the Chettiar Temple at Tank Road where traditional practices of management were followed, originating as they were from a temple management culture going back to old times. VR Nathan worked hard to transform the HEB and the management of its four temples. Through his dedication and management practices, he demonstrated to our Hindu community how our temples could be transformed through proper hands-on management and leadership by example. His success helped to profile the Hindu temples and Hindus favourably in the eyes of

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other faiths and became icons worthy of adulation by our own Hindu community, and by extension getting HEB accepted as an equal if not important and an integral part of Singapore’s multi-religious society and our range of traditions. With the success he achieved in transforming HEB, his reputation for effective management and experiences soon imparted on other Hindu temples in Singapore, who recognized and sought his advice and services to revamp their own practices of management. As he became a symbol of good practice within the Indian community, other religious and social bodies began to draw him into their orbit and within range of community and social endeavours. That is how Mr Lee Bock Guan of the Buddhist Lodge, Haji Abu Bakar Maidin of Jamiyah and leaders of other community and social organizations drew him to work in partnership with them for various broad-based community causes and activities. Together with them he took an active part in the restoration of Inter-Religious Organisation’s (IRO) reputation as a national organization, and ably represented Singapore at various overseas and local conferences discussing interfaiths co-operation and the promotion of our practices of inter-religious harmony. It was at the height of his successes, that voices began surfacing about the undesirability of him continuing as Chairman of HEB and how a change had to be forced on HEB. With such views expressed by selective officials in Ministry of Community Development, Youth and

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Sports (MCYS), who administer the HEB and within HEB itself, it soon became evident that a call for him to step down would grow and demands be made for him to step down. He soon realized this and offered to step down. The sad part of VR Nathan’s story is that the very people who enjoyed his close friendship, patronage and fruits of his labour chose to distance themselves from him once such views were expressed by prominent people. They began ingratiating with the emerging new forces seeking to dominate the temple scene, with obvious interest of their own. Even the HEB headquarters building, on which he devoted so much time and effort to develop, made him feel he was unwelcome even to occupy a room designated to serve him on retirement. He died a disappointed man, except for knowing that his close friends like Lee Bock Guan and Haji Abu Bakar Maidin of Jamiyah and others were the only ones to stand by him to the end and cherish his memory. My only regret is that I was not able to intervene, having been advised to lay off the internal matters of HEB. As President of the Republic of Singapore at the time, it constrained me from countering their caveats, much as I wanted to. SR Nathan Sixth President of the Republic of Singapore 3 January 2012

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Message VR Nathan and I knew each other since the early 1990s. We had many ideas in common and got along like old friends right from the beginning. Together with then president of Jamiyah Singapore, Abu Bakar Maidin, we were as close as brothers since the days when VR Nathan was still the Chairman of the Hindu Endowments Board. The three of us often had meals and tea together, and we chatted about everything under the sun, whether it was about how to promote inter-racial and inter-religious harmony, what kind of activities we should organize or simply sharing our worries with each other. We also spoke our minds with each other. This sense of trust and camaraderie enabled us to work well together and achieve many successes in our collaborations. As the leaders of three different religious groups, we led our organizations to cooperate. Through friendly discussions and close coordination, we accomplished a great deal in terms of promoting inter-racial and interreligious harmony and working for the interests of the common folk. When the Singapore Buddhist Lodge distributed annual bursaries and red packets for the

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less privileged, VR Nathan and Abu Bakar would be invited to take up joint chairmanship and give them out together. Our friendship was a deep one. We never forgot to invite each other over for festive celebrations. During Hari Raya, we would all go celebrate at Jamiyah. Every Deepavali, VR Nathan invited us to his house without fail. VR Nathan was a forthright and approachable man. He was sensible in his dealings and a devout Hindu. I know everyone in his family. He valued traditions greatly and once took his daughter to his hometown in India to seek a suitable spouse. He even sought my opinion when he was thinking about buying a piece of land in Newton to build a house for himself and his three daughters. In 1999, when members of the Inter-Religious Organization went on a fourteen-day trip to China, VR Nathan brought his family along. I remember us cruising along the river in a boat, having heart-to-heart talks and sharing many happy moments together. Now he has left us. I feel a deep sorrow in my heart at the loss of a true friend. Brother Nathan, you are sorely missed and you will always be in my memory. Lee Bock Guan Chairman Singapore Buddhist Lodge 19 December 2011

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Message I feel honoured to pen a few lines to this commemorative volume on my close friend, the late Mr VR Nathan fondly known as VR. I came into contact with VR when I was working at Young Advertising in the Accounts Department. He was working with Standard Chartered Bank in the same building, Shaw House, Orchard Road where my office was and hence we met frequently. However, we became much closer many years later when both of us moved into community service, I at Jamiyah Singapore and VR at the helm of the Hindu Endowments Board and both of us also at the InterReligious Organization, Singapore. Mr Lee Bock Guan, Chairman of the Singapore Buddhist Lodge, VR and I had several things in common. We had almost identical views and objectives in doing our part for promoting inter-faith and interracial harmony. The strength of VR was that he was a meticulous person and objective in his views and dealings. It is during his tenure as Chairman of the Hindu Endowments Board that the Hindu Indian xi

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community of Singapore came much closer to the mainstream communities of other races and faiths such as the Chinese and the Malay/Muslim communities. VR played a monumental role in fostering this spirit of harmony and goodwill among different communities. This commemorative volume brings back to me nostalgic memories of the very genial and amiable VR who was from the first instance of my knowing him a truly Singaporean Indian leader who upheld the cosmopolitan spirit of our nation. His legacy will live on and guide future leaders in community service and multi-cultural harmony work. Haji Abu Bakar Maidin Executive Consultant Jamiyah Singapore 28 December 2011

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Preface When Ambassador K Kesavapany, Director of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, invited me to write a book on VR Nathan, who served the longest as Chairman of Hindu Endowments Board (HEB), my immediate response was: “Shouldn’t the book be on President Nathan rather than on VR Nathan? What did VR do that the President didn’t want him to do?” My reaction was instant, as Ambassador Kesavapany’s invitation was an unexpected one, and uninformed, as I have now learnt. Sure, VR was SR Nathan’s man when he was appointed to HEB. That was how everyone who dealt with him since then saw him. That impression was confirmed by the research that Bala Baskaran and Said Abdullah undertook for this book and in all the interviews I participated in. But we also learnt that VR was more than a President’s man. VR well understood what was expected of him but on many occasions, within the parameters set earlier by President Nathan, responded spontaneously and earnestly to initiatives taken by others and thereby xiii

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won their eternal friendship and support. Perhaps all President Nathan’s men are like that. Perhaps that’s how the President chooses and mentors his men. For us, it was a pleasant discovery and made us understand the basis of the strong bondage that VR had also built with most leaders of other religions in Singapore. This was an aspect of VR’s later life that was not meaningfully publicized in the media and not appreciated by any of us when we started on this project. The function of the Inter-Religious Organisation (IRO) itself, we suspect, is not as widely understood by Singaporeans as it should be. Be that as it may, what struck me and Said Abdullah, each with a couple of decades of reporting experience, was the emotional state in which we found Lee Bock Guan, Rustom M Ghadiali and Haji Abu Bakar Maidin when we interviewed them. All three were very mature leaders steeped in their religious learning and traditions and not easily given to emotionally breaking down when discussing the loss of a fellow pilgrim. Their words, and what they said they could never adequately describe in words, were the ultimate testimony to VR’s valuable contribution to their collective efforts to maintain religious harmony in Singapore. Peace seldom makes news unless, of course, it follows a disturbance, and efforts to promote peace are even less reported, especially if there had been no incidents to remind people how terrible things would be if such

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efforts had not been made or had failed. In Singapore, these men in their own way made sure that there was no such news. They all testified that though everyone took to VR in the first instance as SR’s man, fairly quickly found his warm friendship and dedication to their common cause endearing and worthy of trust and support. More than any Hindu representative before him on IRO, VR became the prime mover of several joint efforts involving different religious groups and, even more importantly, the man who secured financial support from the affluent Buddhist Lodge to projects promoted by and benefitting cash-strapped Muslim and Hindu organizations. The comradeship that VR enjoyed with leaders of most religions in Singapore, to us, was his crowning accomplishment. Even with the evangelist Christian missionaries, with whom he had a bone to pick, he maintained a cordial relationship if he happened to meet them (as they did not participate in IRO). Such a cosmopolitan outlook was not surprising in his backer. But VR was born and brought up in a stable inland temple town in India where no soul belonged to any religion other than Hinduism. He worked all his life for a colonial bank where everyone knew his place in the hierarchy. He married a girl chosen by his parents. His spontaneous advice to me when my father introduced me to him and said that I was going for an interview to be a journalist was: “Why you want to become a

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journalist? Newspapers don’t pay. Chartered Bank will be recruiting soon. We can try other banks too.” He meant well. His advice was practical. He knew from his landlord, who was my father’s schoolmate in Cambey (near Yangon), that my family had lost all its wealth in Myanmar. My father was working as a department secretary at the University of Singapore. Job security and financial stability were the key to everything else in life, VR said. His entire career was with the same bank, especially at a time when, because of its conservatism, it lost its supremacy in Singapore. He looked for cultural stability, too. He sent his daughters to study in India and wanted to get them married there. He bought a house in Bangalore for his retirement but then changed his mind and built a four-storey house in Singapore where all his daughters’ families could live under the same roof. His was the life of an immigrant who made good. Yet, when he was called to play a role at the Ruthra Kaliamman Temple, where worshippers until then had been only Tamils and Tamil-speaking Telugus, he brought in a Malayalee, a North Indian and a Muslim to serve on its committees. This was before he met SR Nathan. After their meeting, everybody assumed that whatever VR did was on SR’s instruction. That was my impression too, based on secondhand information, as I had lost touch with VR in 1977. Hence my response as mentioned at the outset when Kesavapany proposed a book on VR. But the persuasive diplomat that he is,

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Kesavapany suggested: “Shall we find out if VR was more than a President’s man?” When I pleaded lack of time because of my work commitments, he agreed to my enlisting the support of Bala Baskaran, a veteran broadcast journalist who had by then started researching the history of Indians, particularly Tamils, in Malaysia and Singapore, and Said Abdullah, a former colleague who had served as secretary of IRO for many years. The book in your hands now is the result of largely their research. Since our access to the records of Hindu Endowments Board with which VR was identified for more than two decades was rather limited we are not able to provide precise details or analysis of as many issues as VR is supposed to have tackled during his membership and later chairmanship of the board. We have tried to compensate for that with as many interviews as we could secure with people who worked with him during those years. We have also provided some background for some of the problems related to Hindu temples that SR and VR inherited. If such historic information appears rather long for a book on one man, it is deliberate. We have only included narratives that we believe have not been published or not known widely before. We believe such information will illuminate the personalities that VR and his associates were and their performance. It seems to us that the nature of Hinduism and Hindus is such that most of the problems are recurring and their management must have required the same tact

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and tolerance, perseverance and patience as in earlier decades, even though we are not able to account for all that VR tackled at HEB. VR basically looked at the four HEB temples as a service industry. He set about providing what came to be known as world-class service. In that he served as a catalyst for other Hindu temples in Singapore to engage in rebuilding and refurbishing, and celebrating hundreds of new special Hindu prayers and festivals which had never reached these shores till then. What VR achieved in the management and development of HEB’s temples and at IRO, with SR’s support, and what he accomplished at the Parliamentary Select Committee on the creation of Group Representation Constituencies, on his own, were exceptional. We believe that his contribution to IRO and the relationships that he built up in the course of his involvement in IRO-related projects are exemplary and worthy of emulation by young Singaporeans. Arun Senkuttuvan

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Acknowledgements I am particularly grateful to Ambassador K Kesavapany who saw it fit to give me this assignment. It has been educational. I am also grateful to President SR Nathan, Lee Bock Guan, Rustom Ghadiali, S Chandra Das, Gopinath Pillai, Satpal Khattar, Shrinivas Rai and Lee Kim Siang who spared me and my colleagues the time they did enlightening us to see VR’s life and work in context. Baskaran wishes to thank the National Library’s principal staff Noryati Abdul Samad and Azizah Sidek and its former Chief Executive N Varaprasad for the special courtesies extended by them for his research. My special gratitude goes to Kesavapany, Kumar Krishnan and N Subrahmaniom who read the first draft and made valuable suggestions and to SR Nathan who read the second draft and gave detailed advice that has indeed defined the content of this book. Baskaran did most of the research for the chapters related to Hindu temples and HEB, and Abdullah for the one on IRO – based largely on public and partiallypublic sources like HEB, the National Archives, the xix

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Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) and newspaper libraries, and interviews we were willingly granted. Interpretation of that research, some personal observations and a few notes from the records of the private Chettiars Temple Trust and, therefore, any misrepresentation are mine. Arun Senkuttuvan

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1 VR’s Inter-religious Leadership When the post-Independence history of Singapore’s Inter-Religious Organization is written three names will stand out: Lee Bock Guan, VR Nathan and Haji Abu Bakar Maidin. Lee is president of the Buddhist Lodge. VR was the longest-serving chairman of the Hindu Endowments Board, and Bakar the longest-serving president of Jamiyah or the Muslim Missionary Society. In an interview for this book, Rustom M Ghadiali, president of the Parsi Zoroastrian Association, who had worked with them for many years, said: “They were like brothers.” There was nothing trite in Ghadiali’s description of the three men. It was a sincere description of the friendship between the three which came through in interviews with Lee and Bakar. VR had known Bakar since the late sixties when they both worked in the same building – Shaw House at the corner of Orchard and Scotts Roads. A few years later, Bakar became president of Jamiyah and 

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they lost touch. VR was busy with his career and Bakar was immersed in Jamiyah with a missionary zeal. Their paths crossed again when VR got involved in IRO affairs first as a mediator and then as a Hindu representative and as someone who knew the government’s expectations. It was the latter part of VR’s credentials that made key members of IRO approach him in 1995 to resolve an issue that had been bugging IRO for some time – whether to admit the Baha’is into the organization. The Muslims already active on IRO did not want them included as it would be interpreted to mean that they were recognizing them as a separate sect or religion. Given what the Baha’is professed, those Muslims felt that their religion did not permit such acceptance. Representatives of other religions on IRO did not want to sit in judgment but at the same time felt that they could not simply ignore the Baha’is’ application. They consulted VR. He told them: Admit the Baha’is. A number of Muslims resigned from IRO, but soon the organization was stabilized. In the process, Bakar got to appreciate VR for what he was – a cosmopolitan who cared about religious harmony in Singapore. VR got to know Bakar as one who took his mission seriously and who would not hesitate to seek anyone’s support to carry out his missionary work. Lee Bock Guan got to know VR in the early nineties even before he became president of the Buddhist Lodge.

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From then onwards, there was never an instance when VR sought some financial help to someone or some organization that Lee did not respond generously to. (Buddhist Lodge has donated more money than any other religious organization to causes championed by groups belonging to other religions in Singapore. In addition to all the donations it makes to individuals and other organizations, it provides sumptuous meals to poor people – in some years up to 5,000 a day, throughout the day – without expecting any religious obligation in return.) This was the time when the government wanted to revitalize IRO. VR was the catalyst that brought about the transformation. In interviews for this book, Lee and Bakar said that though they took to VR in the first instance as someone who knew SR’s mind and had his ears – because they all valued highly any advice or support they could get from SR – their relationship with VR blossomed over the years into one of warm and trusting friendship. It was VR’s personality that brought about the change. He was always available to them. He was ever ready to meet them anytime anywhere. Their meetings often ended in lunches or dinners where they found him to be an agreeable foodie. He was very generous with his time but always disciplined when it came to drafting or costing proposals. They could be certain that budgets drawn up by him would be adequate and reliable. He was willing to make

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commitments quickly and never hesitated to approach anyone for help. He always volunteered to liaise with the authorities and get approvals for whatever project or function they were organizing. He took an interest in the personal lives and families of the IRO council members. He invited them home for Deepavali lunches. He never turned down a social invitation. He invited the council members to important festivals at the four temples. He encouraged them to bring along fellow committee members from their respective religious groups. When they went to the temples, he made sure that they were received with decorum and shown around the temple. He would explain the significance of the rituals that were being conducted. Such visits always ended with partaking of sumptuous meals. Whenever IRO was invited to send a delegation overseas for some international religious gathering or just visit religious centres in the host country, he volunteered to go with his wife and fully participated in the activities organized by their hosts. All these endeared him to the other IRO leaders as someone who cared for them and promoted better mutual understanding. Ghadiali and P Harbans Singh, the Sikh representative on IRO for many years who had accompanied VR and the other leaders to numerous functions and overseas trips, shared the above impressions of Lee and Maidin and said that VR’s personality was such that for many years in the future the one thing that everyone of them would certainly

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talk about first when they meet would be how they miss him. Ghadiali said the hallmark of VR’s approach to any problem was that it was down-to-earth, and VR’s friendships and contacts often led to solutions to some long-term problems. He said that but for VR, IRO might still be functioning at the office or home of the current secretary or president and moving when office-bearers changed. Though VR had been involved in IRO since 1995, it was only in 2004 after stepping down from the Presidential Council for Religious Harmony that he became active and a council member of IRO. He was its president in 2006/2007. Ghadiali said VR secured an office space for IRO during this time. Lee said: “VR brought up the issue of the IRO badly needing a proper place to function and pointed out that it didn’t have the money to get an office. So we decided to support VR and allowed the whole of the second floor at our Buddhist Free Clinic premises in Geylang for IRO’s use for a nominal rent of $1 a month. When VR said that IRO didn’t have the funds to renovate the place either, $30,000 was spent by the lodge to renovate the whole floor and provided new furniture for IRO to function properly.” Said Lee: “He was a devout Hindu and was sincere about inter-religious harmony. He would go out of his way to help others. I was touched by his coming out to the doorstep to welcome me when we visited the

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Sengkang Temple during the consecration, giving me a grand welcome, complete with musical performance and all! And he took the trouble to explain the significance of each and every deity in the temple. Since Buddhism and Hinduism share some common culture and beliefs, for instance reincarnation, I could easily relate to VR’s explanation of Hindu beliefs and practices.” Earlier, Lee had invited VR (and others) to Vesak celebrations. VR was so thrilled by the gold-plated Buddhas he saw at the lodge that he asked Lee for such gold leaves to decorate a chariot that HEB was building. “I arranged to provide him with 10 boxes of gold sheets for the chariot,” Lee said. Though it was not uncommon for individuals belonging to other religions to make personal donations to Hindu temples in Singapore, and throughout Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka and India – and for Hindus to donate to Buddhist and Chinese temples, churches and dargas – for the Buddhist Lodge to make an official donation, following due process within the organization, was extraordinary and was partly a reflection of Lee’s own stature in his community and his ability to convince them that they needed to make such gestures to foster goodwill and better understanding among the different communities in the Republic. The leadership Lee, VR and Bakar provided in such initiatives revived IRO which had been rudderless for some years.

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The idea for an IRO came from His Eminence Maulana Shah Muhammad Abdul Aleem Siddiqui Al Qadiri, a Muslim missionary visiting from India where he had seen the horrendous consequences of what could happen if politics is played along religious divides despite the monumental efforts of Mahatma Gandhi to prevent it. The suggestion was embraced enthusiastically by the Commissioner-General for Southeast Asia, Malcolm MacDonald, who said at IRO’s launch in 1949 that it was going to be a most challenging enterprise for the Crown Colony. It started off well. The respected Reverend Dr HB Amstutz, Bishop of the Methodist Church, was the first president. The Venerable Dr DD Chelliah, the well-known Archdeacon of the Anglican Church, was a leading light. George G Thomson, a senior colonial servant who stayed on to be the first director of the Political Study Centre established by the new People’s Action Party government, was often the convener of IRO’s meetings. Dato Syed Ibrahim Omar Alsagoff, president of Jamiyah and one of the richest Muslims in Singapore, had hosted the Maulana and was active from day one. Over the years, Protestant Christians gradually became less and less active in IRO. The new evangelical Christians never joined the organization. This was a great loss to IRO as the Christians had the most resources – financial and skills – to contribute to such

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an effort. However, IRO carried on by holding monthly dinners and occasional conferences to promote mutual understanding. When some Muslims left IRO in protest against admission of members of the Baha’i Faith, the Mufti and Jamiyah members stayed on. When the Hindus were not sure whether they should recognize the Jains as a separate group, the issue was resolved for them incidentally by a High Court decision in India that they should. On the whole, it was a lot easier to keep all the other religious groups present in Singapore in IRO’s fold except the new Christians who simply did not want to associate themselves with other religious groups in any way. Some Christians in government actually turned down invitations to attend celebrations in Chinese and Hindu temples in their constituencies saying that it was against their faith. VR had heard of an instance when a deacon of St Andrew’s Cathedral was reduced to tears by his fellow pastors for being enthusiastic about IRO. VR, Lee and Bakar were frustrated but they could do nothing about it. They had two concerns: if they could not meet the evangelists at the same table, who do they express their concerns to regarding the coercive proselytizing that was going on in educational institutions and hospitals and government offices and other work places? If such evangelists, who were becoming more and more influential in Singapore society, did not participate, IRO would be that much diminished in its role in nation-building. However,

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since VR, Lee and Bakar realized that they could do nothing about it, they decided that they should just carry on building bridges with as many groups as were willing to participate and not worry too much about the non-participants. They were determined that they would keep their hands extended to whoever bothers to shake it. The Christian withdrawal from IRO was not total. One or two Methodists did attend some meetings. The Catholics were always there, but increasingly a little circumspect in their enthusiasm for IRO perhaps because they were afraid of being criticized by other Christians of not being faithful to their religion. VR understood the intra-Christian tensions and maintained enduring friendships with Catholic priests and nuns who did participate in IRO functions, but not forsaking his friendship with leaders of other Christian denominations at a personal level. Probably the most severe blow to IRO from the near withdrawal of Christians was the denial of what could have been the most generous source of support for its activities. Churches are the richest religious bodies in Singapore and their management skills and their power to mobilize manpower are second only to that of the government. None of that was available to IRO. Lee Bock Guan told VR: “Let’s do what we can (in terms of inter-religious co-operation). Let’s not worry about what we can’t have. Maybe one day, we will have them with us.” Lee backed his words with deeds, although the

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resources at his Buddhist Lodge’s disposal were only a tiny fraction of what the churches could command in Singapore. From then onwards, no one associated with IRO could remember an instance when VR or Bakar or any representative of the smaller faiths represented on IRO brought up a request to Lee that he turned down. What impressed Lee most was VR’s concern for the really underprivileged across religious divides. This was not surprising as, by then, VR was very much under the influence of SR. Off and on, SR was involved with the Singapore Council of Social Service. Though he has not claimed credit for it, some believe that the idea for SINDA (Singapore Indian Development Association) was born out of his discussions with Kernial Singh Sandhu, a former Director of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies who had commissioned research into the economic and educational positions of Indians in Singapore. SR planted the idea of HEB temples making donations to social causes and but for his pressure most of the other Hindu temples would not have made any such donations. SR brought up the issue of temples doing charity on several occasions over lunches and dinners with VR, and others. He knew that poor kids in Singapore did have much to worry about. This included the physically, mentally or culturally handicapped. Academically brilliant children could always get scholarships and bursaries. What about

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those who were not that bright? Much of their charitable work was centred on that concern. SR’s publicly-known legacy as President of Singapore is probably going to be greatest as a fund-raiser for various charities. His President’s Challenge and other efforts raised more money for charities than that raised by campaigns led by others. VR reflected such concerns in his discussions with Lee. When in an unprecedented and marvellous move Lee invited VR and Bakar to be his co-chairmen of the Singapore Buddhist Lodge Bursary Awards Committee, VR told Lee that bursaries should be given not only to those who did well in their studies but also to those who were having difficulty making the grade. Lee agreed. Lee also made VR and Bakar co-chairmen of his lodge’s Annual Hong Bao Distribution Committee. Since 1949, the lodge had been distributing red packets to the elderly and disabled before Chinese New Year. In recent times it has distributed about $400,000 a year to some 10,000 people. Besides, the lodge donates rice, dry food, oil and sugar to more than 700 needy families and to some old folks’ homes on a regular basis.  In 2000, Lee invited Jamiyah to join the programme. HEB joined a year later. By then VR had become a sort of consultant to Lee on all charity. When Lee thought of making a grant to a special school, Northlight at Dunman Road, for students who could not make it to the Institute of

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Technical Education after their repeated failures at the Primary School Leaving Examinations, he ran the idea by VR. They fixed the lodge’s donation at $40,000 and also told the school that it should be spent particularly for covering the transport costs of needy students. In addition, the lodge donates rice to the school canteen every year so that students spend less on their food. At VR’s suggestion, Lee made donations to the National Kidney Foundation to cover the transportation cost of needy patients and bought a “clinical van” for the Muslim Kidney Action Committee to dispense medicine and take care of the elderly poor in the community.

“Your problem is our problem” In 2002, Malay/Muslim Members of Parliament mooted the idea of an Education Trust Fund (ETF) to augment financial aid available to Malay students. Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong launched the fund in March 2003 and said the target was to raise $10 million. At a meeting with VR and Lee, Bakar expressed his concern as to how the Malay/Muslim community was going to raise that kind of money. Lee told Bakar: “Your problem is our problem. We will jointly help to raise the money for the ETF.” And through many charity dinners, fairs and sales, Lee and VR helped Bakar and other Malay/ Muslim leaders to raise the $10 million for the ETF, which is administered by Mendaki.

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Lee reacted in similar vein when VR mentioned SINDA’s predicament. Since 2002, at VR’s suggestion, the lodge has been contributing $100,000 a year to SINDA, to help finance needy students. To date, this contribution has reached $1 million, Lee said. Also at VR’s suggestion, the Buddhist Lodge donated $50,000 to the Ashram, the rehabilitation centre for Hindu and Sikh drug addicts. The lodge made other substantial donations for education and research purposes. Bakar and Ghadiali attested to the trust that existed between Lee and VR. Ghadiali said that every time the lodge supported a project it would be possible to say that because it had a generous leadership it would have extended a helping hand anyway irrespective of who sought the support in the first instance. All the projects deserved support. But that was not the way real life worked. The quantum of the donation and the speed with which the decision was made had a lot to do with the relationship between the person seeking or recommending the support and the key person making the decision at the donor’s end. This is where the trust that had been established between VR and Lee played a crucial role. If VR supported a cause, one could expect that Lee would support it instantly as well, Ghadiali said. In many cases, he added, both involved Bakar in the consultations. This meant that they could most of the time make decisions instantly as principals sitting

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at a table rather than having to go back and forth for deliberations with and decisions from their respective committees. The friendship between Lee and VR was strong enough, Lee said in the interview, for him to suggest to VR at one time how HEB could raise funds for projects it wishes to support on an ongoing basis. Lee said that VR had told him how the Deepavali Light Up in Little India had started as an idea from the Tourist Promotion Board and how he was struggling to get the merchants in the area to share the expenses. Lee suggested that apart from the street lighting and decorations there should be a central celebration which could be a fundraising event. He added that the lodge would support an effort. Hence the annual Deepavali celebration in a huge white tent on the lawn next to Angullia Mosque along Serangoon Road to raise funds for SINDA. An even more significant expression of the friendship between VR and Lee was the lodge’s donation of $1 million to Velmurugan Gnanamuneeswarar Temple in Sengkang. Its construction was the result of a merger of six temples frequented largely by less well-off Hindus, which needed to be relocated. VR was their adviser. He mentioned to Lee that despite a decade-long fund-raising effort the merged committee was not able to meet its target as it now wanted to have facilities like a library and a kindergarten on its premises. Lee’s committee offered to fund such facilities. The result is that the

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temple houses a kindergarten where children acquire, in addition to the usual skills, some basic knowledge of Hinduism, Buddhism and other religions so that they might grow up to appreciate the good in all religions. The lodge’s gesture was unprecedented in the sense of a religion-based organization making an official donation to a place of worship of another religion. Though many Hindus consider Gautama Buddha to be a reformer of Hinduism, as Martin Luther King was for Christianity, and celebrate the day he was born, attained enlightenment and died as Buddha Jayanthi at the Ramakrishna Mission, Murugan Hill Temple in Bukit Panjang, Vinayagar Temple in Petaling Jaya and Mariamman Temple in Bangkok, for a Buddhist association to support an institution of the unreformed was remarkable. In explaining the background to the donation to friends, VR attributed the lodge’s pathbreaking move to Lee’s enlightenment, generosity and leadership. He urged them to see the gesture in the context of what was happening between the reformed and unreformed, and even between the reformed and further reformed (born-again evangelist) Christian communities in Singapore. In stark contrast, Lee and his lodge have gone a step further. They provide 200 to 300 volunteers every year to assist in crowd control during Thaipusam and Mariamman temple’s fire-walking. These volunteers are young non-believers. Every year, they calmly offer caring

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assistance at the two festivals. No one can guarantee that nothing will ever go wrong in such an effort. If there is an incident, no doubt the kiasu kings of the lodge, as there must be a few in any large organization, will go after the committee. Yet, year after year the lodge does it. VR attributed the laudable co-operation to Lee’s leadership. Lee simply said: “VR asked for help. It is our duty to help.” In turn, HEB sends some volunteers to the lodge to help during Vesak celebrations. Rustom Ghadiali who “had the pleasure and good fortune to work with VR” for nine years on the executive council of IRO said: “As the chairman of HEB, he arranged for IRO members to visit almost all the Hindu temples in Singapore so as to have a better understanding of the Hindu religion. Also, he encouraged the 10 religions in IRO to participate in each other’s religious festivals and events and visit each other’s place of worship to increase the understanding of their religion and thus bring the communities closer. “IRO is now an active and vibrant organization and its image totally changed largely because of VR. His humble, dedicated efforts for human fellowship and promoting interfaith harmony remains etched in our mind.” “No one can deny that it was VR who played a prominent role to bring many of us, belonging to different races and faiths to come closer to the Singapore

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Indian and Hindu community. He made sure to invite all of us to participate in the celebration of such occasions as Deepavali, Pongal, Thaipusam,” Abu Bakar Maidin said. VR’s reputation for getting people together and getting things done resulted in an invitation to join the board of Ang Mo Kio – Thye Hua Kwan Hospital, a leading provider of rehabilitative care. Gopinath Pillai, one of Singapore’s Ambassadors-at-Large and a longtime associate of VR, had served on its board for a number of years and wanted to retire. He recommended VR who had by then stepped down from HEB. The hospital’s mission is to nurture its patients to become self-reliant and eventually reintegrate into society. It strives to achieve this through a multidisciplinary healthcare approach towards each patient, regardless of race, colour, creed, language, culture or religion. Its chairman, Lee Kim Siang, said: “VR joined us as treasurer and he proved his mettle. In the one and a half years he was with us before his untimely death, he did a marvellous job as treasurer. He was a very hands-on kind of person. We were fortunate to have had him on our board.” The chief executive officer of the hospital, S Vivakanandan, said: “Although Mr Nathan was a very hands-on person, it was not the disruptive kind of management. Rather, he actually facilitated the smooth functioning of the accounts department. Importantly,

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as treasurer he was always available whenever the staff needed him to clarify, check and clear matters pertaining to the accounts. He can be very tenacious in getting his point across or getting an answer or clarification on certain matters. But at the same time, with his simple, direct and easy way, he managed to get things done in a non-confrontational management style. He can be very engaging and very supportive. If he is in Singapore, he will make sure that he attends all official functions, meetings and gatherings of the hospital and that is very encouraging and is a great morale boost for the staff.” Lee Kim Siang is also chairman of Thye Hua Kwan Moral Society and had served on its committee for many years. In that capacity he got to work closely with VR since 2004. The society, established in 1978, aims to promote good morals and virtues such as compassion, filial piety and respect for one another and has some 50 agencies and centres that provide a wide range of charity and welfare services, including childcare, senior activity centres and medical centres. Early this century, its leaders noticed a tendency in the different communities in Singapore to drift apart and there was less intermingling of Singaporeans of different races and religions (though everyone seemed to be getting along fine with expatriates). Since 2004, the society together with IRO, SINDA, Mendaki, the Eurasian Association, Chinese Development Assistance Council, Chee Hoon Kog Moral Promotion Society and Chee Hia Kog

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Moral Society, has been holding an annual Inter-Racial Inter-Religious Harmony Nite for some 5,000 guests from schools, grassroots and welfare organizations, sharing vegetarian meals with people from different cultures and walks of life. Lee said: “As can be clear, these activities need a lot of coordination and contacts and clearance with the authorities. And sometimes, there can be problems with bureaucracy and red tape. But fortunately with VR on our side and with his direct line to those who matter in government and statutory boards, we managed to get clearance on some thorny issues and get things done quite quickly and efficiently without unnecessary obstacles and delays.” Lee said VR was a cosmopolitan Singaporean who got things done. VR had always placed a high premium on building up relationships with people he worked with. But few who knew him in the first half of his life would have guessed that he would grow up to be a man who could get things done at all levels of society.

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2 An Immigrant who Made Good Veeraragavalu Chetty Renganathan, in short known as VR Nathan or merely as VR to friends, was born in Tiruvarur, the famous temple town of Tamil Nadu, on 27 October 1930. VR was raised in a family of humble origins with four other siblings. His father ran a jewelry shop and dealt in precious stones and gems imported from Burma and Ceylon. Business was poor. He could not make ends meet. Finally the shop was closed. VR’s cousin, Devarajan, who had worked in the shop for a while migrated to Singapore. VR studied hard and matriculated from the Tiruvarur Board High School with commendable results. He acquired a special aptitude for mathematics which stood him in good stead throughout his career. Eager to relieve the financial strain of his family, he tried to get himself recruited into the Indian Army without the knowledge of his parents, but was turned down as he was physically puny. 20

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The school where he studied attained fame when another alumnus, M Karunanidhi, became the chief minister of Tamil Nadu in 1970. VR used to tell his family that as a fiery senior student Karunanidhi wrote poems in an exercise book and asked other students to read and sign. G Sarangapany (1903-1974), a social reformer and editor and publisher of Tamil Murasu, Singapore’s longest established Tamil newspaper, was also a native of Tiruvarur and matriculated from the same school. Singapore had always held a magic charm for the coastal people of Tamil Nadu. VR, assisted by Devarajan, left his hometown for Singapore in 1951. When Devarajan first sailed to Singapore, it was VR’s mother who had sold her gold chain to enable his passage. In Singapore, Devarajan was working with the firm of S L Perumal, the son-in-law of the enterprising Singapore Harbour Board labour contractor Balaguru Govindasamy Chettiar. Devarajan used to take VR to Perumal’s company where VR had an opportunity to have a cursory look at the ledgers and journals when he was whiling away his time and still looking for a job. VR realized that he had a flair for accounts and, before the advent of computing, his skill in mathematics, helped him in many ways. He was getting himself acquainted to a company environment but he politely declined a job offered by Perumal. VR knew that he could aspire to greater heights with hard work, which was his only asset for the time being. He loved to work. An ordinary

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job in an Indian environment would not have satisfied him and certainly would not have helped him realize his full potential. In September 1951, VR obtained a clerical job, at $150 a month, with the Chartered Bank, an environment entirely different from the Indian atmosphere. He was aware that he did not speak fluent English but that did not dissuade him from accepting the job. He was bright and smart but not articulate yet. He made up his mind that he would learn to speak English well. He would also learn book-keeping and possibly move on to accounting, the essential abilities needed for a successful banking career. He would make himself adequate for the job. He would never turn back. VR stayed with the bank for more than 40 years, until 1993. He was a consummate banking man, rising from the post of a modest clerk to the position of chief inspector, gathering on his way many certificates, diplomas, overseas training trips and promotions. His mantra for success? Hard work. He was to tell his children time and again that there was no substitute for diligence and perseverance. “Even if you are endowed with all the skills under the sun, you won’t move forward if you don’t work hard,” he used to say. VR married Kamalasarasu in Tiruvarur. The wedding took place in 1958 when she had just turned 18 and was still schooling at St Joseph’s Convent in Dindigul. She was the daughter of Sarangapani Naidu,

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who worked as an itinerant health inspector. VR brought his wife to Singapore in August 1958. For four years they resided at 15 Cantonment Road. During those years, VR got to know several members of the Nattukkottai Chettiar community, few of whom were his neighbours. The Chettiars and their associates had a couple of kittangis (warehouses), where they both lived and did business, along Cantonment Road. In 1962, VR’s family moved to Upper Paya Lebar Road to share M Sankaralingam’s house. Sankaralingam was another disciplined gentleman like VR. He was a Raffles Institution master and part-time science broadcaster. Sankaralingam and his wife belonged to the Chettiar community and worshipped at Thandayuthapani Temple at least twice a week. Yet, VR’s prayers were largely confined to a minute a day before the family altar. His work was central to his life and whatever free time he had was devoted to his growing family and towards discharging his obligations to his extended family in India. Two years later VR and his family moved to Jalan Mas Kuning, Pasir Panjang, where they lived until 1983. They had raised four daughters by this time. After brushing up his English, VR attempted to learn Malay, Hindi and Mandarin. He spent his spare time studying hard to pass book-keeping, higher accounting and mercantile law. He allocated his time optimally and stuck to it. With a heavy workload and a series of promotions, VR still found time for all these things

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because there was a passion for achievement burning inside him. He never found learning boring and he never lost interest or hope. He always encouraged his children and his young acquaintances to acquire additional skills and qualifications as they went along. In 1956, just after five years, he was promoted to an officer in the bank. In 1962, he became Manager of the Naval Base branch. He cherished his time there as a manager. He began to indulge in some merriment and to enjoy his beer as he got acquainted with Europeans in the base. According to his friends, he loved his food and beer until his last days. VR attended the 18th International Banking Summer School at the University of Melbourne from 7 to 20 February 1965. The course, “The Role of Banks in Rapidly Developing Countries”, was attended by 167 representatives from banks in 38 countries. In 1967, VR was promoted to the post of sub-accountant. In September 1976, VR participated in a five-week course in Organization and Methods at Cranfield School of Management, UK. After completing the course, VR was attached to the Technical Services Division, Head Office in London, for six weeks of practical training. He attended further training for 11 weeks and two weeks in succession at various institutions in the UK. A course in Eastbourne, Sussex, focused on working with computers in business. Another course was on practical systems design. They dealt with the development potential of

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hardware and software elements in a computer. The courses also dwelt on the role played by data processing staff and the company management which is necessary for the success of computer-based systems. Thoroughly grounded in all these fields and capable of multi-tasking, VR assumed the post of Head of Organisation and Methods, which tended to be his pet domain. This is the area in which he excelled in his voluntary services for Singapore temples as well. VR was also for several periods in charge of the communications, archives and printing departments of the bank. In August 1979, VR completed the Dale Carnegie Course in Effective Speaking and Human Relations. His certificate exhibits a Golden Seal of Special Recognition for 100% attendance. It is evident that he attended the course with great enthusiasm. Once put into practice, the training helped him to express himself more confidently in public and to develop a smooth relationship with people. It was one month after the course that VR was inducted into managing the finances of Ruthra Kaliamman Temple. A year later, he completed the Level 9 (Business) English course conducted by the British Council. In June 1981, VR attended a seminar on micrographics and office efficiency conducted in association with Touche Ross International. In 1982, VR was promoted to Inspector, succeeding James Clare who took a new post at the London headquarters of the Standard

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Chartered Bank Group. Subsequently VR became the chief inspector and area chief inspector of the bank’s branches, directly reporting to the bank’s London head office. From 1985 to 1987, he was responsible for investigating and instituting legal action over various frauds perpetrated on the bank by persons within and outside the bank. Thereafter, with the experience gained in these jobs, VR was asked to draft the Office Rules and Departmental Operating Instructions for the bank’s Indonesian and Singapore branches in areas like foreign exchange, treasury, Asian Currency Unit, futures and trade finance. Although VR retired as Chief Inspector in October 1985, he was retained on contract up to November 1993. During this period he was also Visiting Inspector to Hong Kong and Indonesia. Throughout his career, VR was known to be the “first man in and last man out” at the office. He was an immigrant who made good in the traditional sense. He had fully discharged his responsibilities to his immediate family in Singapore and extended family in India. He had no particular interest in Singapore politics or culture. He made plans to retire in India. He bought a house in Bangalore for the purpose. But he was fated to sell it later.

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3 Introduction to Temple Management Affairs When a Singapore Hindu, even a nominal one like VR, succeeds in his career or business, it is not uncommon for him, when he reaches the age of 50 or so, to seek social recognition of his success by getting involved in the management of some temple or other. But that is not how VR got involved in temple management. He was called to assist. That is how it began. In Pasir Panjang, one of his neighbours was S Rasiah, who was on the committee of Ruthra Kaliamman Temple. The temple originally established on the grounds of Alexandra Brickworks had to be moved. The land was sold to the Port of Singapore Authority. The committee found temporary accommodation for the god forms (murthams or statues) at Manmatha Karunya Iswarar Temple, in Cantonment Road, which itself was under notice to vacate. The Ruthra Kaliamman Temple committee was a well motivated one. The chairman was V Sivapragasam 27

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with Rasiah as vice-chairman and T Muthu Kumar, secretary. They found alternative land at Depot Road. However, building a new temple was a novel and challenging experience for them. Though it was the first new Hindu temple to be built in Singapore in 50 years, raising funds was not easy. Their target was $2.2 million. There was also the question of managing the financing and accounts. Rasiah had heard how hard-working and diligent his neighbour VR, by then a senior officer of the Chartered Bank, was. He invited VR to join his team to help build the temple. VR was aware of the nature of contribution expected of him. He had heard that many Hindu temples were not in the habit of keeping proper accounts and that there had been a few scandals. If he joined Rasiah’s team he knew he would have to spend considerable amount of time on temple-related work. His concern was whether he would have sufficient time for that since he had a demanding job and a young family. He consulted his wife. The wife’s response was that one should never say “no” to any request to serve a temple. He said “yes” to Rasiah. VR was elected treasurer of Ruthra Kaliamman Temple in September 1979. VR took that responsibility as seriously as he had taken any assignment at the bank. Together, the committee held several “donation” draws and concerts and offered to inscribe the names of substantial donors on granite on the walls of the

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temple. VR ably managed such efforts. As C V Devan Nair, Member of Parliament for Anson and president of National Trades Union Congress, was to observe at the temple’s pile-driving ceremony, the Hindu community was not blessed with a “godfather class”, such as the one in the Chinese community. He mooted the idea that every Hindu contribute one dollar a month to defray the cost of his or her social and religious commitments. Ruthra Kaliamman Temple donation drive did not benefit from that idea but the committee did accomplish the task of building the new temple in Depot Road. Muthu Kumar recollected 30 years later: “VR did a great job.” Kumar and Shriniwas Rai, a lawyer, also spoke about VR’s efforts to involve a broader section of the Hindu community in affairs of the temple. Worshippers at the temple were largely Tamils and some Tamil-speaking Telugus. VR made an effort to involve the Malayalees and Hindi-speaking North Indians. It was VR who approached Rai for help to raise donations from the North Indian Hindu community, and in getting the name of the temple inscribed in Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi, in addition to the original Tamil and English. He even got a Muslim, Mohamed Abdullah bin Suleiman, a manager at Chartered Bank, to serve on the fundraising committee. Later, he invited Rai to be a trustee of the temple. Just before the temple’s consecration in 1983, VR showed off its facilities, which included a multi-purpose

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hall, a wedding-cum-cultural hall, dining room, reading room, music-cum-class room and a basement car park, to the media. He told the reporters that the temple complex would serve not only as a religious and cultural centre for the Hindus but also as a place of interaction with fellow citizens of other faiths. This point was highlighted by the media. Though VR was announcing a unanimous decision of his committee to offer the facilities to people of other faiths as well, it was also a confirmation of VR’s own cosmopolitan outlook and inclusive approach which became more obvious later in his life. VR’s plan after the hectic period of temple work leading up to the consecration was to resume spending more time on his job as inspector at the bank as his area of responsibility there was growing. But that was not to be. There was what some Hindus would call a divine intervention. It came in the form of a call on him by SR Nathan at his bank office. To understand what led to this approach, one needs to understand the situation then prevailing in the temples under HEB’s purview and what in the board’s view needed urgent attention by someone well versed in accounts and with a track record of hands-on experience. But before dwelling on what VR was being approached for, it will be necessary to understand the history of Hindu temple management practices during colonial times in Singapore and what confronted SR and his colleagues

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in HAB and HEB when they were first charged to take on such management responsibilities of HEB’s four temples.

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4 Invitation to Help out HEB S R Nathan, SR to his friends, had been chairman of the Hindu Advisory Board since 1981. A distinguished civil servant, SR was First Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was the highest ranking public official to chair HAB in its history. HAB, by its charter, is an advisory body, to advise the Minister on Hindu affairs in Singapore. The Hindu Endowments Board is the executive board with the power and funds to administer its endowments – basically four temples and properties belonging to the four temples. The two bodies used to conduct their own separate meetings until the arrival of SR. That was to change. SR, being a leader wanting to get things done, began the practice of presiding over joint meetings of both the boards with the concurrence of P Selvadurai, chairman of HEB, a practice that continues. Even prior to his appointment to HAB, SR was somewhat familiar with the affairs of Hindu temples in Singapore. He was a practising Hindu. He was close to his brother-in-law and neighbour, N P K Rajamanickam, 32

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who apart from being the leading Hindu astrologer in Singapore, was also one who was known to have had some spiritual experiences. Rajamanickam wrote a weekly astrology column in the Sunday edition of Tamil Murasu, often said to be the most popular section of that newspaper. He was widely respected in the Hindu community. SR is probably the only senior government official who let it be known publicly that he was a practising Hindu, a fact that by itself endeared him to a number of Hindus. He got married at the Mariamman Temple. SR also kept in touch with his childhood friends and anyone who ever worked with him. One of his early assignments in government service was to work in the labour movement which at the time had a high proportion of Indian activists. All these factors would have resulted in a free flow to him of information related to all major temple affairs in Singapore. He would have been the best informed person on these matters. When SR accepted his appointment to HAB, he already had in mind some specific tasks that needed to be urgently addressed. Submission of HEB’s accounts to the Ministry and Parliament was behind schedule by five years. He wanted to set that right. His second aim was to get the management of the four temples in good order, plugging any leakage of revenue. The third task was to look into the Little India properties that had not been earning fair returns and how some old-guards had entrenched themselves. The shop-houses needed to be

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refurbished to gain value. To get it done, the tenants had to be removed. This would not be easy, but it had to be done. He had to bring in capable men to carry out the tasks he set out to achieve. To achieve his objectives, SR subsequently assumed the chairmanship of HEB, which had direct control of the four temples and their properties, from 2 May 1983. That was to last until April 1988, a significant period during which vigorous and dynamic activities were planned and accomplished by HEB. He continued to chair the joint meetings of both boards. This he did with a new membership of HEB, made up of several prominent local Hindus of repute, though without previous experience in handling Hindu affairs or the management of temples. They comprised Sat Pal Khattar, Chandra Das, Gopinath Pillai, Kirpa Ram Vij, A Vijiaratnam and S Rajendran (later Judge). The problems SR set out to tackle under the purview of both boards had their roots in history.

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5 An Era of Change in HEB A brief survey of the early history will help in getting a better understanding of why SR had to make the approach to VR. British masters ruling old India decided that two religious groups – the Hindus and Muslims – needed to be managed by colonial servants or those faithful to the crown while those professing other religions could be left to manage their own affairs. When the empire extended to Southeast Asia, the colonial administrators adopted the same approach – in slightly different forms in different territories. In Singapore, which was first ruled from Calcutta, the method was very similar to that in India. The manner in which some of the Hindu temples were brought under the control of such a board was also similar. The backdrop of social divisions along caste and trade lines among devotees and functionaries that led to some of the tensions in these temples was also similar. A brief survey of the early history will also help to acquire a better understanding of why SR had to make a few decisions “which looked authoritarian 35

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to some” (SR’s words) but were necessary and how VR implemented them efficiently. Some of the problems that HEB under SR’s leadership inherited were quite old and not just confined to the four HEB temples. The second oldest of the challenges was perhaps the need to sensitively (without hurting the feelings of devotees) and satisfactorily (from the viewpoint of the authorities) manage the Hindu festivals like Thaipusam and fire-walking that spilt out into the public domain and out of the temple surroundings. Different temples celebrated Thaipusam in a slightly different manner from the way they celebrated it in Palani, Tamil Nadu, one of the six holy places dedicated to Thandayuthapani or Murugan. In Singapore, the Chettiars took out their urchavar (metal god-form that is meant to be mobile on special occasions) in a chariot procession through the city on Punarpusam, the day before Thaipusam. The procession will start at sunset and, with the help of torches, wind its way through those streets of the business district where Hindus had shops or warehouses and return to Thandayuthapani Temple in Tank Road. In the early days, there would be quite a few oiled torches to light the way as street lighting was poor. Also in the early years, the route included Beach Road. Opposite the Raffles Hotel, on reclaimed land where there were no buildings then, there would be fireworks, which were the first in Southeast Asia and later considered the finest in the region. Chettiars

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had to obtain permission from the Governor for the fireworks. On Thaipusam day itself, in days gone by, kavadi carriers from different places in Singapore would walk towards Tank Road, accompanied by music and dance. The banks of a pond (which was subsequently filled) in the Perumal Temple premises was just one of the starting points. There was hardly any supervision by the police. Thaipusam was a de facto public holiday. Fire-walking at Mariamman Temple had a more tumultuous history. According to a statement made in a court case, the practice “has been in vogue in Singapore since 1835”. The case arose when the government attempted to put an end to the practice in 1892. For a long time women, some also carrying their children, had walked on fire. In 1892 a boy who fell with his mother into the fire pit succumbed to his injuries. The child’s death caused an uproar and invited indignant public reaction. The Daily Advertiser commented: “We do not know whether such a foolish and cruel ceremony should any longer be tolerated. We are under a Christian government and it is by no means advisable to allow the continuation of a religious observance which savours of barbarity. … It is for the government to step in and say such things shall not be done in the Straits Settlements.” In October 1893, Police Superintendent Bell applied to the Magistrate’s Court “… for an injunction to restrain the Hindoos from carrying out the religious practice

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of fire-walking.” Walter John Napier on behalf of the Hindus argued that “… every man had a right to serve his God in his own fashion; and it was not for them to consider whether any man’s method of serving God was the right one or not.” He said the fire-walking ceremony was highly revered by the Hindu community. Napier dwelt at length on the origins of fire-walk as found in the epic Mahabharata. He read a translation of Draupathy’s story which was particularly directed to the ceremony of fire-walking. Napier asserted that several institutions found in England were more barbarous than Hindu fire-walking. “One of the institutions was a method of trial by fire, infinitely more barbarous than walking through fire which the Hindoos wished to practice,” he argued. Napier also reminded the court that in India no attempt had been made to stop this practice. “If a practice like one of fire-walking was to be put a stop to, it should be stopped by the Legislative Council and not by the mere edict of a letter from the Colonial Secretary’s Office,” he stressed. At the end of the day, Magistrate Kynnersley found it unnecessary to call any witnesses. He quite understood what the ceremony was. “Apart from the unfortunate case where a woman fell with her child into the fire there was no evidence of injury. He refused to make an order to restrain the Hindoos in their practice of fire-walking,” The Straits Times reported. A number of

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European ladies and gentlemen, including E L Talma, one of the most distinguished officers of the Malayan Civil Service who had studied Tamil in Madras and was the first secretary of the Mohammedan and Hindu Endowments Board, witnessed the ceremony over the years. In 1937, Governor Shenton Thomas and Lady Thomas enjoyed a grandstand view of the ceremony. One hundred and fifty males walked on fire. While fire-walking itself seemed to have gone on without further hitches, crowd control within Mariamman Temple had become a problem that needed the board’s attention. There had been gang fights and even a murder. In the case of Thaipusam, the nature of the problem was slightly different. It was one of regulating the procession through busy roads, with hooligans turning such processions into carnivallike displays, with street dancing and beating of drums and any item that came to hand. The appropriateness of both festivals to modern Singapore had been questioned at Hindu Advisory Board meetings from time to time ever since HAB was instituted in 1918. Dr N Veerasamy, probably the first Indian to practice allopathic medicine in Singapore and a landlord and after whom a road in Tekka was later named, was appointed Straits Settlements HAB’s first chairman. He thought the festivals were barbaric and said that the only purpose Thaipusam served was it provided an opportunity for Chettiars to show off their wealth in

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an obscene manner. He campaigned for Thaipusam to be replaced by Deepavali as a public holiday. He considered Deepavali to be an “egalitarian festival”. After the Malayan Union that came into effect with the end of the British military administration in 1946, separating Singapore from the other Straits Settlements in Malaya, HAB was reconstituted. The Colonial Secretary, P A B McKerron, graced the inaugural meeting of the reconstituted HAB in May 1949. He stressed that the HAB was essential to see that the people were holding on to the faith handed down by their forefathers. After he left, the members elected Pakirisamy Pillai as chairman of the board. AP Rajah was vice-chairman and R Rethinasamy, secretary. It was suggested that the board should discuss the burning questions of abolition of fire-walking and spiked kavadis, and registration of Hindu marriages. It was decided to take up these issues at the subsequent meeting. Sarangapany, leader of the Tamils Reform Association and editor of Tamil Murasu, campaigned for the causes. He contended fire-walking and spiked kavadi were derogatory to the beliefs and prestige of Hindu religion and depicted Indians as a barbaric self-mortifying class. Dr PT Nathan, a Municipal Commissioner and president of the Ceylon Tamils Association, objected to what he called “interference by anyone with long established Hindu customs”. “There is a lot to be reformed in Hinduism. Fire-walking and kavadi are not

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the most urgent,” he asserted. Secretary of the Hindu Association of Singapore, GMK Sabai, wrote to several Hindu authorities in India requesting guidance. He received one reply – from “a Hindu authority holding a very high position in the Government of India” who advised against agitating for legislation to reform Hindu religious and social practices. The authority said: “If we attack and suppress pious religious practices on account of our own disbeliefs or objections to details which the persons concerned do not share, piety and religion will also be suppressed and disappear.” The authority said these customs would disappear as people became “educated and modernised”. A year after Singapore’s Independence in 1966, the Muslim endowments under MHEB were transferred to Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura (MUIS) or the Singapore Islamic Religious Council. The Muslim Advisory Board was discontinued as its role was effectively incorporated into MUIS. To manage the remaining Hindu endowments in MHEB, a new Hindu Endowments Board was to be created. In 1967, Minister for Culture Othman Wok told Parliament that a Bill to set up a Board to look after the Hindu Endowments had been prepared after consultations with various Hindu interests in Singapore. The Hindu Endowments Bill was read for the first time in Parliament in May 1968 and referred to a Select Committee. At the time, there was a lot of discontent

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in the community about the administrative style of the board temples, in particular about the handling of the properties along Serangoon Road. To everyone’s surprise only five written submissions were received by the Select Committee. They came from a school watchman, a clerk in a Chinese firm, two retired men, two members of Tamilian Association and Pakirisamy Pillai. All were asked to appear before the Committee. Total lack of interest on the part of educated Hindus was obvious. The Hindu Endowments Act came into force on 1 May 1969. It created a Hindu Endowments Board to take over the Hindu endowments under MHEB. Its powers and functions were very similar. The Act formalized a practice that had been prevalent during most of MHEB’s existence: the secretary shall be a public officer. It also provided for the secretary to be paid. The new provisions were: all members must be Hindus and citizens; after every meeting, a copy of the minutes shall be sent to the Minister; the annual report and accounts shall be exhibited in all temples administered by the board; and the temples and other premises or land administered by the board shall not be permitted to be used for political purposes. In March 1985, S Chandra Das, MP for Chong Boon, urged the government to merge HEB and HAB as they both represented Hindu interests. Wong Kan Seng, the Minister-in-Charge, said a merger idea had been

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considered ten years back and was found not favourable. Government saw the two bodies performing separate functions. HAB advises government on religious and cultural matters while HEB looks after Hindu temples and properties. But Chandra Das has not given up on his plans for a merger. He said in an interview for this book: “We agreed HEB and HAB had two different functions. What we did was we had joint meetings. We rotate people between two bodies. Serve here and serve there. What I really like to see is to form a Hindu Council. It was vetoed. All temples in Singapore must be registered with the council. There is a lot of opposition to this. But I am still working on it. HEB has four temples. All other temples can be affiliated. Just need to do one thing: every year, submit the accounts. A lot of money in the temples. Therefore there is resistance to this. Government doesn’t want to legislate religion.” Chandra Das was not the first MP to ask the government to take firm control of all Hindu temples. In March 1978, P Govindasamy of Anson made a call in Parliament for HEB and HAB to be merged into a Hindu Religious Council which will have supreme authority to deal with all Hindu religious matters now under the purview of both. Acting Minister for Social Affairs Ahmad Mattar replied that his ministry had studied at great length a proposal to set up a board or a statutory body to look after Hindu affairs but found

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that this was not possible. Dr Mattar said that in March 1975 a similar proposal was made for a merger to be called the Singapore Hindu Board. It, too, was found not feasible. He said Hindus were divided into many sects and it was inevitable that some sects would feel aggrieved if they were not represented in the council. He said an alternative measure was to set up a joint management committee from the two Boards to deal with problem of Hindu shrines and temples and to coordinate building of replacement temples in satellite towns. Dr Mattar disclosed that such a joint committee was set up a year earlier in 1977 with Govindasamy as chairman. It was too early to pass judgment, the Minister said. Nothing more was heard of this committee. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, in a written interview with Berita Harian in July 2009 defended the role of the advisory boards that were initiated by the colonial government. He said: “When we became independent, we preserved the advisory boards as we saw value in their work and role in society. Today the Hindu and Sikh Advisory Boards and MUIS serve as consultative platforms on issues affecting our social harmony, and are effective channels for policy consultation.” The advisory function of HAB now brings it into contact with other temples. Complaints against priests of Sri Lakshminarayanan Temple and Sri Veeramakaliyamman Temple reached HAB. Upon investigation, no evidence was found.

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6 VR’s Signal Contribution to HEB’s Transformation For five years SR presided over the two boards. He had a stake in the nation and the system others had created. He had assisted Singapore’s founding fathers in their creation. He was not going to let a part of it, however small, rot. When he took over, he knew what was going on in the temples in Singapore. Having spent a significant part of his career helping to maintain law and order in the country, it was natural that he should focus first on housekeeping. Three practices bothered him. Submission of HEB accounts was late for five years. Cash collections at the four temples were taken to a shop in Serangoon Road and deposited in the bank after some time. He needed a trained and dedicated book-keeper to bring that practice to an end and set up proper procedures, and to bring the accounts up to date. At the time, construction of Ruthra Kaliamman Temple was the buzz in the Hindu community. His old friend from Muar, Rasiah, was very much involved in building 45

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that temple. He asked Rasiah who were helping him with the project. Rasiah introduced VR as the treasurer. When asked by SR, on behalf of HEB, whether VR could help out at HEB as well, VR said he would, but he would like to hand over his responsibilities at Ruthra Kaliamman Temple to someone before joining HEB as he could not possibly shoulder both responsibilities. Pretty soon, he did. The third problem bugging HEB was the way HEB properties were being managed. Early tenants like Govindasamy Pillai were paying a nominal rent to HEB and subletting the shops to new tenants paying commercial rents. HEB did not have enough money to carry out sorely needed repairs to the properties. In short, the rental returns to HEB were extremely poor and the properties needed urgent repairs. SR got three members who were Hindu Singaporean businessmen of repute with a track record of success in business over the years – S Chandra Das, Gopinath Pillai and Satpal Khattar – to address this problem. The priority was to address the problem of accounts. The main reason for the non-submission of accounts was that the then secretary of HEB, P Arumainathan, Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Science and Technology, had a stroke from which he never fully recovered. His successors were also unable to address the problems. There was no finance member and no accountant or qualified book-keeper on the staff of HEB. Arumainathan

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had a sterling reputation as a civil servant and had taken up his HEB appointment with great dedication and was not even 50 years of age when he had his stroke. Nobody expected him not to recover quickly. Housekeeping was allowed to slacken. As Gopinath Pillai explained in an interview for this book, “… the accounts were not given that much importance. It was not a top priority. It also did not become an issue with the Ministry or the public. There was enough money generated to meet expenses. Not necessary to borrow. Therefore, nobody bothered about the accounts. The accounts were not updated every year. But when SR came in, he emphasized the accounts must be in order.” For SR, up-to-date accounting was a foremost must. There was also the greater concern of proper procedures in managing the money collected each day. He had learnt that once in a few days, collections from the four temples were taken to P Govindasamy Pillai’s shop and banked in once a fortnight or so. This practice probably started quite innocently and out of convenience. Govindasamy Pillai was the only patron of the board temples who was consistently involved in managing their affairs and had the manpower to attend to such chores. Nevertheless, there is no denying that such a practice would have also led to some abuse at the temples themselves. M Paramantham, who had been on the committee of Mariamman Temple before he was appointed member of HEB in 1983, said that at Mariamman Temple cash

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was not banked in immediately. An emergency audit found that the clerk was lending the money out on a daily-interest basis. Gold items donated to the temple were not accurately accounted for. Some items were even found to be of lesser weight than what the records showed. “The situation was serious,” he said in an interview for this book. VR joined HEB on 2 May 1983, as finance member. The first point SR made to VR was: “Have no fear.” That was important. VR had never worked for the government or with people so closely associated with the government. Every other member on HEB and the committees of the four temples had been involved with some government-linked service or other for a long time. He was going to set right the accounts and procedures. VR had mentioned to many of his friends that this assurance from SR was the foundation for everything he accomplished at HEB. What SR did not expect and what pleased him immensely was the number of hours VR was putting in voluntarily to accomplish the tasks he had set for him. Equally important, VR brought in a couple of volunteers who were similarly dedicated. When the board itself did not have qualified staff to undertake the work, this was most valuable. SR remembered one of them: “There was this fellow called Subramaniam. He is now in Chennai. He used to come every night as a service to count the daily collections and bank it.” VR was also sensitive to SR’s instructions as to how

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to go about it. SR said that he wanted to set right the irregularities without causing any embarrassment to people who had made other contributions to the temple. “Ramakrishnan (a son of Govindasamy Pillai) was on the board and he was a very decent person. And out of reverence for the firm and for the old man’s name and Ramakrishnan being with us, we felt we should plan and manage this without too much of a fuss,” said SR. Very quickly, VR brought the accounts up to date, got them accepted by the Ministry, and set up procedures whereby collections at the four temples were banked in on a daily basis and bills were paid by cheque. The new procedures had an immediate impact on the finances of HEB. The records are not available, but Paramantham said that in two years the net income shot up from $80,000 to $500,000. When VR repossessed Sivan Temple from Rajamani Iyer, who had been managing it as an unofficial contractor, HEB’s finances had another boost. Again records are not available, but in the first year after HEB retook control revenue from Sivan Temple went up from something like $2,400 to $750,000. During this early period VR met SR on numerous occasions for consultations. In the process, he also built up a strong friendship with SR as he shared SR’s only known vice – good food. But VR knew his place and at no time gave reason for SR to be concerned about the warm relationship leading to complacency or laxity. Many saw the relationship between SR and VR as that

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between a master and pupil. However it might have appeared to others, it was a close one and it continued well after SR left HEB. In April 1988, SR was appointed High Commissioner to Malaysia. After two years there, he went to Washington DC as Ambassador to the United States for six years. VR kept in touch with him on a regular basis and met him whenever he was back in Singapore. When VR put forward any suggestion or idea at meetings, he would make it known that it had SR’s blessings or that SR’s advice had been sought. He took care never to exaggerate such consultations. People dealing with him always knew, at the back of their minds, that they were in effect dealing with matters in the way SR would have addressed them. This was all for the good as VR, a new recruit to the establishment, was able to get things done without in any way upsetting the board’s relationship with Government. VR was also sensible enough to trust the people that SR trusted and co-operate with them wholeheartedly to accomplish the tasks SR had set for them. Such easy formation of a cohesive team is a rare phenomenon in the Indian community. In the case of efforts to rehabilitate the Tekka properties, the jelling was quicker because three of the men leading the charge on that front were old friends and members of a lunch club. (More later about the challenges they faced and how they overcame them.)

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Another priority of SR was to overhaul the management structure of the board temples. He felt the need for reforms at two levels: temple management committees and priests. Based on past experience, he came to the conclusion that “no management committee member should handle money. It should be done professionally and there must be a system. If necessary, the management committee should take an oath before God as the Chettiars do.” The ritual SR referred to is an age-old custom of Chettiars. Since every Chettiar boy is expected to shoulder some responsibility in managing some temple or other during his lifetime, a maxim Sivan sothu kula nasam - meaning that if anyone misuses God’s assets, he as well as his descendants will be doomed - is drummed into his head from a very young age. The handing over ceremony of the management of a temple from one trustee to another is always held in front of the sanctum sanctorum to remind everyone involved that they are managing God’s property. Chettiars hold even committee meetings not far from the sanctum. If they are obliged to hold temple-related meetings away from the sanctum sanctorum, they will light an oil lamp and apply the holy ash on their foreheads, as they would do in a temple, before they start the discussions. With his banking experience, establishing procedures for the committees and their finance staff was no hassle for VR, without instituting any such ritual. But the essence

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of the ceremony was what he put in practice in HEB temples. A tougher nut to crack was the management of priests. SR had identified two specific problems: integrity of priests and their relationships with some committee members. To sort this problem, VR sought the help of Gopinath Pillai who had by then been chief executive of companies with a large number of staff. He had been appointed to HEB at about the same time as VR. He agreed to serve as chairman of a disciplinary committee. He said of his experience: “(At that time) HEB didn’t control the temple committees. And most of the mismanagement was at the temple level. They carried on their affairs without any proper supervision. In those days they were like warlords. Their control depended on who the chairman was at HEB. Though appointed by HEB, once they were appointed they had a life of their own. They assumed a very powerful role. The process changed under SR. Before that, when reappointment time came the temple committee chairman will say ‘you keep these people, you can change others’. Some chairmen of temples remained for a long time. Lot of complaints from time to time. Some favouritism was shown in terms of ubayams (special offerings). Who gets it etc. That is one of the major complaints one still gets from time to time. Staff brought their own relatives. Priests looked after some worshippers better than others.

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“When VR set up the disciplinary committee, I was chairman. I got S Tiwari (of the Attorney-General’s Chambers) into the board. The committee was meant to discipline the priests. I expanded it to include committee members as well. Some of these members really misbehaved. The way they treated the expatriate Indian staff that were submissive was not acceptable. I told VR. It all stopped.” Satpal Khattar too was familiar with what was going on then. He believed the temple committees were not corrupt but at the same time were not strong enough to face and tackle the crisis. He said in an interview for this book: “They became like fiefdoms. They were in league with priests and the head priest would do what he wanted. You had to regularize by cleaning the whole system. VR made a very positive contribution in that regard. He had the energy. He had the backing. He was interested in doing it. Time was right. He enjoyed it also. He moved up the ladder in HEB. He earned his epaulette. You could rely on him. With his conviction, with his wisdom, he dealt with human beings correctly. He also had the backing of the HEB leadership. You couldn’t change the system overnight. You had to tackle it virtually on a full-time basis. He did give the time and attention that was required. If there was something that needed to be done, get VR to do it. It will be done. VR enjoyed our full backing. I don’t think we could find another person who had the same sincerity and

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motive and who was prepared to work very hard to get it done. The priests were the only ones unhappy with VR’s procedures. Their income was affected. But nobody on the board was unhappy. The public didn’t care. They didn’t care whether the money went to the board or to the priest. We changed priests over time. Those who were nasty and difficult to deal with were sent back. The person who really built up VR and gave him clout was SR.” The other major and perhaps the most significant contribution of SR to temple administration in Singapore was in getting the temples involved in social causes. Hindu temples serving a social purpose is not an alien idea in India or Singapore. Annadhanam or feeding the poor in temples is in fact an ancient Hindu tradition that predates temples in most parts of India and was incorporated into temples when they were built. Quite a lot of the endowments given to temples were specifically for that purpose. But over the years, much of the paddy fields and properties under such endowments were misappropriated by the lessees, often in cahoots with the temple managers and priests. With the loss of such income, temples that could not afford to serve satisfactory meals for the poor started offering just a handful of some nutritious food or other, commonly called prasaadham. Apart from a few donations made by the much reduced Chettiars, non-food charity was virtually

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unheard of until the 1990’s when several temples acquired the ability to contribute to secular charities. SR’s successor at HEB, VK Rajan, made an effort to persuade some of the temple committees to institute scholarships. With the advent of SINDA (Singapore Indian Development Association), SR strongly advised temple committees to donate to it. VR followed his advice as far as HEB was concerned – without bothering whether HEB was legally authorized to do so. SR said in his interview for this book that this was a character trait in VR that he liked very much. “If he felt it was the right thing to do, he just did it. He didn’t waste time checking on legal niceties every time,” said SR. HEB did not allow the issue to turn into a public debate while they coerced a number of temples, including HEB ones, to contribute to SINDA. It was only in 2010 that the HEB Act was amended to legalize such donations from HEB’s endowments. That was because by then a former Judge of the Supreme Court, S Rajendran, had taken over as chairman of HEB. He naturally undertook a study of the practice and scrutinized the enabling legislation to get it in order. Credit must go to him for having discovered this legal impediment and have it attended to. Apart from contributions to SINDA, on SR’s advice, VR implemented two other charitable programmes which no other temple in Singapore had undertaken.

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HEB gave direct help to students in need. In 1999, students receiving such assistance totaled about 70. (Figures for subsequent years are not available.) A free medical advice scheme was introduced at Mariamman Temple whereby highly-qualified specialist doctors in private practice and nurses conducted free clinics every week. The service benefitted a large number of poor people who could not afford such specialist attention, and people around the temple regardless of race or religion. The only project that SR did not initiate and did not support wholeheartedly which VR implemented anyway was the Saraswathy Kindergarten at Vairavi Mada Kaliamman Temple in Kim Keat. By the mid-seventies, it became obvious that children of Indian origin were not faring well in education. Though after Separation from Malaysia the government had stopped publishing information on admission to tertiary institutions by ethnic origin, available data on secondary school pupils’ performance certainly confirmed the trend. Dr A Mani, then a Research Fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, analysed the figures and published a paper on the causes of Indian pupils’ poor performance. SR’s solution to the problem was to propose to the government the establishment of what eventually came to be known as SINDA. Since 1991, SINDA has been conducting tuition classes and counseling sessions for children who needed help.

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Soon after Mani’s paper was published, a few Hindus, including VR, felt that an additional solution should be the founding of a full-fledged school that would serve Hindu pupils the way the Christian mission schools had been doing for Christian children. They knew that they could not expect the government to give any special treatment to Hindu children in government schools. Policy on admission to government schools was well settled – based on merit to the top schools like Raffles Institution and on proximity to neighbourhood schools. Standards at many neighbourhood schools were not good and neither could they be expected to offer any special help to Hindu children. Not covered by this policy was a layer of very good Christian mission schools which were actually the preferred schools of the wealthy and some of the elite. Not many Hindu children were admitted to RI, because of lack of merit, or to Christian schools, because of lack of connections. And Hindu pupils were reluctant to try the traditionally Chinese schools which eventually came to be known as SAP (Special Assistance Programme) schools. To the few concerned Hindus, the situation was reminiscent of the 1930s, when the Chettiars made an attempt to establish a good English-medium school for children who could not get into Christian mission schools or better government schools. However, none of them had the conviction to canvas support from committees of better-off temples or the courage to approach the

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government for approval for such a school. Their deliberations boiled down to establishing a kindergarten with Tamil as a second language. SR had strong reservations about a Hindu-sponsored full-fledged school. He was afraid it might inculcate a ghetto mentality among Indians and militate against their ability to live and work harmoniously with other races. But since the proposal was only to establish a kindergarten where children would be enrolled for not more than three years, he did not object vehemently. Though SR did not – and still does not – like the idea, other Hindu leaders were in favour of it. VR agreed to let space at Vairavi Mada Kaliamman Temple to be used for the kindergarten. Professor S Jayakumar not only opened it but also presided over its first graduation ceremony. The kindergarten is now known as Saraswathy Education Centre. VR also helped to start a second English-Tamil kindergarten at Dharma Muneeswaran Temple in Yishun as a joint project of HEB and the temple. Minister for Education Tharman Shanmugaratnam opened it in 2005. Tharman said: “Through our kindergarten we hope to make every child a happy, confident child.”

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7 Celebrating Hindu Festivals As seen in the earlier chapters, VR’s first significant contribution to HEB was getting the accounts of its four temples and the board itself up to date and organized in such a way that temple clerks could continue to maintain them. He did not simply introduce the procedures and leave their supervision to the temple committee’s finance member. He virtually became the chief accountant of HEB and spent all his evenings making sure that the cash, accounts and stocks tallied after every special prayer or festival and every month. His presence at some temple or other of HEB during office hours every day and often late into the night created a work culture at the board and its temples that meant no one handling money or stocks could escape being scrutinized. In terms of procedures at temples, one of VR’s important contributions was that collection from plates or trays extended by priests, thattukkasu, should be accounted for and shared among all temple workers and priests. Collection of money in this form is a recent phenomenon at Hindu temples. In the old days, 59

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people who built the temples or those who came in later to support them would have provided sufficient endowments to pay for their upkeep and the payment of salaries and benefits to priests and other employees. When income from endowments was not sufficient, well-off members of the congregation would provide the necessary funds through their committees without involving the priests in any way. In some temples, collection boxes (undial) would be installed but far away from the sanctums. The idea was the priest should not know who was placing how much into the collection box and that he should treat all worshippers, rich or poor, in the same manner. Some time in the middle of the last century, some enterprising priests in India started adapting a practice of vicars of churches. In fact they improved on it. Vicars only passed around trays or bins through elders or altar boys at the end of the service. Hindu priests who were performing a ritual of deeparathanai (worship with light) by showing burning camphor on a conical-structured plate or a lighted oil lamp around the god-form in the sanctum sanctorum now put the camphor or the lamp on a wide flat plate and extended it to the devotees immediately after coming out of the sanctum. In Saivite temples, they started distributing the holy ash from a plate and in the process extended it to devotees so that they may place some money on it. Extending a plate with

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a lamp or holy ash was an effective way of impressing upon a Hindu of what was expected of him. Especially if the priest extends the plate immediately after coming out of the sanctum sanctorum, the alluded connection between God’s blessings and the cash contribution would not be lost on a temple-going Hindu. More importantly, while the vicar’s collection in a church was invariably accounted for to the parish administration, the Hindu priests kept the collections to themselves. It presented three problems: the treatment a devotee received from a priest was directly influenced by the amount of cash he placed on the plate; the temple management had no clue as to the actual income of a priest; since devotees were now obliged to donate to the priest directly, the amount accruing in collection boxes went down and was sometimes not sufficient to pay for the maintenance of the temple. The practice spread to temples in Singapore as well. It was at the root of the problem at Sivan Temple, mentioned earlier. Over the years, it also led to some unhappiness among non-priest temple workers who did not get a share of the collection. VR changed this practice when he was treasurer at Ruthra Kaliamman Temple. He didn’t stop the collection through extended plates, which would have been real reform and a return to the original temple culture. Forever a man not to rock the boat, he managed to retain the goodwill of the priests by stipulating that they should just handover all

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the collection to the temple administration in return for a share of it. The priests’ share could be adjusted over the years taking into account their salaries and other benefits. The priests were not too unhappy. VR introduced this practice at HEB temples when he became finance member of the Sivan Temple Committee. In the case of Sivan Temple, where the chief priest had control of the collection box too and had acted as a kind of lessee, VR had to act at SR’s instance, and get rid of him and institute the same practice as at other board temples. The priests lost no time in telling devotees of the new arrangement and how it was going to eat into their meagre takings. Devotees started placing bigger amounts on the plate. A couple of incidents showed that even that was not enough for some priests. In one, board member Shrinivas Rai caught a priest taking a five-dollar note from the plate and tucking it into his waist cloth. He reported to VR. VR obtained a confession from the priest on threat of a police report and sacked him. VR made a point of narrating the episode to different temple committees to impress upon them of the need for eternal vigilance. VR also made sure that with the exception of a couple of priests whose conduct was acceptable to the committees, none of the other priests had tenure. SR made sure that even non-HEB temples had to get HAB’s

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– in effect VR’s – support to obtain work permits. (There have been only a couple of Singaporeans working as priests.) VR told the other temples’ committees that they too needed to offer only short-term contracts to priests, again with some exceptions, so that there is no difference in the practice of the various temples. VR also believed that short-term contracts for priests, who came without families, would minimize the risk of unwelcome relationships developing between priests and female devotees. Gopinath Pillai, who headed the disciplinary committee, supported this approach. The overall impact of the new procedure was that the temples had not only better discipline but a lot more funds than they would otherwise have had under the old system. VR also made “Revenue generation” a frequent item on the agenda of committee meetings of the four temples. Enterprising Brahmin priests obliged with numerous ideas for new prayers and celebrations never before heard of in Singapore. Temple committees embraced the ideas with great enthusiasm. SR recollected: “At every opportunity, VR would make money for the board. He was very entrepreneurial in that sense.” The temple scene changed vastly under VR’s chairmanship. Three of the board temples had started without a Brahmin priest – as did all the other South Indian temples in Singapore and Malaysia. Pandarams, from a non-Brahmin caste in Tamil Nadu, were the only

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priests at Mariamman and Viravi Mada Kaliamman temples in their early years. When the non-HEB Sivan Temple was at Meyyappa Chettiar Estate, now Potong Pasir, Bihari milkmen who lived on and near the estate and with whom Chettiars had had a long association in the holy city of Gaya and in Burma, performed the rituals. Available records refer to the presence of Brahmin priests only after it was rebuilt in Orchard Road. In any case, the early Brahmin priests to serve in all the four temples observed only the rituals that were already being performed in the respective temples with some embellishment here and there. The emphasis was on prayers dedicated to the main godforms enshrined in the sanctums. Offerings to the godforms were subsequently distributed to the devotees, and all offerings, except for the flowers, were eaten in the end. The Singapore temples followed what was essentially a traditional Tamil temple culture: environment-friendly rituals and festivals to celebrate different seasons (with the exception of fire-walking which has different histories in Tamil and Chinese cultures). Not much changed in the observances for a hundred years. Under VR’s leadership, various committees approved new prayers, some of them dedicated even to god-forms on the outer walls of the sanctums. Homams and yagams, in which offerings were not eaten or worn at the end but burnt in a fire, and which were earlier confined to consecration

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ceremonies conducted once in four or five decades, came to be held in the temples often. Scores of visiting priests conducted these special prayers. Some of them and visiting contractors built with papier mâché some god-forms never seen in Singapore earlier. In the hybrid religion that is Hinduism everything is possible and anything is allowed if somebody believes in it. What was happening was the introduction into temples of vedic ways of worship which required no temple but only fire as a means to take the offerings to the gods. Enthusiastic introduction of such burning rituals into temples in Singapore also reflected three other phenomena: The first wave of Brahmins to settle in Singapore was largely from the south of India and believed in the temple culture and the worship of God in certain forms. Though they performed a few homams at home on certain rare occasions, they took to the existing temple culture. The new wave of Brahmin and other newly affluent Hindu immigrants who arrived during the tenure of VR preferred something special to differentiate themselves from the Singaporean Tamils. But once they started these new prayers, the more affluent local Tamils caught on to it in no time. The relationship between special expensive prayers and proportional rewards was constantly emphasized by priests. Enterprising Sivachariyars and some Bhattars, who had by now become a fused profession, were ever

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ready to fly out to secure the relationship. To a large extent this was a reflection of what was happening in India itself. The different reform movements started by Swami Vivekananda in Bengal, Narayana Guru in Kerala and Periyar E V Ramasamy in Tamil Nadu had lost much of their steam. Public criticism of offering the choicest of foods and finest of silks into the fire died. Slowly, major media houses promoted the revival of such practices. Correspondingly in Singapore, the Tamils Reform Association which was in the forefront of earlier campaigns to prevent such practices here had melted down to a handful of members. One of the association’s stalwarts, VT Arasu, who had declared himself to be an atheist, served on the board of HAB and became a close associate of VR. Singapore Tamils were not confused. They were fascinated by the fires. Celebration of variety is built into the Hindu upbringing. Moreover, unlike the old Singaporean astrologers, visiting astrologers, whose numbers had multiplied over the years, never failed to emphasize the blessings to be secured through such offerings into the fire. The Tamils did not understand a word of what was being chanted at these prayers, as it was all in Sanskrit, but at $3,000 a fire many came to believe it must be worth the deal. Indeed, a new belief took root in Singapore: that the more expensive the offerings into the fire and the more elaborate the proceedings, the greater would be the blessings received.

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While VR encouraged such rituals to raise revenue, to make the newly affluent devotees feel good about what the temples could offer and to embrace the new immigrants, VR also supported a couple of reforms as and when they were proposed. One was initiated by fellow committee member and brother of SR, S Suppiah, to stop the wastage of coconuts and bananas in the long-customary individual prayers (archanai) at the temples. The tradition was that devotees would bring coconuts or bananas from their gardens, especially after the first harvest of the season, and offer it to a god-form of their choice. The priest would place them before the altar, bless them, and return half to the devotees. The half share the priest keeps would be for his own use and to be distributed to other devotees, especially the poor. If there were too many bananas (or other fruits) they would be made into a cocktail (panjamirtham) and distributed the next day. Devotees who did not grow coconut or banana in their gardens would buy them from shops and offer them at the altar, as they still do in India. The idea was to encourage sharing and charity. Over a period of time, most Hindus lost track of the central principle and offered the archanai as a routine to receive the blessings of the god-forms enshrined in temples. In Singapore, temples stocked the coconuts and bananas themselves and built their cost into the fees for archanai to make it convenient for devotees. In the early

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years, temples kept the half-share of the coconuts and whatever was left after use in prasadam (blessed food) was sold to a contractor who took it to a mill to extract oil from them. Cheap imports and economies of scale made the operation of such a mill unprofitable and no contractor was interested in collecting the temples’ share of the coconuts. Some temples returned both halves of the coconut to devotees after prayer. Still, some devotees insisted on themselves thrashing the coconuts into small pieces at the front entrance of the temple. This practice again was rooted in the tradition of charity to the poor who were not allowed to enter the temples for some reason or other. In Singapore, there was hardly anyone picking up the coconut pieces which had to be collected and disposed off by the temple management. Such collections while waiting for disposal created a stench. Suppiah considered such rituals meaningless in the Singapore context and wasteful and unhygienic. He proposed substituting such offerings with raisins in cute little plastic bags which could be taken by the devotees to their homes and offices and eaten at their convenience. VR implemented the proposal in the board temples. There was a little murmur of protest in the early days but devotees soon accepted the sensible reform. (Suppiah, however, did not succeed in convincing the managements of non-board temples to follow suit.) Another important reform, and return to the original Hindu practice that VR supported was the re-

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establishment of the direct relationship between God and devotee at the new Sivan Temple. In the south of India and Sri Lanka, devotees lost their right to touch or even go near their God with the ascendance of priests and sanskritization of temple rituals during the great Chola period. Sivachariyars, Bhattars, Smartha Shastris and Vadhyars in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka and Nambudiris in Kerala asserted themselves as the indispensable intermediaries between God and devotee. Worshippers were told in no uncertain terms that they could not even walk up the steps to the sanctum. There was no way they could bathe their favourite god-form and submit flowers at the form’s feet. God did not understand any of the local languages and prayers had to be submitted only in Sanskrit and that too only through the priests. Even the pandarams and poosaris, the older non-Brahmin priests, who could never learn Sanskrit, pretended to utter a few words of Sanskrit and enforced the rule of non-priests not being allowed to enter the sanctums. While the hold of the different castes and sub-castes of priests as intermediaries became iron-clad in the south, few North Indian temple worshippers succumbed to their influence. By and large they managed to retain their right to touch their God and to communicate with Him directly. VR facilitated their way of worship at the Geylang Sivan Temple. No dogma distracted VR from keeping an eye on the main goal – to make devotees feel happy about

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their temple and get whatever service they expected. Ethos among even the elite of Singapore Hindus had changed. Ramakrishna Mission had closed its Tekka centre which catered to not so well-educated poor Hindus who congregated in the area. Dr Veerasamy was dead. Nobody seemed to be critical of the display of wealth at Thandayuthapani Temple. Indeed, every other temple committee now aspired to acquire a silver chariot – if possible bigger and more glittering than the one Thandayuthapani Temple had for more than a century – and take their god-forms on processions. VR decided to cater to them by building one chariot which could serve all the four board temples and on occasions be available to other temples as well. He built a silver chariot at a cost of $250,000, partially met by donations. It was launched by Professor S Jayakumar, Minister for Law and Home Affairs, on 20 October 1991. VR was in the habit of making occasional pilgrimages to Tamil Nadu where he learnt of another idea to raise revenue and at the same time make affluent devotees ecstatic. In the second half of last century, enterprising priests and officials of major temples in Palani and Madurai had come up with the idea of building relatively small gold chariots and offer them to be pulled by devotees within the temple premises, at a fee stiff enough to be affordable only by the very rich. To their great amusement they soon found that higher the fee the greater was the demand. In such

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temples, hardly an auspicious day now passes without some rich family or other pulling the gold chariot. VR was amused too. He wished to make it permanent in Singapore. He built a gold chariot costing $200,000. To every Hindu’s amazement, VR persuaded the Buddhist Lodge to donate the gold leaves. The chariot was launched in 2003. All these new activities added to the gaiety at the board temples, and except for the chariots, all quickly emulated by non-HEB temples. Within a few years, hardly a week passed in any temple without some special prayer being held. Some Hindus might say that even without VR paving the way, such a trend would have caught on in Singapore as there was a boom in such rituals, old and new, in temples, old and new, in India. No doubt some temples in Singapore, especially those controlled by an individual or families, were quick on the draw and have since become considerably popular and rich. But it is doubtful the pace and magnitude of the introduction of the new rituals and festivals would have been the same without the systematic planning and promotion that VR undertook.

Deepavali Light-up VR was also the moving force behind enhancing the Deepavali cekebration with the light up programme in Serangoon Road area. SR explained: “The Chinese

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were lighting up Chinatown for the Lunar New Year and the Malays in Geylang for Hari Raya. The Singapore Tourist Promotion Board wanted to light up Little India for Deepavali. But the Indian merchants were not forthcoming. STPB and the Minister for Social Affairs approached VR. VR took ownership of that even though it was outside the scope of duties expected of HEB. Lisha (Little India Shopkeepers Association) was created at the initiative of STPB in early 1999, to run the annual light up for Deepavali. VR was involved in forming Lisha and he also acted as its adviser. VR and Param persuaded the merchants to join Lisha with little success. Still no seed money. HEB provided the money. Though lighting up Serangoon Road for the festivities was not exactly the function of the HEB, the board helped Lisha to carry on the show. Now, (S) Rajendran (Chairman of HEB, after VR) has come to be concerned about the situation. He was asking: ‘Why we should do this’. Rajendran had a point. His concern was that such light up of the place risked short circuit as the wires were exposed to all weather. If there was a fire, with all those buildings, HEB will be liable. He was right. But the enthusiasm to get it done made people ignore this risk. That enthusiasm VR had. He didn’t bother about the legal implications. When a proposal came, VR just wanted to know whether it will do the community good, whether it was for the common good. If he was satisfied, he just went ahead and did it. He did not think of the

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risk and the possible consequences for HEB until it was strongly pointed out by his successor.”

Regulating Observance of Festivals VR also played his part in regulating the two biggest temple festivals in Singapore – fire-walking at Mariamman Temple and Thaipusam at Thandayuthapany Temple in Tank Road. Most of the problems related to both celebrations had been initially sorted out by SR. VR just had to execute SR’s decisions and follow-up on some minor consequential problems. The first of these two festivals was easier to manage as it was largely an internal affair at Mariamman Temple which attracted a big crowd but not too huge. The arrangements SR had made greatly facilitated the smooth flow of people through Mariamman Temple. He had also put in place measures to prevent any violence that had marred the festival in some earlier years. He also introduced exit measures in the unfortunate event of a breakdown in crowd control. His mere presence – real but sometimes imagined – at the temple during the festival would have put the fear into any elements contemplating any mischief. With the help of the police, VR continued to manage the flow of people quite well and incident free. Shifting the timing of the fire-walking to dawn certainly helped. With experience the timing has continued to be shifted.

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Managing Thaipusam was more problematic. It involved devotees and supporters walking all the way to Tank Road Temple. It attracted much bigger crowds. Kavadi-carriers who used to start at different parts of Singapore had over the years been persuaded to start from the vacant land next to Perumal Temple. It had long been the most popular starting point because of its spaciousness. There was also a pond where traditionally devotees could bathe in its waters before carrying the kavadi. A Vinayagar had been on the bank of the well for devotees to pray to before starting the walk to Thandayuthapani Temple. Over the years, the pond was filled with earth and Vinayagar moved into a shrine within the Perumal Temple. This brought the kavadicarriers into the Perumal Temple premises while they prepared for their journey. Managers of Perumal Temple, HEB, got involved in regulating the numbers and their movements. While the number of kavadi-carriers was going up, the Serangoon Road to Tank Road procession with its increased participation caused problems for the growing traffic along Selegie Road, Dhoby Ghaut, Penang Road and Clemenceau Avenue. In the old days, the Chettiars managed the movement of kavadi-carriers by themselves with the help of a few policemen of Indian origin at their end. At the entrance to the temple, they had two dharwans (security guards from North India). That was all. They never invited a policeman inside the temple and

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managed the crowds themselves. They had competent leaders and enough volunteers and servants to regulate the entire festival themselves. But that changed after the War. The festival became even more popular with an increase of kavadi-carriers and spiked kavadis which slowed down the procession and increased congestion all the way and even in the temple at Tank Road. The quality of Chettiar leadership also dipped drastically because most of the principals among them and their able agents did not return to Singapore or left the island soon after. A break from tradition in the manner in which new members were enlisted and younger trustees elected stifled self-renewal. By the time the kavadi carriers were becoming a concern to the traffic police, authorities found the leadership of the Chettiar community weak and incapable of taking decisive action. Their botched attempt to ban spikes was an example. Around the same time, the two boards included members who enjoyed the backing of an assertive government and were more confident than ever before of managing such affairs without threatening law and order. Very few of them had actual experience of managing any temple before their appointment. If they had any religious background, it was invariably – with some exceptions – from reading books in English and/or being involved in activities of the Ramakrishna Mission, through which they acquired some knowledge of the philosophical basis of Hinduism and its worship. They

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were also the pioneers of a disciplined – some might say regimented – society. They had no appreciation for the songs and tunes which the Tamils found heartrendering and which made the kavadi-carriers and their supporters dance and do the things they did. Culture, of course, is always conditioned. Kavadi-carriers have been indulging in it for at least a few hundred years. Culture keeps changing too. The central debate in culture is always which aspects of it are natural evolution and which are impositions. With westernization and the concomitant love of pop culture, young supporters of kavadi-carriers started playing banjos and other nontraditional instruments. Portable amplifiers broadcast their enthusiasm. Hooligans began participating making the procession almost a sacrilege. Soon parts of the procession looked like a carnival. Those who believed that music and dance were in the veins of Tamils could tolerate the variations. The board’s urge that they had to do “something” to regulate the walk was heightened by a reported conversation between visiting Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, and Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. Imperious Indira told Lee that such processions were banned in India and asked him why he was tolerating them in Singapore. (Lee was reported to have informed her that the event had been going on for a very long time and that since the people involved believed in it and did not disturb the peace he would rather let it be. She was right as far as Delhi was concerned, but

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it had gone on in Tamil Nadu without interruptions. Other processions, marking other significant dates in the Hindu calendar and involving a million people or more, were taking place every year in other states with some devotees being killed in stampedes. In some states, naked men with real tridents and staffs continued to descend from the hills for rituals in rivers.) HAB/HEB officials issued a series of strictures which were grudgingly followed or detested and disobeyed. Weakened Chettiars were either unwilling or unable to regulate the noisier aspects of the movement. They were most certainly not keen on the Thaipusam procession being turned into a march. Joint committee meetings of HAB/HEB and Thandayuthapani Temple turned into occasions for officials to issue instructions which Chettiars had no way of enforcing. Any undesirable men had to be stopped at the start of the walk. Chettiars had lost any influence they might have had at the starting point and HEB officials and Perumal Temple committee were in charge. Once kavadi-carriers and supporters reached the gates of Thandayuthapani Temple, it would be a blasphemous disaster to deny them entry. SR could relate to the Tamil temple culture much better than most members of HAB and HEB but he arrived on the scene with another concern: security. Given his background, this was understandable. He believed that there were Indian elements in Malaysia who might exploit an unregulated procession to create trouble for

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Singapore. There was always a Malayan or Malaysian crowd present in the Thaipusam festival. In the first century after Thandayuthapani Temple was built, the festival was celebrated only there and in Penang and Batu Caves, near Kuala Lumpur. During British days, special trains and buses were run from Gemas to Singapore to ferry devotees to Thaipusam. Many walked from Johor Bahru. SR suspected that some elements that were unhappy that Muslims in Singapore did not enjoy the privilege of going in processions might instigate some Malaysian Hindu youth to create trouble. SR was acutely aware that the government had to moderate certain cultural and religious practices. From 1968, except for special occasions, a police permit was not to be issued for amplification of sounds between sunset and sunrise. Firing of crackers without a permit during the night was prohibited. All places of worship were informed of the new ruling. Since a partial ban on firecrackers did not help prevent deaths and damage to property, a total ban on crackers was imposed in 1972. Prayer calls at mosques had to be within 65 decibel limits. After 1975, new mosques had to direct loudspeakers into their prayer halls to cut the noise level. SR felt that in this context the Hindus needed to jealously guard the privilege they enjoyed and not give any reason for authorities to be concerned. In fact, such a concern had been voiced once by Chua Sian Chin, then Minister for Home Affairs.

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SR recollected: “A lot of street hooligans were treating the Thaipusam procession as a carnival – kicking up dustbins and signboards. In Perumal Temple, where Thaipusam begins, there was even murder. People were stabbed. So all Indian police officers were asked to give us their voluntary time. They agreed, so that they could accompany the kavadis all the way from Perumal Temple to Chettiar Temple and also manage this hooliganism on the way. A few Malaysian Indians who misbehaved were taken to the causeway, sent back across the Causeway.” From 1977, kavadi-carriers were allowed to leave Perumal Temple in small groups. Kavadi-carriers had to register first. Non-traditional instruments, which actually meant all instruments as very few Singapore Hindus knew how to play the traditional ones, were banned. In 1978, V Krishna, chairman of Perumal Temple committee, said that about 40 drums and banjos were seized at the temple. In the previous year, he had seized 80 such instruments. He believed that those who brought those instruments were “outsiders who were out to make fun”. HEB secretary K S Rajah said the rules were introduced to preserve the sanctity of the occasion. From 1981, hymns were allowed only for kavadicarriers. Police said even nagaswaram and tavil, traditional instruments, would be seized if used on the road. Classical instruments could be played only inside the temples. All

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music was banned during the procession. Jason Wong, a letter-writer, said in The Straits Times that watching that year’s Thaipusam was like watching a concert on TV with the volume turned off. In the meantime, an official cultural procession called Chingay, managed by the People’s Association as a national occasion, in which all kinds of instruments were played, was being officially promoted and conducted in a prescribed area. Just as a Muslim Member of the Straits Settlements Assembly championed the cause of holiday for Deepavali half a century earlier, M K A Jabbar, Member for Radin Mas, raised the issue in Parliament. Home Affairs Minister Chua Sian Chin replied deadpan that the ban on music applied to all religious processions. HEB appealed for reconsideration of the ban on music en-route. The appeal was rejected four days before Thaipusam. The reasons cited: “Music slowed the procession and the dancing devotees occupied too much of the road.” The rejection of the appeal was apparently not at the insistence of Chua. Gopinath Pillai described what happened: “When the appeal was made, I was away. VR had said we could go back and get the music on. Professor Jayakumar called me and asked me ‘What do you think?’ I suppose VR did not have the chance to talk to me about this. E Sukumar was chairman of Perumal Temple committee at the time. He said no, we shouldn’t do that; it will revert to the old style. I agreed

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with him. I told Jaya I had talked to Sukumar. The moment you lift it, all the fellows will come back. VR was a little unhappy. He felt why we should be so strict on this. VR’s style of management was a relaxed one.” Chandra Das supported Gopinath Pillai’s view. The nub of the problem was Gopinath Pillai and his friends equated piety with observance with quiet decorum. VR did not. His feeling probably had a lot to do with his early years. He grew up in the temple town of Tiruvarur. Though a Telugu, he went to a Tamilmedium school. In Singapore, Tamil Murasu was the first newspaper he read every morning. He appreciated the nexus between music and Murugan worship. He knew it was nearly impossible for a kavadi-carrier to get into a trance without the support of the kavadichindhu tune, accompanied by instruments that provide the rhythm. He also knew that most kavadi-carriers in Singapore lacked experience in singing kavadichindhu to work themselves into a trance; they needed the support of others singing the tune for them to the accompaniment of instruments. Chua’s advisers believed that allowing unmanaged music would bring hooliganism back. In later years, VR told some friends that perhaps the only wish that he had but could not accomplish at HEB was to bring the music back to the Thaipusam walk. His wish may yet be granted, not so much because his former associates might change their minds about it but because of pressure from the Singapore Tourism

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Promotion Board whose members, according to what VR told his friends, seem to believe that a carnival-like Thaipusam might do Singapore no harm but only good, just as Chingay and other boisterous STPB-promoted events had done. On the finance side, Perumal Temple, not Thandayuthapani Temple, has become the main net beneficiary of the Thaipusam celebration. With all the other festivals and special prayers started under VR’s leadership, pretty soon there was no shortage of money in any of the board temples to do anything their committees wanted to do for the development of their temple. Every temple got renovated and refurbished “to world standards” as the saying went. VR also subscribed to a theory propagated in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka in the second half of the last century – that there should be a consecration ceremony once in 12 years. No popular temple in India, not even very wealthy temples like those in Kashi, Srirangam and Guruvayoor, celebrated consecration ceremonies at such regular intervals. The Chola period is widely considered to be the golden age of temple worship in South India. There is no evidence of such frequent consecration at any of the great Chola temples. However, priests in Tamil Nadu suddenly claimed that a consecration every 12 years was prescribed in the ancient texts in order to energise the god-forms in temples. Of course, in Hinduism it is easy to find an ancient verse to support

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any proposition. The newly-affluent devotees and the ever-eager officials of the Tamil Nadu equivalent of HEB caught on to the idea without any hesitation. Singapore Tamil Hindus were not going to be left behind. Members of VR’s various committees, except for Gopinath Pillai, were for it. Gopinath Pillai did not object vehemently. A consecration every twelve years could be justified if the temples were not regularly maintained and repaired, whereas the board’s temples are under constant scrutiny and undergo repairs as required from year to year. With such a practice, there are questions why this consecration every twelve years was necessary in Singapore, except when a temple has been left in disregard. However, following the HEB lead, non-HEB temples, including even the most conservative Thandayuthapani and Sithi Vinayagar Temples, caught the consecration fever in no time. Also the celebrations at each consecration became grander and grander. Hardly a month passes without some temple in Singapore receiving a batch of skilled temple artisans or scores of priests to be engaged in some consecration-related work. VR probably holds the record for having presided over the most number of grand consecrations since the last Chola king. But not every consecration that VR saw through was the culmination of a smooth and efficient rebuilding or relocation. Inaugural consecration of the Sivan Temple at Geylang took the longest time to accomplish.

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8 Transforming the Temple Scene The most important relocation of a temple that VR had to supervise had to be undertaken a little prematurely, before HEB built up its cash reserves. Sivan Temple’s Orchard Road premises had been acquired by the government in 1983, to build the Dhoby Ghaut MRT Station. Chairman of HEB then, P Selvadurai MP, had accepted the compensation the government had offered without appealing for a higher amount or securing an alternative site to relocate the temple. The temple had no reserves as any surpluses hitherto had been accruing to its chief priest. HEB decided to relocate the god-forms in the temple at the vacant part of the land next to Perumal Temple while it tried to get an alternative site. Newlyelected MP Chandra Das got involved. He felt that the god-forms should not be moved out of Orchard Road until a new site had been secured. He believed such an approach might persuade the government to allot 84

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a site quickly. All he could accomplish was to get some Urban Redevelopment Authority funding to construct a temporary structure next to Perumal Temple. Selvadurai had approached the government for a site in Geylang. Some devotees wanted the new Sivan Temple to be erected at the site of the former Tekka Market which was then being used as a car park. Chandra Das supported the choice of Geylang for two reasons: temples had to tender for any new site. He was trying to persuade the government to allot a piece of land without tender as there was no way the temple could afford to raise enough funds to compete in a commercial tender. He rightly guessed the chances of securing a plot without tender were much better in Geylang than in Tekka. Secondly, North Indians by then were big donors at the Sivan Temple. The bulk of North Indians in Singapore lived on the east coast. They would support the building of the temple in Geylang more enthusiastically than they would a new temple in Tekka area where the North Indians already had a temple. Chandra Das said: “There was a hell of a hue and cry. Why Geylang, a Malay area? I said: Where is Mariamman Temple now? At the heart of China Town.” SR who had by then assumed chairmanship of HAB supported him. Chandra Das persuaded Lee Yock Seng, Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of National Development, to secure approval for the lease of Geylang land without tender.

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“Again there was a delay in discussing the design,” said Chandra Das. “Some of us, including SR, decided it should not be the traditional South Indian design. Some objected. We took the decision against the majority. Now they say it is a very beautiful temple.” SR said: “We decided that the new temple should be something architecturally unique. We wanted to build a temple which everybody will admire, not to say that Indians can only do one kind of thing – multi-coloured gopurams (towers). We thought we will create something like what the Birlas had done in India. “We had difficulty (with getting that idea accepted) because someone said ‘You can’t do this. It’s not according to custom.’ Some university students were also agitated. I told them ‘It’s very simple. This is not the place where Hinduism was born. This is a place where we brought something to worship. So why is it that we must have only this architecture or that architecture? Some fellows protested to me and said, ‘Oh you know… there will be a riot’. I said, ‘Don’t worry… that I will manage’.” SR presented before them four volumes on Hindu temples by a German architectural scholar, which also dwelt on their origins. He put the four books on the table and said “Okay, you are telling me that it cannot be done. Bring me the authority.” He argued with them. They could not produce any convincing evidence other than to say the temple constructors said so. They said there would be riot and left. He said “Don’t worry.”

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Satpal Khattar, who was familiar with the Sivan Temple development, said: “The chairman of the temple-building committee was Rajan Menon (Khattar’s then law partner). I remember him telling me that he went to Chennai to buy books about temple-building. He studied how the temple should be built. I got my friend SK Birla to provide an Indian architect with experience in building new temples. Birla was my client and he used to have a palm-oil refining unit in Johor Bahru. The North Indians used to frequent the Orchard Road Sivan temple and they wanted to keep their traditions. I told Birla ‘You help us build a temple that externally at least looks like a North Indian temple. The inside may be South Indian’. That is how we got this temple. It has been good for the community. North Indians still go there. I introduced Birla to SR. Initial drawings came from the Indian architect who visited here.” The HEB, from the beginning, had intended to make the new Sivan Temple unique in appearance, features and facilities. SR had formed a group under VR to decide on the design. VR and Krishna went on a tour of Birla temples in India before finalizing the design. After all the efforts, what followed was a unique design with an octagonal structure with a multi-purpose hall and staff quarters. The temple cost $6 million. After 10 years of temporary residence at Serangoon Road, the Sivan Temple was finally consecrated at its present Geylang site on 30 May 1993. Not only is it the most

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expensive Hindu temple in Singapore but also it is one of the most beautiful places of worship in Singapore. VR was active in soliciting donations for the temple and the HEB’s growing financial position helped him finance the construction. By this time SR was serving as Ambassador to the US and VR was two years into the chairmanship of the HEB. At about the time he took over, VR faced a delicate question which related to the way the god-form of Sivan or Lingam was worshipped at the temple. One needs to understand the Lingam’s history, to the extent it is possible, and a little about two major traditions of Lingam worship in India to appreciate how sensitive the issue was in Singapore then and how ably VR handled it. First, ways of worship. In ancient times, the Ruler of the time, of course, played the critical role in determining the manner of worship and the functions of performing priests. For example, Chettiars who are from South India and who have very much been under the influence of priests for a long time, follow the older custom of the north in Kashi (Varanasi or Benares), where for centuries they have enjoyed the right to offer three of the four main daily prayers at Vishwanatha Temple. The King of Nepal or his representative offers the other main prayer by bathing the Lingam and offering flowers to Him directly. Chettiars do likewise. In the south, they follow in their Sivan temples the practice introduced by

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the Chola kings – employing Sivachariyars to offer the prayers. In Singapore, they did not build a Sivan temple until Sivachariayars were willing to come to Singapore. The oldest Lingam in Singapore came under their care by default. They believe that the Lingam was found near the northern seashore when the British arrived on the island. Since there was no one else with the means to take care of it, one of their members, Meyyappa Chettiar, provided a place on his estate in Potong Pasir for its worship and helped the milkmen from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh who were very keen to perform the daily rituals. The Chettiars were under strict instruction from their gurus in India that they should not build Sivan temples abroad unless they can find Brahmins to perform the prayers which was almost impossible at the time. So their support for the worship of that Lingam was just financial or material with other people managing the temple’s affairs. By the time devotees of the Lingam found a place of their own on Orchard Road, their composition had changed dramatically. They were now predominantly South Indian, with V Nagappa Chettiar as the main benefactor, and naturally they brought priests from Tamil Nadu and Kerala to perform the Brahminical rituals and stood several feet away from the Lingam. The Sivan Temple-going North Indian Hindu population in Singapore remained tiny and fairly stagnant for more than a century. They just went along

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with the introduction of the intermediary role of the South Indian priests. Some descendants of the original North Indian families, however, believed that the Lingam was brought from India by their ancestors. If that were the case, they were not able to explain why they gave up their right of worship in their own way. By the time the Lingam was moved from Orchard Road to temporary premises next to Perumal Temple in Serangoon Road, it had become untouchable to devotees and had been decorated with gold and silver armour (kavasam) which was a South Indian practice and largely unknown to the North Indians. When the time came to raise funds for the new temple in Geylang to house the Lingam, VR’s committee was faced with the reality that though the South Indian devotees were large in numbers it would not be easy to raise the kind of money that was required in any reasonable time from then, with the new temple going to be in Geylang and basically North Indian in design. There was some criticism by South Indian worshippers. Wealthy North Indian Hindus were pleased with the choice of location and design and were more than willing to support the construction, not the least because a few of them were not happy with the ambience and surroundings of their Lakshmi Narayan Temple in Tekka. But they had a request: can they perhaps go back to the tradition of worshipping the Lingam themselves without the intervention of priests?

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Acceding to their request would have shocked the South Indian devotees. They just could not bear the sight of their revered Lingam being caressed by all and sundry. The priests, of course, would have made sure the South Indians were sufficiently enraged to force a stalemate. Not to upset the poor devotees and at the same time to satisfy the big donors came what could be described as a classical VR solution: let’s do both. Let the old Lingam be continued to be worshipped through priest intermediaries; let’s install a new Lingam of North Indians’ choice on one side which North Indians could worship in their traditional way. (To VR this was not a strange solution. The great temple of Tiruvarur, near which he was born and raised, is in fact a complex of several Lingam shrines, except that in each of them there is now a priest). Even then it was not easy to satisfy everyone as there were some objections that one can’t have two Lingams on the same floor so close to each other. The objectors cited some principles of temple architecture that are based on the science of concentrating cosmic energy at certain spots where the devotee could benefit from the vibrations so created. The great temples of India were based on such principles. But over the years, temple architects and priests made so many compromises in the design of new temples to please their patrons of the day that it is now possible to justify almost any position by citing some precedent or other somewhere. In implementing all these decisions,

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VR could rely on the diplomacy of Rajan Menon, chairman of the temple committee. The North Indian sponsors, with whom Menon and Khattar kept in close touch, graciously brought a Lingam not bigger in size to the one enshrined in the sanctum sanctorum and installed it at the same level but without a raised sanctum. An equally sensitive project that VR inherited from SR was the repossession and redevelopment of what has come to be known as Little India Arcade (LIA). SR had inherited the problem from his predecessor C V Devan Nair. And Devan Nair was not the first HEB member to be aware of the issues involving LIA properties. A 1971 souvenir publication to mark a consecration of Mariamman Temple carried for the first and last time a list of properties then owned by HEB. The list is reproduced as an appendix to this book. Soundara Rajan, a Special Branch officer, was the editor of the souvenir. After publishing the list without comment, he went around asking Hindu acquaintances whether they had seen the list. He wouldn’t explain its significance. But anyone who saw the list could guess what was going on. The properties had been let out at ridiculously low rents. When SR became chairman of HEB and decided to do something about it, he brought Chandra Das into the board to specifically deal with the problem. P Govindasamy Pillai, who had contributed much to the board

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temples, was – wittingly or unwittingly – a party to the earlier arrangements which resulted in HEB renting out prominent HEB buildings at Serangoon Road to him. HEB wanted to recover and redevelop the properties. SR recalled: “We found to our horror that the whole Hastings Road, Govindasamy Pillai shop and all the others in the area, were giving us $2,000 per month. British and Malayan Trustees had been appointed previously to collect the rent. They issued the receipts with a clause stating no subletting was allowed but subletting was going on blatantly. The sweet shop subtenant was paying $5,000 per month to the principal tenant. The money changer was likewise paying $5,000. And HEB was getting $200 per month from each principal tenant.” Satpal Khattar recollected: “Pathma Selvadurai tried to do something when he was chairman of HEB. But with the Rent Control Act still in force there was no way he could have repossessed the properties. When the government lifted the Act, HEB was better placed to make a move. VR was a very useful person to act as a go-between. He knew the principal people better.” A HEB subcommittee was formed to look into the matter. It consisted of Khattar, Gopinath Pillai, V Krishna, VR, Kirpa Ram Vij and Rajan Krishnan. Over the years, Khattar, Gopinath Pillai, Chandra Das and VR played the most important roles in getting the issues

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resolved. The late P Adistham, secretary of HEB, was with VR, heavily engaged in this and other undertakings of VR. The group’s two major decisions were to undertake the project through a company, called Little India Arcade, and make it a joint venture with DBS Land. A good idea of the gist of what happened was provided by Chandra Das, Sat Pal Khattar and Gopinath Pillai. While they were able to get the premises vacated under the new legislation, they were not able to raise the required funds from the Hindu community, south or north, for redevelopment. Neither could they find a Hindu developer with a track record to undertake and fulfil responsibility for the whole project. At one stage, VR was about to give the contract to a Chinese company. SR who was back from Washington DC checked on that company and found out that it was a $2 company. SR warned VR that the company might play him out. SR felt VR could benefit from some advice on such matters and be prevented from being taken in by business associates. He set up an informal subcommittee, consisting of Chandra Das (chairman), Gopinath Pillai and K Shanmugam, then a Member of Parliament, to advise and approve any single expenditure above $100,000. (All such disbursements were to be cleared by this committee too, which upset some board members like Ajaib Haridass, who felt it suggested a mistrust of HEB.)

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Chandra Das, Gopinath Pillai and Sat Pal Khattar knew Han Cheng Fong, then chief executive of DBS Land, a government-linked company, quite well. They persuaded DBS Land through him, whereby DBS Land took a 40% stake in the venture and actively managed the takeover and re-building of the property. (The agreement provided an option to HEB to buy back the 40% share from DBS Land in 10 years. In the event, DBS Land was taken over by another government-linked company, CapitaLand, which felt that its stake in LIA was too small for it to be bothered. HEB was able to buy the 40% stake, largely because of VR’s prudent financial management and accrual of savings, and make LIA a wholly-owned HEB subsidiary earlier than expected.) Today that property is estimated several times more than the value at which it was re-purchased. What impressed SR was that throughout this process, VR was prepared to do whatever was necessary to make the project a reality. He was prepared to use HEB’s funds and mortgage its properties to raise more money to finance the redevelopment and reacquisition. He didn’t bother to check at every stage whether the HEB Act allowed it or not. However, Ajaib Haridass, Rajan Menon and S Tiwari made sure that the legal requirements were complied with. An amendment to the HEB Act was subsequently approved by Parliament in March 1993 enabling HEB to mortgage its properties and to enter into joint ventures to redevelop them.

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Richard Helfer of DBS Land, who still serves on the board of LIA, helped with the concept and getting the necessary approvals. LIA now makes a significant and steady contribution to HEB’s revenue. Khattar was the first chairman of LIA. He said: “VR had a role to play from day one in the company. He was a director. He knew the Serangoon merchants. Since he was a long-time chairman of HEB, he knew a lot of people in the community. He had done an excellent job at HEB. VR was always a useful person to have on your side.” Gopinath Pillai succeeded Khattar as chairman of LIA. Pillai said: “VR is a very relaxed person, very tolerant. He is very different from SR. SR laid down the rules. VR went according to that. SR will rebuke a person who has not followed instructions. VR was the exact opposite. He never lost his temper. He never rebuked anybody. He got things done through co-operation, persuasion. People found him soft. That helped.” SR said: “VR’s careful management of the money of the various temples to the minutest cent paid for the development. That was the strength of the man.” Not only did VR account for every cent earned by the temples and their properties, he also made sure that they earned more and more over the years. Apart from the numerous special rituals he introduced, he also kept an eye on routine costs. When they went up, he queried the increase and introduced new rates on the

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fees for what are known as regular individual prayer or archanai. To make sure that the board temples did not stand out as being expensive or greedy, he persuaded the non-board temples to raise their fees as well. He advised them that they needed to fix the fees at a level which would enable them to provide superior service in comfortable surroundings. When he made such calls, he did not omit to mention that the non-board temples’ applications for new work permits were being seriously considered. Every temple got the message. Though some temples’ management committees were unhappy at the time, all temples now have surpluses. At HEB, VR invested the surplus funds well. He was a shrewd investor in properties, according to Shrinivas Rai. Both of them and some friends had invested in properties and made gains, said Rai. VR used the skill to HEB’s benefit as well. Under his chairmanship, HEB bought two properties – 36A Mosque Street and 209 South Bridge Road, both close to Mariamman Temple. The latter building was renovated by architect Chandra Abeyasinghe. It won the Architectural Heritage Award in 1998. Today these properties have increased considerably in value.

Social Activities in Society: The Ashram When HEB had some surplus funds, VR was ready at the request of Government to support social services outside

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the four temples. He was instrumental in getting the Ashram at 30 Durban Road in Sembawang running since 1999. Rehabilitation of Hindu and Sikh drug addicts had been a matter of concern, since the seventies, to some Hindu elders, like SR, VR and Dr R Karunanithy, a professor of pharmacy at the National University of Singapore and VR’s neighbour for many years and the longest serving president of Ruthrakaliamman Temple. Dr Karunanithy, K Saunthararajah and a couple of other Hindu elders were involved in raising funds and counselling for the Singapore Anti Narcotics Association, a secular or multi-religious effort, for some time. They were concerned that a disproportionately high number of addicts were Hindu youths. In 1991, Indians accounted for 16% of addicts, double their population strength. The government encouraged religious groups to help in the rehabilitation of addicts. While other religious groups, especially Christians and Muslims, were tackling the problem in an organized manner through their institutions, Hindus had no organization to turn to. In 1997, the Singapore Corporation of Rehabilitative Enterprise (SCORE) was looking for an Indian/Hindu organization to run a halfway house. SR recalled: “VR asked me whether HEB should do it. I said, ‘Do it’. Because there was no other Indian organization. Now he’s being blamed for venturing into social activities. Some say it is not the function of HEB. Indeed it is not the function of HEB, but HEB having built up a

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reputation, it was frequently valued by Government to help address such community problems. VR had built up a reputation for HEB and for himself. Anything the government wanted Indians to do, its first question is ‘why don’t you ask HEB’. Little do they consider that HEB was set up to look after its four temples. VR did a lot of work in the name of the community, which HEB had no obligation to undertake under the terms (of HEB Act) but which HEB had to do. VR did whatever was for the good of the community.” Thus the Ashram. A company was incorporated for the purpose – HEB Community Services. In 1999, the government handed over a dilapidated colonial building known as the Seletar Sports Club and paid 90% of the $1.2 million renovation expenses. VR set out to raise funds. SINDA provided $200,000. Singapore Pools donated $150,000 and the Buddhist Lodge, VR’s eternal supporter, $100,000. The Sikh Gurdwara Board paid $100,000. Singapore Turf Club gave $10,000 and Lee Foundation $5,000. Many drug abusers have been successfully rehabilitated. In 2001, based on SCORE’s evaluation, Ashram ranked second among the 12 halfway houses in Singapore. Inmates received not only emotional and spiritual counselling. Forever the pragmatists, VR and his associates made sure those rehabilitated were also equipped with some skills to make a living in the real world. The chairman of the Ashram, S Lakshmanan, had been to the US for a course in the management

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of a rehabilitation centre. In 2003, the Ashram was a beneficiary of the annual President’s Challenge and the Community Chest gave money to the Ashram for the specific task of setting up an in-house banner-making project. The following year, a banner and sticker printing machine was acquired to engage the Ashram residents in gainful employment as well as provide a source of income for the Ashram. With its printing rates priced below prevailing market rates, the Ashram has received a steady stream of requests for banner production. Organisations can save up to 30% in their production costs with the Ashram’s services. Arrangements were also made for inmates to embark on home-based jobs. SCORE’s career placement unit helps them secure appropriate jobs. The public can engage the services of the Ashram for house and office removal, internal and external painting work, landscaping and garlandmaking. All jobs are professionally supervised by the Ashram management.

Merger of Temples With the infrastructure and contacts that he had built up over the years, VR played a valuable role in the merger of some temples. This was not as easy as it sounds. Many were small temples on a Temporary Occupation Licence, with a lease about to expire. To prevent their fiefdom, VR sought to get them to merge and give up their TOL

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for a single piece of land located in an area reserved for religious usage. Not every temple that merged did so enthusiastically or voluntarily. Not the least because some feared that what was being proposed might end up not a merger but an acquisition by another temple. Some temple leaders felt their fiefdom was being given away to others from other temples. There were other issues. First, some background: every old temple in Singapore started with one godform and a single sanctum sanctorum. Each of them reflected the beliefs and traditions of the group of people who built it as had been practised in India. In many cases, other god-forms were added either within the same shrine or with new shrines built within the same campus, because either the original group that built the temple wished to worship other forms as well or because other groups of people joined the temple as patrons and wished to have their favourite forms enshrined. The best example of where this happened was in the oldest temple in Singapore – Mariamman Temple. It started as a place where people from Tamil Nadu wished to worship a popular form of village Goddess, Mariamman. When it grew in popularity it had other god-forms installed and their worship entrenched. When some devotees wanted to install Ayyappan and Guruvayoorappan forms in the relocated HEB’s Vairavi Mada Kaliamman Temple in Toa Payoh, they were not warmly welcomed. To people unfamiliar

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with the social undercurrents surrounding the board temples, the resistance might seem a little strange as almost all members of the congregation at the temple were Tamils. In India, Tamils reportedly contribute a substantial part of the income of the famous Ayyappan Temple at Sabarimalai, Kerala, and the Guruvayoor Temple, also in Kerala. Some of the people who were not keen to introduce the two god-forms into Vairavi Mada Kaliamman Temple genuinely felt that the board should be faithful to the intentions of the founders of the temple and confine worship to god-forms originally installed. They were also concerned that since devotees of Ayyappan and Guruvayoorappan followed rituals different from the Saktha or Saivite tradition followed in the temple, there could be misunderstandings and conflicts later on. Some of them also took the view that introduction of more god-forms and different traditions would make their job of explaining them to the public more difficult than it already was. The mythology associated with each god-form was different and while some god-forms appeared as family in some puranam or ithikasam that was related to the celebrations in the temple, the new god-forms had their own puranams that were not related to the family of deities entrenched earlier. Educating the young in the complicated mythologies and getting them to appreciate the unity that was the ultimate goal had been a challenge to a couple of generations of Singapore Hindus.

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What would have been the reaction if the request to install Ayyappan had come from His Tamil devotees, like the late P Govindasamy or Dr V K Pillay, is a matter of speculation. In the event, the request came from the Malayalee Hindu Samajam – with a cheque for $51,000. As Gopinath Pillai put it, “There was a hue and cry. (They feared the temple) would become a Malayalee enclave.” HEB chairman Rajan was reported to have taken the view that the board’s role was to act as trustees of the temples, make sure that worship went on as they had when the temples were brought under its management, and not to alter the character or denomination of the respective temple. VR, the chairman-in-waiting, took what he believed to be the larger Indian or Hindu view that each temple could offer a variety of god-forms, rituals, special prayers and festivals and that devotees could choose any, some or all of them as they pleased. But he knew it was not his place to make the decision. He and Gopinath Pillai referred the matter to SR. SR called the objectors in for a meeting and gave them a piece of his mind. VR told some friends after their meeting that the objectors came out of the meeting saying that they felt as if they had been to see Lee Kuan Yew with a petition he didn’t like. SR still does not regret haranguing them that day. To start with, SR was put off by the way the objectors presented their case. They said, “sasthiram solludhu (the scriptures say) that you

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cannot install the new forms in an Amman temple.” He asked them to show him the sasthiram. He asked them “Where does it say that you can’t do it.” Of course, the objectors were equipped with no sasthiram. To summarize, the point he made to them and which he reiterated twice during the interview for this book was: “Singapore is our home now. Never mind who came when. We all came here and we brought some traditions with us. We have had the privilege of following our own traditions. But we must never forget that we are a minority. Never mind what happens in India. Never mind what happens elsewhere. Never mind what happened in the past. We are all here now. We are all Indians, all Hindus. No North Indian. No South Indian. No Tamil. No Malayalee. We can all do our own things. But we must respect others’ wishes too. Above all, we are all Singaporeans. We must never lose sight of that, and the responsibilities that go with it.” VR, quickly succeeding Rajan who was posted as High Commissioner to New Zealand, made sure that Ayyappan and Guruvayoorappan were at home with Kaliamman. Likewise, SR cracked another tough nut and set the tone for VR’s leadership of both HEB and HAB. He acquired some power over the non-HEB temples as well and handed it over to VR. Gopinath Pillai explained: “We created a role for ourselves. Basically HEB is supposed to be involved only with the management of

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four temples. Somehow we got into the management of all Hindu temples through the HAB. The HAB cannot exist without the HEB. The HEB is a channel for Hindus to put forward their opinion. They need a body to go to.” SR elaborated: “HAB is an advisory board – to advise the Minister. It has no power to control what is going on in the other temples. We felt we needed some form of control over them to improve their governance and bring about some order in the management of nonHEB temples that were fiefdoms of some individuals and over whom there was little oversight. HEB acquired the authority in two ways. First, there were the old temples which were being turned into businesses and HEB had no information about what was going on in those temples. All these temples needed work permits or employment passes to hire temple workers from abroad as there were not many Singaporeans available to take up these jobs. We decided to use that as a leverage to get some information from all the temples. First, HEB sought and obtained the agreement of the government that HEB will vet the temples’ applications for work permits and employment passes and recommend where there were justifications on the basis of the size of their congregation. They were quite happy to agree because Ministry of Manpower officers were not sure how to assess these jobs and how many were actually needed in each temple. HEB undertook to do it for Government.

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HEB told the temples, ‘You want work permits? Show us your accounts. Tell us the strength of your congregation’. It was not easy. Some temples didn’t like it. There was the late (N R) Krishnan who was running a temple in Serangoon Road. He didn’t like the idea. He asked ‘Why should I show you my accounts?’ But eventually he came around when he realized that the only way he was going to get workers from India was through HEB. “Then there are the Manmathan and Krishnan Temples which are run as family fiefdom. Manmathan Temple was left empty when the Gas Works closed and the Indian workers left the area. Packirisamy Pillai’s son now runs it.” In a way, VR too managed the four board temples almost as businesses – seeing to their income and expenditure and monitoring their growth. He was proud to report every year how with all the new rituals, special prayers and festivals he had increased the temples’ surpluses. The difference that impressed SR was that VR accounted for every cent of the revenue and was ever ready to donate the surplus to charity. SR didn’t see the other temples so forthcoming when it came to donating to charities like SINDA. He wasn’t sure how much some of the non-HEB temples were making and who was benefitting from it. That was his frustration. But he was still very much inclined towards leaving them alone and not interfering unless something seriously went wrong.

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Rarely did he exercise his power to say “no” to a temple or group. One exception was the Hare Krishna movement. He said: “We didn’t want that cult to spread in Singapore. But people who believed in it have a constitutional right to follow it in their own homes or as a society. We have to respect that. But not a temple. When they wanted to build a Hare Krishna temple, HEB said ‘no’.” How did HEB/HAB acquire this authority? “There were too many fellows wanting to build too many temples here and there. In some cases, just one fellow collecting money and one fellow playing the nagaswaram. What happens to the temple if the congregation diminished due to relocation or these fellows run away after collecting the money? So, we told the government, ‘We know how many Hindus are there in Singapore. We know how many temples are needed given the size of the Hindu community. HEB would assess and tell Government if Singapore needed more temples. The Government agreed.” Chandra Das elaborated: “Anyone who wants to build a temple or expand an existing one needs land. And land is scare in Singapore. They can’t afford to go for open tender for commercial space. They approach the government for land. We told the Government that if HEB/HAB approves the project Government might consider giving the land at a special price, no commercial tender. If we don’t approve, no land for temple. When they approach us, I say ‘show me your accounts’.”

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Thus, the rules of the game were well established when VR started presiding over joint meetings of HAB and HEB. Also, when VR met with trustees/managers/ owners of other temples he seldom seemed to miss an opportunity to mention casually the lunch he had with SR the previous day or week so that everyone knew the power behind the man that he was talking to. Equally important was VR’s personality. Gopinath Pillai pointed out the difference between VR and his mentor. SR, Gopinath Pillai said, was a strict disciplinarian. Everyone who dealt with him knew that. SR never minced his words. He would tell people to their face what was on and what was not. When he wanted something to be done in a particular way, it had to be done and done the way SR wanted. VR was easy going. He never got angry. He had a way with people. He was very friendly to the volunteers and even to his most junior staff. Often, he would bring snacks cooked by his wife to the office and distribute among the staff. Satpal Khattar agreed with Gopinath Pillai’s assessment. Khattar said that VR never took a confrontational approach. “If you want anything done, you leave it to VR. He may take a little longer but he will get it done somehow. He was reliable. He was persistent. He will persuade anyone and get everyone to agree. He believed in consensus.” On some issues, perhaps SR and VR played “bad cop, good cop” in dealing with difficult people. The two seemed to be agreed on everything. They got things done

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one way or the other. The amiable image that VR had and the fact that everyone knew that he enjoyed SR’s backing helped VR to accomplish what was a first in Singapore, and perhaps the world – a merger of three temples. Until the merger, few people believed that there would actually be a merger. “There were a lot of disputes before that,” said Gopinath Pillai. The fact that by then SR had decided that there would be no more tiny temples here and there, and the fact that VR let everyone know of that decision probably helped. Gopinath Pillai gave VR a lot of credit. He said: “VR’s ability to liaise with non-Board temples was great and useful. He helped them to set up committees properly, helped to find funds, gave them very good advice. He had strong influence over them. And they would listen to him. They were comfortable with him. He was very generous in giving his time and advice to them. He established a rapport. That would be the most striking feature of his chairmanship. He had a rapport with all the temples.” The current chairman of the HEB, S Rajendran, also lauded the role of VR. He said: “A strong advocate of community bonding, VR helped strengthen ties with other Hindu organizations and non-board temples. With his compelling personality and influence, he helped rally the support of the twenty other Hindu temples in Singapore for various causes benefiting the less fortunate. VR was also primarily responsible for bringing

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together three different Hindu temples, situated in three different places, under one roof – the Velmurugan Gnanamuneeswarar Temple (which incorporates the Velmurgan Temple that was originally in Silat Road and the Krishna Bhagavan and Muneeswarar Temples that were in Jalan Kayu) – in Sengkang. This was the first time such a merger had taken place in Singapore.” When VR found it difficult to keep some temple or other in line, he did not hesitate to bring other board members into play. Gopinath Pillai cited an example: “There were some temples which were powerful like the one in Potong Pasir. They got out of hand. The priest was very powerful. You couldn’t touch him. A committee member, a lecturer in the university, told me the ladies were overwhelmed by emotion. They took out necklaces from their necks and put them on the tray. The priest pocketed them. The items were not accounted for. We couldn’t do anything until one day the priest was found in the bedroom of a devotee’s house when the husband came home. He was supposed to do a pooja. The priest ran out without clothes. The matter came to me. But other committee members came to me and said ‘no, no, this husband is cooking up the story’. The chairman and several members of the committee, together with the priest, had property in Tamil Nadu in a joint venture. We discovered that the priest was a successful businessman there.” (A new committee has since taken over the management of the temple, and

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incidentally, more North Indians seem to go to this very South Indian temple than their compatriots going to the Sivan Temple in Geylang.) The fact that when there was trouble in a non-board temple someone felt that he could bring it to the attention of HEB and get it fixed meant that the board, under VR, had consolidated its influence over all the Hindu temples in Singapore. It meant an increase in HEB’s workload and its staff. To accommodate the growing staff an annex was built at the back of the Perumal Temple to act as HEB’s headquarters. “It was all VR’s work,” said SR. The spanking new HQ , of course, was a far cry from a backroom at Mariamman Temple where SR presided over his early meetings. And, no more insipid coffee or tea from an indifferent coffee-shop nearby. In keeping with his reputation as a good host, VR made sure freshly-brewed South Indian coffee and vadai were served at meetings, which lasted longer than the days when SR was present.

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9 VR’s Views in Public Deliberations of Issues Affecting Indians During the early stages of his career with the Chartered Bank, VR probably considered himself to be a kind of expatriate – though he was a local employee – with a colonial bank who would be quite happy to be posted to India in his last year of service so that he could comfortably start his retirement in the country where he was born and educated. He had bought a house in Bangalore for his retirement. He sent his daughters to India for their education, though they agitated and soon returned to Singapore. He made sure that in Singapore his daughters went to girls-only schools so that they would grow up with conservative values and be able to settle down with husbands in India. When one of them could not get a place in a girls’ school, he did not mind keeping her at home for a year. He kept in touch 112

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with most of his relatives in India and helped a few. He took his family on regular visits to meet his relatives and friends in India. In short, he was very much an Indian Indian who was in Singapore to make a living – a good one as it turned out. But by the time he actually retired from his service at the bank, his friendships and interests had changed so much that his outlook had changed completely. Being involved in religious affairs seems to affect one’s perspective of home and sense of belonging in different ways. A predecessor of VR at HEB was Devan Nair, one of the most nationalist of Singapore’s leaders. Soon after he took over the chairmanship of HEB, Devan Nair spoke of universal values and being a citizen of the world and at one time of even settling down at Auroville, near Pondicherry, India. (He did change his mind soon, but that is a different story.) Getting involved in HEB’s affairs had the opposite effect on VR. He became a true Singapore Indian. Perhaps it was the frequent opportunity he had to soak in the aura of other strong Singaporeans that made him think Singaporean. Perhaps it was his exposure to a series of problems peculiar to a new nation and a multi-racial society – which was quite different from the accounts and systems related issues that he had tackled at the bank – that completed his conversion. Within a few years, he started feeling strongly about what it means to be an Indian Singaporean.

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Apart from his work at HEB, said Shriniwas Rai, VR’s greatest contribution to the Indian community in Singapore was his farsightedness in getting the Indians included as a separate community in the Group Representation Constituencies (GRC) Act. Rai sees it as a significant gift to the political life of Singapore. A remarkable aspect of VR’s involvement in the GRC debate was that he never consulted SR on the subject. “He did it all on his own,” said SR. On 30 November 1987, two important Bills were presented in Parliament to introduce ‘team MPs’ or ‘multiple member constituencies’. The nomenclature finally chosen was Group Representation Constituencies or GRCs. The concept was first mooted in July 1982 by Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. It evoked widespread interest and discussion among all sections of the population. Under the GRC, an electoral constituency may have three (or more, following later amendments) candidates one of whom should be from a minority race. The original Bill said a GRC will include at least “a person belonging to the Malay community”. No mention was made of Indian community. This provoked some Indians to think. Rai remembered: “On the eve of Pongal festival in January 1988, VR called me and talked about the government’s proposals. I was not in favour of GRC and I felt it was not a necessity. But we agreed to study

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the proposal. VR and T Muthukumar called various people and sounded out their opinions. As the Bill didn’t mention the Indians as a separate community, we strongly felt that it should be done so that we would not be lumped together with other minor communities like Arabs and so on. We felt that we had contributed enough and we should be recognised as such.” On the second reading of the Parliamentary Election (Amendment) Bill, Deputy Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong observed that voting trends in recent years indicated that Singaporeans were voting along ethnic lines. With a Chinese majority in each constituency in Singapore such a trend would lead to a lack of representation for minority communities in Parliament. The Bills were then referred to a Select Committee, which invited representations from public. By the closing date of 15 February 1988, a total of 99 written representations from the public were accepted. It was the highest number of submissions ever received by a Select Committee. The Indians, though only seven per cent of the population, sent in 34 submissions, the largest from a single group. The Indian opinion was galvanized by an ad hoc committee of 13 men. They were: A Duraisamy, Sat Pal Khattar, T Muthukumar, R Rajathurai, VR Nathan, Dr P Unni, MK Bhasi, Himatsinh Jhala, V Krishna, Shriniwas Rai, G Ramachandran, K Saunthararajah and Dr A Vijiaratnam.

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Rai said: “We met at Mariamman Temple. After due deliberation, the task was given to Sat Pal Khattar and myself to formulate a paper. Although most of us were Hindus, we wanted to make this an Indian representation rather than a Hindu representation.” The group made a submission to the Select Committee, making three main points: That the amendments “will not resolve the problem of ensuring representation of minorities in Parliament. All that the amendment does is to provide that the government may designate certain constituencies as GRCs. There is no minimum number of GRCs stipulated and hence these could be zero or one or up to thirteen (if there are 79 elected representatives) GRCs as the government may decide. Therefore a racially inclined government could in fact designate only one GRC and the intended object of the amendments would be lost whilst still complying with the letter and the seeming spirit of the Constitution as proposed to be amended”. The second vexatious point was the omission of “Indians as a separate community” in the amendments. The submission said: “The Indian community has played a very responsible and visible role in the history of modern Singapore since it was founded. The community has always been specifically and separately recognised as an important and integral constituent of Singapore’s population. Singapore has always been recognised as a multi-racial country with a

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population consisting of Chinese, Malays, Indians and others. The language of the majority of the Indians in Singapore, i.e., Tamil is one of the official languages of Singapore. The Indians comprise about six per cent of the voting population. This is not an insignificant part of any community. The group thus feels disappointed that the Indian community has been grouped under ‘any minority other than the Malay community’ in the amendments. Being specifically referred to in the amendments may not prevent a future Parliament that consists entirely of representatives from a particular community. However, if it is felt that the amendments should nevertheless be proceeded with, then we strongly feel that the Indian community should also be specifically mentioned in the two amending regulations. This would be in keeping with the multi-racial character of Singapore. If one were to argue that members of the Indian community are likely – as has hitherto been the case – to find their way into Parliament and are likely to be able to do so in future without having to be specifically mentioned in the Amendments, the same arguments could on the basis of historical experience also be made of all minorities. We feel that the amendments, if they are to be proceeded with, should specifically deal with representation in Parliament from the Indian community in the same manner as it seeks to do for representation from the Malay community.

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The significant role of a substantial minority like the Indian community should not be seen to be whittled down to form part of ‘minority community other than the Malay community’. The historical experience that persons from the Indian community have found places in all strata of Singapore’s society from early times based on meritocracy should not now be held against them or the community they come from. If laws are being changed to provide for minimal representation on the basis of racial background such proposals should ensure that two substantial minority communities should both be mentioned.” The third point addressed the “rotation of GRCs”. “We are of the view that no GRC should remain a GRC forever. If it so remains it is likely to be viewed at least by the majority within that GRC, and possibly by others outside, as one in which racial representation has to be ensured by [an] artificial process rather than by natural social integration and development. We are therefore proposing that constituencies comprising of GRCs be rotated at every succeeding election and that no constituency which is part of a GRC be part of a GRC at the next general election. This will also ensure that the minority elected representatives from a GRC will not be seen to be championing a racial line as his constituency would cease to be part of a GRC at the next election,” the submission said.

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The group clarified two underlying points of submission. The first was the word ‘Indian’ is used in a generic sense to refer to citizens of Singapore who trace their stock from the Indian sub-continent and Sri Lanka. (A group of Tamil Muslims sought a separate identification in the Bill but its representation was not accepted by the Committee.) The second point was, “We are not in any way against Malay representation in Parliament or it being safeguarded in the Constitution if the need to do so is clearly established.” Finally the group wished there would be a general provision in the Constitution itself so that the minorities shall be represented in Parliament. Duraisamy, Khattar and Rai represented the group before the Select Committee which included Chandra Das and Jayakumar. First Deputy Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, having sensed the strong feelings of the Indian community, asked Khattar on the third day: “Would you be quite happy if we were to extend the definition of ‘other minorities’ to include Indians? In other words, we mention ‘Indian community and other minority communities’ in the same clause?” Khattar accepted the proposal. He said it would be satisfactory. The group’s proposal that constituencies under GRCs should be rotated was not accepted by the Committee.

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Rai said: “If VR had not spoken to me we could not have included the term Indians.” The fact that VR acted as convener of this group surprised some friends but marked VR’s rise as a leader of the Singapore Indian community.

Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act VR played a similar role in the debate preceding the enactment of the Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act and thereby secured a place for himself in a high council of state. The Singapore Constitution provides that “Every person has the right to profess and practice his religion and to propagate it. Every religion has the right to establish and maintain institutions for the education of children and provide therein instruction in its own religion. It shall be the responsibility of the government constantly to care for the interests of the racial and religious minorities in Singapore. The government shall exercise its functions in such manner as to recognize the special position of the Malays, who are the indigenous people of Singapore, and accordingly it shall be the responsibility of the government to protect, safeguard, support, foster and promote their political, educational, religious, social and cultural interests and the Malay language. The legislature shall by law make provision for regulating Muslim religious affairs and for constituting

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a council to advise the President in matters relating to the Muslim religion.” The Government manages two of the religions – Islam and Sikhism – in varying degrees through Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura (MUIS) and the Sikh Advisory Board (SAB). Members of MUIS are all appointed by the Government. In the case of SAB, the Government appoints four members and the gurdwaras 11. Other religious groups manage themselves. For the Hindus, it was only for the administration of HEB, which administers four Trust temples. Another Presidential Council established in 1970 was renamed as the Presidential Council on Minority Rights in 1973. It scrutinizes all parliamentary Bills to ensure they do not discriminate against any particular race, religion or community. The Internal Security Department and some grassroots organizations monitor activities of and between different religious communities and any external influences on them. An Inter-Religious Organization (IRO), a voluntary board with members from most faiths, acts both as a forum to build goodwill through interactions among different communities and address noticeable shifts in their fault lines. Yet, in 1987 the government felt the need to review the institutional safeguards to prevent religious disharmony in Singapore. The Ministry of Community Development commissioned a group of social scientists at the National University of Singapore to research the

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nature of religious trends in Singapore. The research was published as five government reports. The reports unambiguously confirmed that religious fervour was on the rise but no evidence was found of rising levels of social instability. A renewed vitality in Christianity and Islam was also observed. In January 1989, President Wee Kim Wee opened Parliament with a stern exhortation that religion should be “kept rigorously separate from politics”. On 11 November 1989, Lee Kuan Yew had a closed-door discussion with 51 religious leaders. He was reported to have said: “All religions are becoming more active. But then, this is a worldwide trend. There is greater religiosity across nearly all religions. We cannot be immune from these trends.” The government issued a 20-page White Paper on the Maintenance of Religious Harmony. The paper said that more Singaporeans were leaning towards “strongly held exclusive beliefs, rather than the relaxed, tolerant acceptance of, and coexistence with, other faiths.” It identified two vital conditions necessary for religious harmony in Singapore. First, religious followers must exercise moderation and tolerance and avoid doing anything that will cause enmity or misunderstanding among other religious groups. Secondly, religion and politics must be kept separate, because if one religious group becomes involved in politics, other religious groups will follow suit to protect their own interests, political parties may then advocate policies that favour one group

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or another to garner support from the followers, all of which will lead to inter-religious tensions and rivalry, and the end result will be conflict and political instability in Singapore.  The paper had an annex compiled by the Internal Security Department (ISD) on instances of inter-religious tensions, and religion mixing with politics. The ISD’s report recounted cases of aggressive and insensitive proselytizing by some groups, instances of intra-religious tensions, and the mixing of religion and politics all of which had caused tension between the communities. The report said: “University students have been harassed by over-zealous Christian students. In hospitals, some doctors and medical students have tried to convert critically ill patients to Christianity on their deathbeds. … In August 1986, officials and devotees of a Hindu temple found posters announcing a Christian seminar pasted at the entrance of their temple. The Hindus also objected when Christian missionaries distributed pamphlets to devotees going into temples along Serangoon Road.” Intra-religious tensions mentioned included the following incidents: “In October 1989, a Hindu sect, the Shiv Mandir, burnt an effigy of Ravana, a Hindu mythological king, during a religious festival, claiming that the ritual was an ancient practice marking Lord Rama’s triumph over Ravana and symbolized the triumph of good over evil. Tamil Hindus were incensed. Some saw this as an Aryan attempt to humiliate and

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belittle the Dravidians, for Rama was an Aryan while Ravana was a Dravidian. A few asserted that Ravana was not a demon king. They wanted to stage a protest at the function and threatened to burn an effigy of Rama in retaliation.” The annex also said: “Since the mid-1980s, Hindu and Sikh religious activists have become involved with political developments in India. After Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by Sikh extremists in 1984, Hindu-Sikh riots broke out in India, leading to tension between the two communities here. Some Sikhs celebrated the occasion by distributing sweets in the streets. There were four other reported cases of assaults on Sikhs, acts of vandalism on Sikh properties, and a few threatening phone calls to Sikh individuals and institutions. Some Indian stall-holders refused to serve Sikh customers. Anticipating trouble, some Sikhs closed their shops. Some Hindu temples and organisations made plans to hold condolence gatherings for the late Indian leader. As these gatherings would have exacerbated tensions, the police called up these community leaders to warn them not to proceed, and to remind them that events in India did not concern Singaporeans. “A few Muslim activists have also attempted subversive activities under the guise of conducting religious activities. In mid-1978, a university graduate formed a clandestine group of extremists called Ikhwan or Muslim

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Brotherhood, with the long-term aim of establishing an Islamic state, by armed means if necessary. The government arrested five leading Ikhwan members under the Internal Security Act. The remaining 16 members and their parents were summoned to ISD and warned. The Mufti was present and reminded them to adhere to the correct teachings of Islam.” The paper also set out proposals for legislation to maintain religious tolerance in Singapore and to establish a Presidential Council for Religious Harmony. On 15 January 1990, the Maintenance of Religious Harmony Bill was tabled in Parliament. Its essence was that the Minister may issue a restraining order against any person who causes feelings of enmity, hatred, illwill or hostility between different religious groups; who, while or under the guise of, propagating or practising any religious belief, carries out activities to promote a political cause, or a cause of any political party; carries out subversive activities; excites disaffection against the President or the government. The ministerial order shall restrain such a person from addressing any congregation, from printing, publishing, editing, distributing or contributing to any publication produced by any religious group; from holding office in an editorial board or a committee of publication of any religious group. Every order made by the Minister shall be referred to the Presidential Council for Religious Harmony that is provided under the Bill.

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All orders and decisions of the President and the Minister and recommendations of the Council shall be final and shall not be questioned by any court. On 23 February, the Bill was referred to a Select Committee. A total of 88 representations were received. Professor Jayakumar met five lawyers, including Sat Pal Khattar and Shriniwas Rai, talked about the Bill and asked for their opinions. VR strongly felt the Bill could be very useful in preventing religious strife. Conflicts around the world were on his mind, said Rai. He called Rai and asked whether he could put up a paper on his own in addition to the joint HEB and HAB submission that was going to be presented by Sat Pal Khattar, former chairman of HAB, VK Rajan, chairman of HEB and Gopinath Pillai, chairman of HAB. HAB submission highlighted the fears of the Hindu community. It said: “As a minority community and one whose underlying religious beliefs are liberal and broad-based we are of the view that the dangers of excessive and strong proselytization are real. The actual conversion of Hindus to other religions is an area of concern to us. The process and manner in which it may be attempted is of graver concern.” It also pointed out the pacifist nature of Hinduism: “The Hindu religion is very broad-based. In fact, we say that our religion has its weakness as its strength but it has not got a dogmatic religious militancy about it.”

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During the committee hearing, Chiam See Tong asked the question: “Are the Hindus over-sensitive because we have a multi-religious society? We see that a Hindu temple is built right in the heart of Chinatown and Hindu religious rites are carried out right in the Chinese community. So, there is this tolerance already. Why should the Hindus be so sensitive? One notice stuck at the entrance of a Hindu temple…?” Gopinath Pillai replied: “The Hindu religion lacks the evangelical fervour of some of the newer sects in other religions, and we find that we are unable to face the onslaught of very aggressive marketing done by these people. What we are afraid is, if this continues, our somewhat passive religion itself will react, as it has done in India. (The Hindu) becomes militant. … What I am saying is that even a passive religion can react under provocation. So what this Bill, from our point of view, does is to try and prevent that provocation.” Khattar said: “If bigger religious groups used aggressive methods to outdo one another and win the majority of votes, small groups would have nothing to offer and can therefore only lose.” He suggested that the Council should have a fair share of religious and lay people. He added: “The Council could initiate a recommendation to the Minister. Issues concerning religion should not be settled in Court. A court could not test beliefs in the chamber. The events that lead to an issue of a prohibitive order or a review of the

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order are not legal issues. They are issues of value judgment of facts and sensitivities. I don’t think these are matters for lawyers to decide. Rather than the court, I prefer the use of a prohibition order as it is a preventive measure. It is a lesser instrument than a detention order. It is better to keep religious issues out of courts.” Though there is an extensive arsenal of legal instruments such as the Penal Code, the Sedition Act, the Internal Security Act and the Defamation Act to deal with errant religious behavior, Rai preferred the consultative machinery the Bill was bringing in. He said: “… in the case of the Penal Code, you have to go to a judicial trial, the glare of publicity, the emotions that will be aroused. You have to have enough evidence and the defence counsel always has the right to challenge it. And if you go through the trial, I think in the context of religious harmony it will do more harm than good. As to the ISA, I would say that this is a more accommodating Bill. ISA does not have the mechanism that this Bill provides – a consultative machinery.” The Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act came into force on 31 March 1992. On 1 August 1992, the first Presidential Council for Religious Harmony was appointed. Former Chief Justice Wee Chong Jin was the chairman. VR was appointed a member. He remained a member till 2004. Proceedings of the Council are classified as official secrets.

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VR also served on other bodies like the Board of Film Censors and the Inter Racial and Religious Confidence Circles as representative of HEB.

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10 VR’s Legacy What VR lacked in terms of formal education, he made up by working harder than any of his colleagues. He took all the training courses the bank had to offer. He topped the class in a Dale Carnegie course. He learnt to speak a few new languages as an adult. He never ate lunch alone. He never turned down a social invitation from anyone, especially colleagues. He was never active in the employees’ union. He was loyal to his boss. Bosses trusted him. Promotions were bestowed on him. He specialized in organization and methods because he was asked to. He always believed bosses knew best. His job was to execute their orders to the best of his ability. While rising up the ranks in the bank, he never neglected his family responsibilities. He was known for his filial piety and he supported several relatives. His approach to life was the same in retirement. He remained the caring head of his family that he always was and a faithful friend to a number of people he had met. There was one friend he met while nearing retirement who was to become his boss/mentor for life 130

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– SR. That relationship more or less defined all the service he rendered to the temples he was associated with, his community and the nation. He was happy doing whatever he was asked to do. He perhaps did it more diligently and faithfully than anyone else might have. The first assignment that SR gave him was to clean up the accounts of HEB which he did. The next was the overall management of the four temples and some oversight of other Hindu temples. He did that too – in the same way he functioned at the bank. He made the four temples excellent service centres, with constant product and service innovation. Never mind that in the process the whole ambience of the temples changed from being – for more than a hundred years – quiet places of worship and contemplation for most days of the month for eleven and a half months of the year to one of gaiety and crowded celebrations almost every day of the year. One result was the temples could frequently be refurbished, renovated or rebuilt. The other result was that they all had surpluses by the end of the nineties so that SR could channel some of them to charities. In 2004 HEB donated $220,000 to SINDA. Between 2001 and 2008, non-HEB temples gave $170,000 to SINDA. Again, as someone who enjoyed friendships, it was natural that VR should build up such a close relationship with Lee Bock Guan and Abu Bakar Maidin. Their friendship resulted in a lot of common good, especially

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for the less well-off in all communities, as seen in the previous chapter. But he did not share one significant piece of information with them or his mentor – that he was quite unwell at the beginning of 2009, at the age of 78. Three days before Chinese New Year, he called Lee to tell him that he would not be able to attend the Buddhist Lodge’s Chinese New Year dinner in which he had been partaking every year since he met Lee. He was admitted to the General Hospital. Lee visited him there every day. As an organization and methods man, VR was well prepared to meet his end. He left no loose ends for his wife to struggle with. There was only one receivable that he had not collected, he told his wife for whom he was god, guide and confidante. It was a loan to a friend. He told her not to bother about it. Perhaps the only dream that he did not realize in the wonderful family life that he had was to have all his daughters and their families to live with him in the four-storey bungalow that he personally designed and built on a plot of land bought by him on the advice of Lee. But he was not bitter about it. He just accepted it as something every father had to come to terms with in modern times. At the hospital, everyone he would have wanted to see, including SR – the President of Singapore – visited him. All the council members of IRO held a prayer for him. When he died on 29 January 2009, Lee was

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vr’s legacy 

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the first to get there. Lee said in the interview, with his eyes tearing: “With his death I felt like one of my arms was cut off.” With glistening eyes, Maidin said: “VR was an icon of multi-racial co-operation.” By any measure, VR Nathan’s life was well-lived in the service of family, God and country.

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Appendix List of Properties under HEB’s Endowments Published in 1970.

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appendix 

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APPENDIX II PROPERTIES OF ENDOWMENT No. 1 - SHARED BETWEEN .M.i\RIAMMAN AND PERUMAL TEMPLES. Name of Tenant Occupying Property

V. L. Ramachandran Chettlar S. Mohamed Haneeffa & Co., K. S. Mohamed Haneelfa & Co., 0 . ]{. Mohamed Hanifa N. Hameed Mdm. Tan Ah Yee Yap Yam Sam P. Shanmugam P. Sanmugam Tan Seow Eng Choe Say Tee Gan Kee Fong Ong Tye Et P. Shammugam Pitri Binti Samsail\ Sim Ah Siang L. Nadesan Chop Teck Hin Mahani bte. Kamis R. Anthonisamy R. Anthonisamy Hassan bin Hj. Thamby Rippen b:n Hj. Osman Leong Ah Cheng Leong Ah Cheng S. Nagammal Yuan Ah Kuan & Boey Boon Kee Mok Kam Seng Tan Tiam Hua Pang Fee Son!{ A-n galammal Lim Tian Sepg

I{.

Lim Swee Liat Sim Sai Hong Lim Geok Boey Sim Geok Ngoh Tan Kee Pong Tan Choon Cheng See Toh Woon

Address of Property

Present Rent per month $ 40.00 $ 40.00 $ 40.00 s 40.00 s 35.00 $ . 35.00 $ 35.00 $ 40.00 $ 35.00 $ 40.00 $ 65.00 $ 30.00 $ 20.00 $ 20.00 $ 10.00 $ 10.00 $ 20.00 $ 20.00 $ 10.00 $ 15.00

2, Campbell Lane 4, Campbell Lane 6, Campbell Lane 8, Campbell Lane 10, Campbell Lane 12, Campbell Lane 14, Campbell Lane 16, Campb,ell Lane 18, Campbell Lane 20, Campbell Lane 22, Campbell Lane V/ Land Campbell Lane Land at Campbell Lane 19, Campbell Lane Land at Clive St. Land at Clive St. V.'l,and Campbell Lane V./Land Clive St. Hut at 14, Lor. 3, Geylang V/ L at 14, Lor. 3, Geylang Hut at 14, Lor. 3, Geylang Hut at 14, Lor. 3, Geylang Land at 14 Lor. 3, Geylang 16, Lor. 3, Geylang Land next to 16, Lor. 3 Geylang 14, Lor. 3, Geylang V/ Land at Lor. 3, Geylang Shed at Lor. 3, Geylang Land at old Hindu B/ Ground Land at Lor. 3, Geylang Rd. Land at 14, Lor. 3, Geylang V/ Land at Lower portion of old Hindu cemetery Lor. 3, Geylang 20, Lor. 3, Geylang V/ Land at old Hindu Cemetery Lor. 3, Geylang V. 'Land Campbell Lane V/ Land Campbell Lane V/ Land Campbell Lane Entrance 14, Lor. 3, Geylang ' Room immediately behind shop Clive St.

$ Hl.OO $ 7.00 $ 10.50 $10.50 $ 10.00 $ 50.00 $ 10.00 $130.00 $ 30.00 $ 31.25 $ 7.00

$ 20.00 $200.00 $100.00 $ 3.00 $ 7.00 $ 10.00 $ 5.00

·s 1o.oo

Source: S’pore Sri Mariamman Temple Souvenir, 1971.

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About the Authors Bala Baskaran is an independent writer whose current research projects include the Tamil Press in Singapore and Malaya (1875–1941) and the history of Indians in Singapore and Malaya. Before moving to TV Singapore thirty years ago to pursue an editorial career, he lectured at the Indian Studies Department of the University of Malaya. His pioneering book, The Malaysian Tamil Short Stories 1930–1980, was largely based on his Master’s thesis for UM. Said Abdullah has been a journalist with Singapore Press Holdings for more than three decades. In the first two of those decades, he was honorary secretary of the Inter-Religious Organisation. He has been honorary secretary of the Umar Pulavar Scholarship Fund since its inception in 1985. He has also served on the committees of the Singapore National Union of Journalists and mosques. Arun Senkuttuvan is a journalist and a former Research Fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. Publications he has worked for include Malayan Times, The Straits Times, Singapore Herald, Far Eastern Economic Review, The Economist, Financial Times, Asia Times and The Nation. Books he has edited include four on Hindu temples in Singapore. 136

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VR Nathan marries Kamalasarasu at Tiruvarur, Tamil Nadu, India, on 7 April 1958

VR and wife not long after her arrival in Singapore.

VR getting a copy of the book Lee Kuan Yew from Senior Minister Lee on 3 October 1997. (Source: Straits Times@Singapore Press Holdings Limited. Reprinted with permission.)

VR with Malaysian and other participants at the 18th International Banking Summer School at the University of Melbourne in February 1965. VR and wife with President SR Nathan, Gopinath Pillai, and Haji Abu Bakar Maidin (left) at Jamiyah’s Hari Raya Edil Fitri celebration on 12 January 2000. Autographed by President Nathan.

VR at his desk at the (Standard) Chartered Bank, Singapore

VR’s Dale Carnegie Course Certificate that he treasured.

VR with Gopinath Pillai at an Indian community function honouring SR Nathan on his election as President in January 2000

VR with Minister for Community Development Abdullah Tarmugi and Gopinath Pillai at a HEB’s lunch at Raffles Hotel, on 5 April 1998.

Venerable Master Chin Kung presents a cheque to VR at the Vesak Day Celebration at Little India on 23 May 2002. The donation was for disbursement to needy Indian students.

Master Lee Zhi-Wang, president of Taoist Mission, VR Nathan, Harbans Singh of Inter-Religious Organisation, Haji Abu Bakar Maidin, president of Jamiyah Singapore, Richard Eu, former president of Community Chest, and Lee Bock Guan, president of Buddhist Lodge, at a Hari Raya reception at Jamiyah on 15 December 2002. (Source: Berita Harian@ Singapore Press Holdings Limited. Reprinted with permission.)

VR, representing the Hindu Endowment Board, presents a cheque for $10,000 to Dr Tony Tan Kim Yam, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence, for the Tan Kah Kee Foundation at its 20th anniversary celebration and gala dinner at Mandarin Hotel on 8 September 2002

Letter of Appointment to the Presidential Council for Minority Rights issued on 15 September 2002

Singapore Buddhist Lodge Education Foundation Bursary award ceremony on 26 April 2003. Seated from left are Haji Abu Bakar Maidin, Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry and for Education Tharman Shanmugaratnam, VR and Harbans Singh. VR at the launch of Deepavali Light Up at Little India with President SR Nathan and Lee Bock Guan on 11 October 2002

VR congratulates Dr Yacob Ibrahim on his appointment as Minister for Community Development and in charge of Muslim Affairs at a function at Jamiyah Islam in 2003.

VR celebrates Lunar New Year at the Singapore Buddhist Lodge on 29 January 2005, with community leaders including (third from left) Zainal Abidin Rasheed, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, and Haji Abu Bakar Maidin

“The inseparable trio.” Haji Abu Bakar Maidin, VR and Lee Bock Guan, at a Jamiyah high-tea function.

VR receives a momento from Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on 29 January 2005

VR and Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong at a function on 2 April 2005, where the Indian community paid tribute to Senior Minister.

VR and wife celebrate their golden wedding anniversary with family in 2008.

Kalamasarasu Nathan receiving from President SR Nathan the posthumous award for VR at the Istana Investiture of the 2009 National Day Awards.