SINGAPORE: Artefacts and paintings documenting the unique history and culture of the Chetti Melakan community, a small and lesser-known Indian-origin group of people found mainly in Singapore and Malaysia, were showcased here in an exhibition epitomizing the spirit of multiculturalism.
The ancestors of the Chettis, who practice mainly Hinduism, were Tamil traders who migrated to Malaysia and settled in Melaka in the 15th and 16th centuries and married local women of Malay and Chinese descent. Many of them also made Singapore their home over the years, renowned Singaporean film director K Rajagopal said.
A documentary, ‘Who are the Chetti Melaka? In search of the Lost’, directed by Rajagopal, was also screened at the exhibition titled ‘Chetti Melaka of thin e Straits: Rediscovering Peranakan Indian Communities’, which began here Thursday.
The exhibition, organized by the Indian Heritage Centre (IHC) in Singapore, will run till May 5 next year. “The story of the Chetti Melaka is captivating and is a wonderful demonstration of how different cultures have been absorbed, adapted and mixed together to create something new and special,” IHC General Manager Saravanan Sadanandom said.
The IHC has put together about 175 artifacts, including jewellery and everyday household items, and photographs in collaboration with the Peranakan Indian (Chetti Melaka) Association in Singapore. “The photographs, documents, clothes, jewellery, cooking implements and other accessories…retraces the journey of early South Indian traders from the Coromandel Coast,” the IHC said in a press statement.
“As the only community that combines the Indian, Chinese and Malay cultures into something ‘uniquely Chetti’, it is important for us that this legacy is safeguarded and passed on to future generations,” Ponno Kalastree, president of the Singapore Peranakan Indian association, said.
Today, a small population of 5,000 Chetti Melakans lives in Singapore and only 20 families are in Malaysia. Some of the community members have migrated to Australia and Canada.
The community built the first Hindu temple in Malay Archipelago in 1781. The Sri Poyatha Venayagar Moorthi temple is dedicated to Venayagar or Ganesha. Unlike Melaka, which is home to the Chettis, Singapore does not have a tangible place associated with the community. In Singapore, some of their homes are located in Chitty Road in Little India. PTI
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