1 Bayly, Christopher and Harper, Timothy, Forgotten wars: The end of Britain's Asian empire (London: Allen Lane, 2007), p. 100Google Scholar.

2 Ibid.

3 Daniel Goh, P.S. and Holden, Philip, ‘Introduction: Postcoloniality, race and multiculturalism’, in Race and multiculturalism in Malaysia and Singapore, ed. Goh, Daniel P.S., Khoo, Gaik Cheng, Gabrielpillai, Matilda and Holden, Philip (New York: Routledge, 2009), pp. 1–14CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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9 McKeown, Adam, Melancholy order: Asian migration and the globalization of borders (New York: Columbia University Press, 2008), p. 210Google Scholar.

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11 The Proclamation announced the sovereignty of the British Crown over India and stated that ‘all shall alike enjoy the equal and impartial protection of the Law … it is our further Will that, so far as may be Our Subjects, of whatever Race or Creed; be freely and impartially admitted to Offices in Our Service, the Duties of which they may be qualified, by their education, ability and integrity, duly to observe’. Cited in ibid., p. 22.

12 Ibid.

13 Daniel Gorman, Imperial citizenship, p. 19.

14 Ibid., p. 18.

15 Chua, ‘Imperial subjects’, p. 28.

16 See, for instance, the writings of historians Anthony Stockwell and Nicholas Tarling.

17 Charles Taylor defines ‘social imaginary’ as ‘the ways people imagine their social existence, how they fit together with others, how things go on between them and their fellows, the expectations that are normally met, and the deeper normative notions and images that underlie these expectations’ (p. 23). Taylor's ‘social imaginary’ bears similarity to what anthropologists call ‘folk knowledge’. Such knowledge tends to be taken for granted and concretised in everyday practices or commonplace stories and myths shared collectively by large numbers of people in a given society. Taylor, Charles, Modern social imaginaries (Durham: Duke University Press, 2004)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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19 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Straits Settlements (PLCSS), 25 Oct. 1933 (Singapore: Government Printers), col. B161.

20 Ibid., col. B162.

21 Ibid., col. B163.

22 Cited in Chua Ai Lin, ‘Negotiating national identity: The English-speaking domiciled communities in Singapore, 1930–1941’, M.A. thesis, National University of Singapore, 2001, p. 105.

23 MT, 4 Feb. 1937.

24 Singapore Medical College Union Magazine, 7 Mar. 1938, pp. 2–3.

25 PLCSS, 26 Oct. 1936, col. B82.

26 Within the Malay-Muslim community in Malaya, however, Captain Hashim's position on the university issue proved controversial and made him vulnerable to criticism, including accusations of being ‘un-Malay’. There was also a segment of Malay-Muslim opinion that was not opposed to a university, but wanted an Islamic university. The captain's role as a leading spokesman for an English-medium university in Malaya and the complex debates on the university issue within the Malay-Muslim community form an important subtext which merits a separate in-depth discussion.

27 The Singapore Mutiny referred to a rebellion against British authority mounted by Indian troops then stationed in Singapore while the Toh Janggut Rebellion was a peasant revolt which took place in Kelantan. These challenges to British authority took place in 1915.

28 Notes on the now obscure Captain Hashim are compiled from a variety of sources including PLCSS, 24 Aug. 1936, col. B36; Straits Times (ST), 6 Apr. 1916; ST, 26 Apr. 1919; ST, 23 Apr. 1930; ST, 7 Mar. 1936 and Who's who in Malaya, 1939: A biographical record of prominent members of Malaya's community in official, professional and commercial circles (Singapore: Compiled and published by Fishers in conjunction with Printers, 1939)Google Scholar.

29 MT, 27 Oct. 1936.

30 PLCSS, 26 Oct. 1936, col. B90.

31 MT, 28 Oct. 1936.

32 All quotes from Thomas's speech cited in this and the following paragraphs are from MT, 16 Nov. 1936.

33 MT, 21 Nov. 1936. The foundation of Raffles College was a key recommendation of the committee.

34 MT, 11 Jan. 1937.

35 Ibid.

36 Ibid.

37 MT, 13 Jan. 1937.

38 MT, 4 Feb. 1937.

39 MT, 13 Jan. 1937.

40 MT, 4 Feb. 1937.

41 See Stockwell, Anthony, ‘“Crucible of the Malayan nation”: The University of Malaya and the making of a new Malaya, 1938–1962’, Modern Asian Studies, 43, 5 (2009): 1149–87CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

42 PLCSS, 14 June 1937, col. B54.

43 PLCSS, 25 Oct. 1937, col. B86.

44 Hodge, Joseph Morgan, Triumph of the expert: Agrarian doctrines of development and the legacies of British colonialism (Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2007), p. 7CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

45 Ibid.

46 Ibid., p. 9.

47 Anthony Stockwell, ‘Crucible of the Malayan nation’, p. 1157.

48 Report of the Commission on University Education in Malaya (Kuala Lumpur: Government Press, 1948), p. 7Google Scholar.

49 Ibid.

50 Ibid, p. 10.

51 Cited in Stockwell, ‘Crucible of the Malayan nation’, p. 1168.

52 ‘Malaya's long-term policy directives: Educational policy’, Colonial Office (CO) 273/676/5087, The National Archives (TNA).

53 Ibid.

54 Ibid., p. 2; Annual report of the Department of Education 1947 (Singapore: Government Printing Office, 1948)Google Scholar.

55 Educational policy in the colony of Singapore: Ten Years' Programme adopted in Advisory Council on 7th August, 1947 (Singapore: Government Printing Office, 1947), p. 2Google Scholar.

56 Whitehead, Clive, ‘The medium of instruction in British Colonial Education: A case of cultural imperialism or enlightened paternalism’, History of Education, 24, 1 (1995): 2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

57 Educational Policy in the Colony of Singapore, p. 23.

58 See PuruShotam, Nirmala, Negotiating multiculturalism, disciplining race in Singapore (Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 2000)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

59 Educational policy in the colony of Singapore, p. 7.

60 Ibid.

61 Ibid., p. 2.

62 Ibid., p. 30.

63 Ibid.

64 Gopinathan, Saravanan, Towards a national system of education in Singapore, 1945–1973 (Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1974)Google Scholar.

65 Cheeseman, H.R., ‘Malaya: Post-war policy in education’, in The Year book of education 1949 (London: Evans Brothers with the University of London Institute of Education), p. 549Google Scholar.

66 Ibid.

67 ‘Comments on the draft long term policy directive on education’, CO273/676/50827, TNA.

68 Ibid.

69 ‘Malaya long-term policy directives: Educational policy’, CO 273/676/5087, TNA.

70 Ibid.

71 ‘Education policy in 1950 and 1951’, CO 953/9/5, TNA.

72 Annual report of Department of Education 1949 (Singapore: Government Printing Office, 1950)Google Scholarand Annual report of Department of Education 1951 (Singapore: Government Printing Office, 1952)Google Scholar.

73 Lysa, Hong, ‘Politics of the immigrant Chinese communities in Singapore in the 1950s: Narratives of belonging in the time of Emergency’, in The May 13 generation: The Chinese middle schools student movement and Singapore politics in the 1950s, ed. Quee, Tan Jing, Chiang, Tan Kok and Lysa, Hong (Petaling Jaya: Strategic Information and Research Development Centre, 2011), pp. 8–27Google Scholar.

74 ‘Education policy in 1950 and 1951’, CO 953/9/5, TNA.

75 Annual report of Department of Education 1949, p. 49.

76 Ibid.

77 ‘Education policy in 1950 and 1951’, CO 953/9/5, TNA.

78 Gimson to Griffiths, 1 Aug. 1950, CO 953/9/5, TNA.

79 Ibid.

80 ‘Straits Budget’, 18 May 1950, CO 953/9/5, TNA.

81 ‘Press release: Secretary of State opens first Supplementary Plan School’, CO 953/9/5, TNA.

82 Ibid.

83 NYSP, 11 Jan. 1950; NYSP, 4 Feb. 1950; NYSP, 6 Feb. 1950. I am responsible for all translations of citations taken from the Chinese dailies.

84 NYSP, 6 Feb. 1950.

85 NYSP, 13 Jan. 1950.

86 Annual report of the Department of Education 1953 (Singapore: Government Printing Office, 1954), pp. 108–9Google Scholar; Proceedings of the Legislative Council, Colony of Singapore, 16 Oct. 1951 (Singapore: Government Printing Office, 1951), col. B299Google Scholar.

87 Annual Report of the Department of Education 1951, p. 54.

88 Nicoll to Cox, 19 Dec. 1953, CO 1022/289, TNA.

89 Ibid.

90 Ibid.

91 Visscher, Sikko, The business of politics and ethnicity: A history of the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Singapore: NUS Press, 2007), pp. 98–9Google Scholar.

92 Visscher, The business of politics and ethnicity, p. 98.

93 Council Paper No. 81 of 1953, ‘Chinese schools: Bilingual education and increased aid’, 8 Dec. 1953.

94 Proceedings of the Legislative Council, Colony of Singapore, 15 Dec. 1953 (Singapore: Government Printing Office, 1951)Google Scholar, col. B386.

95 Ibid.

96 Ibid, col. B387.

97 Nicholl to Cox, 19 Dec. 1953, CO 1022/289, TNA.

98 Cox to Nicholl, 5 Jan. 1954, CO 1022/289

99 NYSP, 21 Dec. 1953.

100 SCJP, 14 Dec. 1953, 21 Dec. 1953 and 30 Dec. 1953.

101 NYSP, 15 Dec. 1953.

102 NYSP, 5 Jan. 1954, 6 Jan. 1954 and 7 Jan. 1954.

103 NYSP, 15 Dec. 1953 and SCJP, 30 Dec. 1953.

104 NYSP, 6 Jan. 1953.

105 NYSP, 8 Jan. 1954.

106 NYSP, 12 Dec. 1953.

107 Ibid.

108 Hong Lysa offers an incisive interpretation of British attempts to reform Chinese-medium education in connection with the rise of the student movement in the system and its challenge to Chinese business leaders in the early 1950s. See Lysa, Hong, ‘Politics of the Chinese-speaking communities in Singapore in the 1950s: The shaping of mass politics’, in The May 13 generation, pp. 57–102Google Scholar.

109 Report on the Ministry of Education 1978 (Singapore: Education Study Team, 1979)Google Scholar.

110 Stockwell, Tony, ‘Forging Malaysia and Singapore: Colonialism, decolonization and nation-building’, in Nation-building: Five Southeast Asian histories, ed. Gung-wu, Wang (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2005), p. 213Google Scholar.

111 Ibid.

112 Holden, Philip, ‘A man and an island: Gender and nation in Lee Kuan Yew's The Singapore Story’, Biography, 24, 2 (Spring 2001): 408CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

113 Ibid.

114 Chatterjee, Partha, The nation and its fragments: Colonial and postcolonial histories (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993)Google Scholar.

115 See Siew-Min, Sai and Jianli, Huang, ‘The “Chinese-educated” vanguards: Ong Pang Boon, Lee Khoon Choy and Jek Yuen Thong’, in Lee's lieutenants, pp. 132–68Google Scholar.

116 Chatterjee, The nation and its fragments, p. 5.

117 This is the title of ch. 1 in Chatterjee, The nation and its fragments.