Indians had become Singapore's second largest community…

Indians had become Singapore's second largest community by 1860, numbering more than eleven thousand.

Some of these people are laborers or traders, who, like the Chinese, have come with the hope of making their fortune and returning to their homeland.

Some are troops garrisoned at Singapore by the government in Calcutta.

Another group are convicts who were first brought to Singapore from the detention center in Bencoolen in 1825, after Bencoolen was handed over to the Dutch.

Singapore then became a major detention center for Indian prisoners.

Rehabilitation rather than punishment is emphasized, and prisoners are trained in such skills as brick making, carpentry, rope making, printing, weaving, and tailoring, which later will enable them to find employment.

Singapore's penal system is considered so enlightened that Dutch, Siamese, and Japanese prison administrators come to observe it.

Convict labor is used to build roads, clear the jungle, hunt tigers, and construct public buildings, some of which will still be in use in the late twentieth century.

After completing their sentences, most convicts settle down to a useful life in Singapore.

As with Chinese and Europeans, Indian men far outnumber women because few Indian women come to Singapore before the 1860s.

Some Indian Muslims marry Malay women, however, and their descendants will become known as Jawi-Peranakan.