Title Hidden hands and divided landscapes : a penal history of Singapore's plural society / Anoma Pieris

Published Honolulu : University of Hawaii Press, ©2009

Click on the following:
JSTOR eBooks

Copies

Description 1 online resource (xii, 354 pages) : illustrations, maps Series Writing past colonialism Writing past colonialism series. Contents Introduction -- Divided landscapes -- The colonial prison -- Hidden hands -- The perils of association -- The battle for the city -- The citadel -- Conclusion Summary During the nineteenth century, the colonial Straits Settlements of Singapore, Penang, and Melaka were established as free ports of British trade in Southeast Asia and proved attractive to large numbers of regional migrants. Following the abolishment of slavery in 1833, the Straits government transported convicts from the East India Company's Indian presidencies to the settlements as a source of inexpensive labor. The prison became the primary experimental site for the colonial plural society and convicts were graduated by race and the labor needed for urban construction. Hidden Hands and Divided Landscapes investigates how a political system aimed at managing ethnic communities in the larger material context of the colonial urban project was first imagined and tested through the physical segregation of the colonial prison. It relates the story of a city, Singapore, and a contemporary city-state whose plural society has its origins in these historical divisions. A description of the evolution of the ideal plan for a plural city across the three settlements is followed by a detailed look at Singapore's colonial prison. Chapters trace the prison's development and its dissolution across the urban landscape through the penal labor system. The author demonstrates the way in which racial politics were inscribed spatially in the division of penal facilities and how the map of the city was reconfigured through convict labor. Later chapters describe penal resistance first through intimate stories of penal life and then through a discussion of organized resistance in festival riots. Eventually, the plural city ideal collapsed into the hegemonic urban form of the citadel, where a quite different military vision of the city became evident. Hidden Hands and Divided Landscapes is a fascinating and thoroughly original study in urban history and the making of multiethnic society in Singapore. It will compel readers to rethink the ways in which colonial urban history, postcolonial urbanism, and governance have been theorized by scholars and represented by governments Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 321-342) and index Notes Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL In English digitized 2010 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve pda MiAaHDL Print version record Subject Prisoners -- Singapore -- History Convict labor -- Singapore -- History Prisons -- Singapore -- History SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Penology. HISTORY -- Asia -- China. Convict labor Prisoners Prisons Minderheit Zwangsarbeit Strafgefangener Gefängnis colonie pénitentiaire -- société pluraliste -- Singapour -- 19e s. (milieu) colonie -- prison -- Grande-Bretagne -- Singapour -- 19e s. (milieu) Singapore Singapur Inder. Genre/Form History Form Electronic book ISBN 9781441620217 1441620214 9780824862831 082486283X 9780824870157 0824870158

  Permalink