Ceylon Tamils’ role in making Singapore a First World country 

By P.K.Balachandran/Sunday Observer

Colombo, August 24, 2025 – When Singapore got independence from Britain in 1965, it was but a large slum without assured running water or electricity for many of its people. But today, the once quintessential Third World country is happily ensconced in the charmed circle of the First World.

Singapore’s founding fathers Lee KuanYew, Goh Keng Swee and S. Rajaratnam

Singapore is now one of the richest countries with the world’s highest GDP growth. In 2024, its GDP, per capita, was US$ 90,674. In just half a century, “The Little Red Dot” went from rags to riches from high levels of unemployment and illiteracy to a thriving nation with excellent education, one of the highest life expectancies of 83 years, and the most powerful passport globally.

The secrets of its success lay in basically three factors – its openness to foreign talent, meritocracy, and the wise if iron-fisted leadership of Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. But Lee Kuan Yew was not alone in the monumental task of building Singapore. He had a team which, over the years, included people of every community in Singapore – Chinese, Malays, Indians and Ceylon Tamils (particularly Jaffna Tamils).

Lee Kwan Yew had openly said that he depended on Jaffna Tamils as a resource to build up Singapore. This tiny community is still a critical element in the City State’s continuous growth story.

Ceylon Tamils’ contribution to politics, administration, law, and other fields is legion. On top of them was S. Rajaratnam (1915–2006), acknowledged as a “founding father of modern Singapore”.  Rajaratnam was the first Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. He co-founded the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP), wrote Singapore’s National Pledge, was instrumental in shaping the nation’s foreign policy and was responsible for ASEAN’s formation.

In later years, when he was suffering from Alzheimer’s, Lee Kwan Yew visited him at his home and was, uncharacteristically, in tears.

J.Y.M. Pillay (b. 1934), described by Lee Kuan Yew as his “most efficient public servant”, played multiple key roles simultaneously, including Chairman of Singapore Airlines (SIA), Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance and Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). Lee Kuan Yew referred to him as his most efficient and outstanding public servant. He is now in the Presidential Council of Advisors.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam (b. 1957) is Singapore’s President since 2023. Previously he served as Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister. His economic leadership and global influence, including his education at LSE, Cambridge, and Harvard, have significantly shaped Singapore’s financial and social policies.

S. Shan Ratnam (1928–2001) a pioneering doctor in obstetrics and gynaecology, had performed Asia’s first sex-change operation in 1971. His medical contributions elevated Singapore’s healthcare reputation internationally. Justice A.P. Rajah (died in the mid-1980s) was one of four Ceylon Tamil Supreme Court judges until the mid-1980s. He had also served as Speaker of Parliament contributing to Singapore’s judicial and diplomatic stature.

Vivian Balakrishnan, an ophthalmologist, has been Minister for Foreign Affairs since 2015. Indranee Thurai Rajah has been Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office and Second Minister for Finance since 2018, and Second Minister for National Development and Leader of the House since 2020. Both are part Chinese though.

J B Jayartanam, the first opposition MP in parliament, was a thorn in the side of the government. When he died the Economist wrote a special obituary praising his courage and steadfastness to his principles.

Four Supreme Court judges till the-mid 1980s were Ceylon Tamils – Justice Sinnadurai, Justice AP Rajah, Justice Punch Coomaraswamy (also later the Speaker of Parliament ), and Justice Kulendran. Many excelled in Commercial law like Sharmila Gunasingham and Kayal Viswalingam.

In medicine, a quartet of medical professionals paved the way to Singapore becoming a medical hub in Asia. Professor S.S Ratnam, who pioneered in–vitro- fertilization, Professor Jeyaraj Jeyaratnam, who did the seminal research work on the link between using pesticides and human health and was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Medal by the World Occupational Health Association, the only individual to be thus honoured so far.

Professor Arul Kumar Sabaratnam, was Professor of Gynaecology at Birmingham University and was elected as the President of the Royal Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the President of the British Medical Association and the President of International Society of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. He was knighted by the Queen recently. Dr. Puvenendran was for many years the head of Neurology at the Singapore General Hospital, which he made a centre of excellence not only for Singapore but for the region. He also set up the Sleep Disorder Clinic.

Vijayratnam, who designed the layout of Changi Airport, captained the Singapore hockey team at the Melbourne Olympics in 1956. Dr. Jegathesan won gold medals for Singapore in the 100 metres, 200 meters and 100X4 relay in the Asian games in 1962 in Jakarta. He is an internationally recognized expert on sports medicine, especially doping.

Early Years

In her monograh “Scotsmen of the East – Ceylon Tamils of Singapore” Hema Kiruppalanisays thatJaffna Tamils came to Malaya and Singapore in the 19 th., and 20 th., Centuries. The first “Tamil” on record to have arrived in Singapore was Naraina Pillai (also known as Narayana Pillay), a government clerk from Penang. Pillai came to Singapore with Sir Stamford Raffles during the latter’s second visit to the island in May 1819. Btu it is not clear if he was from Tamil Nadu or Jaffna. However, an entrepreneur at heart, Pillai decided to settle in Singapore and started several businesses, including the island’s first brick kiln.

Over the years the Ceylon Tamils of Singapore prospered because of their native intelligence, hard work, professional ethic and an excellent education system set up by American missionaries back  home in Jaffna. The American schools were very popular with Hindus as well as Christians because they emphasised not just the English Language but also mathematics.

Historian Sinnappah. Arasaratnam (“Indians of Malaysia and Singapore”) traces the origin of Jaffna’s education system to the Jaffna Kings who were great patrons of literature. From an early date, education spread among the people. Temple schools and improvised classes on the outer verandahs of village schoolmasters’ houses spread basic education in the rural areas.

Towards the end of the 15th century, an academy of Tamil literature that was founded at Nallur by the King, collected and preserved ancient Tamil works in manuscript form. The study of medicine (Ayurveda o Siddha) and astrology attained high standards in Jaffna. 

The missionary movement in America led to the formation of the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions (ABCFM) in 1810. The ABCFM started a mission in Jaffna in 1816. The Uduvil Girls School, one of the oldest all-girls schools in Asia, was established in 1824. By 1830, the ABCFM had established 93 schools in Jaffna besides three boarding schools. Arasaratnam contends that the system of school education in Ceylon was similar to that in existence in England.

Hindus also felt the need to modernise their institutions in order to resist the inroads of Christianity. Thus, alongside Christian mission schools, there was growth of Hindu schools providing modern education, inspired by Arumuga Navalar. Not surprisingly the very first graduate of Madras University (set up in 1857) was a Jaffna Tamil, C.W. Thamotharampillai. He is known for editing and publishing some of the oldest works of classical Tamil poetry and grammar.

There was growth in the population of Jaffna during the 19th century thanks to the American Ceylon Mission (ACM) that provided medical facilities. The Manipay Hospital and the MacLeod Hospital for women and children, established in 1848 and 1898 respectively were landmarks in the improvement of health. Population growth coupled with education created a need for migration among the middle classes of Jaffna.

Because Ceylon, Malaya and Singapore were British Crown Colonies, migration was easy. Educated Jaffna Tamils migrated to fill lower governmental positions such as clerks and station masters. In the 1930s one could travel by train from Singapore to the Thailand border and every station master enroute would be a Jaffna Tamil, says Ajit Kanagasundram, author of “A Tale of two countries- Sri Lanka and Singapore”.

The Ceylon Tamils’ gravitation towards employment in white-collar, public service jobs made their history contrast with migrants from South India. The Ceylon Tamils saw themselves as a separate group as did the Indian Tamils.

To press home the point, an editorial written by a Ceylon Tamil during the Select Committee session on representation in the Councils of the Straits Settlements and the Federated Malay States quoted Rudyard Kipling with a twist – “India is India, and Ceylon is Ceylon; and never the twain shall meet. Bear in mind the fact that Hindustan and Lanka are two different entities politically, geographically and partly socially, before howling for any Indo-Ceylonese unity. No such thing is needed.”

During the Japanese Occupation of Singapore (1942–1945) the gulf between the Indian Tamils and Ceylon Tamils widened. Subhas Chandra Bose of the anti-British Indian National Army (INA) appealed to the Ceylon Tamils to join the INA or support it. But the Ceylon Tamils declined saying that they were Ceylon Tamils and not Indian Tamils and that had no quarrel with the British (having benefitted from their rule in Ceylon, Malaya and Singapore).

Following Singapore’s independence in 1965, the People’s Action Party (PAP)’s national ideology of multiracialism and meritocracy had consequences for the social dynamics in the Ceylon Tamil  community. A Singaporean national identity emerged.  

But this period coincided with the civil war that was intensifying in Sri Lanka, as mounting ethnic tensions between the Sinhalese and Tamils began to unfold. A rethinking on the Ceylon Tamil identity in Singapore emerged. There was a bid to identify with Tamil Nadu and India.

How the rest of Singapore saw the Ceylon Tamils also mattered. To quote Tharman Shanmugaratnam – “My casual impression is that they (Ceylon Tamils) regard themselves increasingly as people from the Indian subcontinent. Their fathers and mothers would be very insistent on classifying their children under the ‘Others’ category in Singapore…We were ‘Others’. In fact, my Identity Card says ‘Others’. But if you ask the kids themselves, especially if they haven’t studied their Identity Card, what their race or ethnicity is, they would probably say ‘Indian’ because that is the way they are looked at by others”.

However researcher Hema Kiruppalani’s survey found that the younger generation of Ceylon Tamils prefers to identify the community as “Singaporean-Ceylonese”. None chose the option “Singaporean-Sri Lankan” or “Tamil”.

Throughout the survey, Tamil language was not cited as a means through which Ceylon Tamil values and culture could be sustained. In other words, being able to speak Tamil was not perceived as critical to retaining a cultural connection to Jaffna.

“Being Ceylonese to me is embedded in the small things. For instance, the different Tamil words that we use (eg. saying Om instead of amaam for the word ‘yes’). It’s also in the cuisine—like our highly famed appam (hoppers) and wearing of the bridal veil during Hindu weddings,” an informer said.

And as Kiruppalani observed, despite their perfunctory connections to Sri Lanka, the hyphenated appellation— ’Singaporean-Ceylonese’— signified the enduring grip of a colonial identity among Ceylon Tamils in Singapore.

The Ceylon Tamils’ identity is not only complex but has been changing over the years depending on their interest at any given point of time. But what has been constant is their commitment to the values of identified with the State of Singapore.

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Ceylon Tamils’ role in making Singapore a First World country