convict labour During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the use of convicts represented one response to the general shortage of labour in the emergent trading outposts of the British Empire, including Singapore. Most convicts sent to Singapore were Indians, although a small number of Chinese prisoners was also transported from Hong Kong. The first Indian convicts arrived in April 1825, being transferred to Singapore from Bencoolen, which had been ceded to the Dutch after the signing of the Anglo- Dutch Treaty. Records show that there were as many as 2,275 Indian convicts in Singapore by 1860. These convicts built roads, bridges and public buildings such as Government House (later the Istana); churches such as St Andrew’s Cathedral; and Hindu temples including the Sri Mariamman Temple. Indeed, it has been argued that Indian convicts laid the foundation for Singapore’s infrastructure.

The story of these convicts is vividly told in a book by colonial engineer J.F.A. McNair, entitled Prisoners Their Own Warders (1899).

Disorderly behaviour amongst the convicts brought about numerous complaints to the authorities, and by 1845 the government of the Straits Settlements was beginning to have misgivings. When the Indian government began transporting to Singapore people who had taken part in the Indian Mutiny of 1856, there was an outcry. Newspapers on the island took up the matter and lodged several petitions opposed to transportation, as there was a fear amongst sections of colonial society that the mutiny of 1856 would be repeated in Singapore. The Grand Jury also made a number of representations on the ‘inconvenience and danger of having such a large number of convicts staying in the heart of the town’, and asked that a stop be put to transportation. This marked a major change from 1836, when the Indian government had contemplated removing convicts from the Straits Settlements— at that time, the governor had not only protested against this plan, but had asked for more convicts to be sent.

In 1860, the Supreme Government of India resolved that no more convicts would be sent to the Straits Settlements. The last group was shipped out on 8 May 1873. The last major project carried out by Indian convicts was Cavenagh Bridge. In that year, construction work fell under the jurisdiction of the Public Works Department. Most of the Indian convicts in Singapore were then transferred to Port Blair in the Andaman Islands (although some settled permanently in Singapore after serving out their sentences).

Photo credit: National Museum of Singapore