Collective Memory From Immigrants
According to Maurice Halbwachs, a french philosopher and sociologist, Collective memory is the “living memory” of one’s social group. (Halbwachs, 1950) The concept of collective memory becomes an important tool when trying to understand how groups could form an identity among themselves and their interaction with people. (Saint Laurent, p140) Collective memory is said to be “embodied in objectivations that store meanings". (Heller, p1) It could be in forms of texts, memorabilia, monuments, festivals and ceremonies.
In Singapore’s context, collective memory is important especially when it is a multi-racial country. In the 2017 heritage plan for Singapore, it was mentioned that “heritage is an integral part of national identity”. Contribution of individual’s memory of their racial group is important and encouraged so as to preserve its uniqueness. (ST) The rise in immigration of merchants and labourers in Singapore in the 19th to mid 20th century creates a reason for safekeeping individual’s personal memory for stronger identification of racial groups in the future. This paper will specifically look into one of the three major ethnic groups which is the Indian Community that contributes to the identity of Singapore. Despite being the third largest ethnic group, it is said that certain Indian traditions and culture are no longer as much practised now compared to the time when the Indian immigrants just settled in Singapore. (Gopal, p6)
One reason in particular could be the lack of family members of the Indian community not contributing their family’s history to the society. As mentioned by Saint Laurent, “Cultural memory is identity constructing and identitymaintaining. ” (p139) There is a need for identity maintenance especially in the Indian community where there is diversity. This paper hopes to address the role of collective memory in the Indian community and how objects of memory from the community could further enhance their identity in Singapore.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVE
In various studies, it was proven that in collective memory, there is a tandem of remembering and forgetting. Social amnesia in a country is a way to eliminate certain elements in a historical narrative so as to prevent threat to national cohesion and self-image. (Misztal, p386) Thus, this paper seeks to understand if the method of inclusion and omission of memory objects do exist in Singapore, a multi-racial country and how it had affected Indian community’s culture. A case study from the research of “Encounters with the Public Archives & Collective Memory: Researching the Indian Community in Singapore” amplifies the importance of archiving family records to aid in the evidence of early Indian immigrants to Singapore. One reason in particular was how colonials could not produce reports on the immigration of the Chettiars who were among the earliest groups from Indian subcontinent to settle in Singapore.
However through an oral interview from Mr. Subbiah who narrated his journal from his village in Chettinad to Singapore and additional personal photographs collected by his family, much information of the Chettiars history was secured. Joined by the informations collected from the movement of the Chettiars from India, the memories from the Indian Festival of Thaipusam by the Chettiar communities in Singapore and Malaysia and etc, their collective cultural identity remains rooted in their history and thus is able to be passed down through generations. Therefore this paper aims to help provide knowledge and to develop surviving Indian family members with rich history, to be an active community that would take greater shared ownership of their heritage. It is important to highlight the practice of collective memory in the Indian community to foster a sense of belonging and identity. Additionally, in-depth analysis would contribute to the knowledge of understanding the Indian heritage development in Singapore.
SUMMARY OF READINGS
Collective Memory and Cultural Identity
The first reading will provide knowledge and understanding to the basis of Collective Memory and the existence of objectivized culture that is essential in social groups. The term “Collective Memory” was first coined by sociologist Maurice Halbwachs. Collective memory is introduced as a way for humans to maintain their nature throughout generations for means of survival in species. Halbwachs suggested that there are several varieties of collective memory and the two most common ones are Cultural memory and Communicative memory.
Cultural memory was suggested as a collective concept and solution for every knowledge that shows behaviour and experience in the interactive framework of a society. Furthermore, getting these knowledge through generations in continuous societal practice and initiation. (p126) A form of communicative memory is through oral history. Everyday communication between people becomes a form of oral history and through these communication, individuals form a memory. Every individual belongs to different types of groups be it families, neighbourhood or nations. The author later contradicts the assumption of Halbwachs who thought that once living communication transition into forms of objectivized culture like texts, images, rites, buildings, monuments, cities or even landscapes, the group relationship and the comptemporary reference would be lost and the term of “Collective Memory” will cease to exist.
According to Halbwachs, memory would then become history. The author in this reading, however, thinks otherwise to this assumption. She believes that objectivized culture could be referred to as the “concretion of identity” that allows the group to reproduce its identity. Objectivized culture is seen as having the structure of memory. (pg 128) To support her contradiction to Halbwachs, the author brought in Warburg, a historian and cultural theorist who believes objectivized culture like posters, postage stamps and etc, are a type of “mnemonic energy” and that cultural objectivation can stabilise cultural memory for thousands of years. (p129) She concluded that through the past and values of a heritage, it’s identification will emerge and tells about the constitution and tendencies of a society. (p133)
