The Forgotten Sentinels: The Sepoys of Malaya, Singapore & South-East Asia (The Founding Years: 18th to Early 20th Centuries)

This is a historical narrative about the hundreds of thousands of professional soldiers hailing from the Indian Subcontinent - called ‘sepoys’ - who served in the armies of the old English East India Company for generations in the East Indies (including the Malay peninsula and Singapore island), between the 18th and early 20th centuries. It begins by tracing the source of the sepoy tradition, and how it evolved in India when the French and English began competing for influence in the 17th century. The narrative then follows the sepoys on their first deployments in Southeast Asia, and documents in detail their role in the founding of key British stations such as Bencoolen, Penang and Singapore.



Besides describing their role as garrison troops of the Company’s territories, the book also highlights the intimate part they played in the evolutionary history of the region from a socio-cultural perspective. For every time the sepoys arrived at a new station, they also brought along a large retinue of quasi-civilian hangers-on who helped lay the foundations of the Indian communities that now thrive in both modern Malaysia and Singapore. Sepoys also provided the initial manpower for the first urban projects – such as clearing the hinterlands and constructing the territories defences. Besides standing guard at important facilities they also accompanied convicts on work details – thus ensuring the steady development of new infrastructure, while at the same time securing the safety of existing ones.



The book also delves into the absolutely vital role that they played in maintaining public order and social stability, within the rapidly growing multi-racial and multi-religious populations of the newly established Straits Settlements. In the absence of any viable police force, they kept the peace during the watershed years of the 1850s to the 1870s, when gang wars and riots threatened to turn the urban townships of the region into quagmires of lawless chaos. Assuming the unfamiliar role of paramilitary police, the sepoys, in many instances, stood literally as the last line of defence for the very concept of public order on the streets.



Mention is made of all major regional operations that involved significant numbers of sepoys, such as the Java Campaign (1811), Naning War (1831-32), and the Perak War (1875-76). The book ends its narrative on the eve of the First World War, at a time when the presence of sepoy regiments as garrison forces had become a well established component within the strategic military framework of the region.