The coming of the British to Singapore and the subsequent establishment of British rule saw the rise of secret societies in this small colony. Whilst known as "secret" societies, paradoxically they often worked in the open, and even played essential and functional roles within society, with state knowledge or tacit cooperation.
Secret societies have a significant role in colonial Singapore society. They were a source of support for a significant portion of society, and this was possible due to their political, economic as well as social influence. Straddling both legitimate and illegitimate businesses which involved employment of large amounts of labour as well as various clientele, and involvement with authorities who gained from the economic as well as societal influence the secret societies wielded, ensured their continued influence throughout long extended periods during the colonial period.
Survival and flourishing of secret societies depended upon how they managed their place in society, and more importantly, negotiations with the state authorities and their relevance over time. These would be what led to rise of the secret societies, their extended period of dominance, as well as their eventual decline (but not disappearance), in colonial Singapore.
Background
There are varying definitions as to what being a secret society constitutes. Most secret societies in general would have the following features of 1) claims to exclusivity, 2) their own special secrets and 3) the inclination to prioritize fellow members. Secret societies despite the naming "secret" are not in the sense organisations that are unknown to the public, but it is more of its members and many of the activities in which they carry out that tend to secretive rather than their existence.
Secret societies have existed well before the coming of the British, but it was with the mass immigration from the colonial era onwards that saw a significant rise of secret societies, largely due to the importation of large populations of labour as the colony's economy developed. The exponential growth in the ethnic Chinese population would be a key reason for the rise of the secret societies throughout most of the colonial period.
Secret societies in colonial Singapore played multi-faceted roles and were involved in a whole range of activities. This could be from prostitution to the managing of opium dens, to the sourcing for coolies from Southern China as well as simultaneously managing lucrative legitimate businesses like pepper and gambier farming.
Secret societies in colonial Singapore
The earliest known written records are by Munshi Abdullah, in his work Hikayat Abdullah, where it mentions of his visit to the Ghee Hin initiation ceremony in 1824, and how when enquiring about its membership, was given an estimate of about 8000 members.
While the numbers were likely to have been exaggerated, the idea of the existence of secret societies forming and growing to such a sizeable extent only after the British presence in 1819 is unlikely, and their roots probably existed in smaller and varied forms prior.
Dominance of ethnic Chinese secret societies
Due to ethnic composition, with the increasingly huge ethnic Chinese immigration population vis-à-vis the rest of the local population, the dominant narrative on secret societies in colonial Singapore has been centred upon ethnic Chinese secret societies.
However, this is not to say there were no multi-ethnic secret societies or those of other ethnic groups. Notable ethnic Indian secret societies have been known to exist, and it was also not unknown for ethnic Chinese secret societies to incorporate members of other ethnicities. It may thus be more of the size and scale of the ethnic Chinese secret societies that result in the non-ethnic Chinese ones being overshadowed, as well as a need for more research to be done.
At the same time, it is important to note Chinese secret societies themselves were far from homogeneous. In fact, the collective term "Chinese" used to describe them would make little sense at this period. This is due to what is today known as the People's Republic of China (PRC) itself going through a period of transition from an ailing imperial dynasty to a long transition of defining its identity and nationhood. The Chinese migrants in varying periods of the colonial era themselves had varying definitions of how they saw themselves, of which a collective term of being "Chinese" as an overall marker held little sway.