Epilogue

Summary

Henri Lefebvre's ideas concerning the production of space have been the subject of nuanced debates since the 1970s. These debates primarily focused on the relationship between physical space, capitalist flows and conscious human actions. This book has combined Lefebvre's notion of the capitalist production of space with the idea of space produced by transnational mobility. The Bengali diasporas and their transnational community in Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei during the colonial and postcolonial periods form the central theme of this book, which has attempted to demonstrate the temporal and spatial dimensions of Bengali mobility, filling a significant gap in the historical migration literature on Asia.

This book has countered the impression that most South Asians in the Malay world were ‘Indians’, of whom the Tamils constituted a significant portion. The size of the Bengali community was remarkable. However, they were underestimated because many who settled in Malaysia and Singapore adopted Malay identities, forming a highly conspicuous and essential section of the middle classes. Their established ‘networks’ may promote present-day migration from Bangladesh, especially to Singapore and Malaysia. All these discussions have been categorised into two broad areas. Chapters 1–3 explored the background and processes of the emergence of the Bengali diasporic community in the Malay world and the masking of their identity within the generic term ‘Indian’. The second set of aspects, spanning Chapters 4–8, offers a detailed understanding of facets of Bengali space-making in British Malaya, dealing with the professional world, the domain of petty traders and the spaces of politics and civil society.

Historical migrations of diverse ethnic groups from South Asia, as seen today, were generally described as ‘Indian’ in the historical literature. In recent years, the dominant ‘Pan-Indian identity’ has been dissected as heterogeneous, with a focus on ethnic and linguistic aspects. In the context of recent trends in the studies of South Asian migration and diasporic communities within Asia, this book has explored the Bengali transnational community through multiple temporal and spatial contexts. Trans-regional connectivity between the Bay of Bengal and the Malay Sea has a historical pedigree. The British colonial authority introduced rules and regulations to govern the flow of human mobility.