Rajesh Rai

Bio: Rajesh Rai is an academic researcher from National University of Singapore. The author has contributed to research in topics: Diaspora & Geotechnical engineering. The author has an hindex of 8, co-authored 13 publications receiving 182 citations.

Religion and the South Asian diaspora

Abstract: In the expansive manner in which ‘diaspora’ has come to be employed, the centrality of religion in the ‘classical’ understanding of the concept has been subsumed under categories such as ‘ethnicity’ and ‘culture’. Yet even as religious practices and beliefs undergo transformation in the diaspora, studies of South Asian emigrant groups show that religion remains a key marker of community identity – its pivotal role invigorated by the contemporary precipitation in global connections. By scrutinising the specific experiences, practices and contentions of a wide‐array of diasporic communities, the articles in this Special Issue reveal the renewed power of religion in the South Asian diaspora.

‘Race’ and the construction of the North–South divide amongst Indians in colonial Malaya and Singapore

Abstract: Liak Teng Kiat, journalist with The Straits Times, Singapore's leading daily, wrote in 1991: ‘I was aware that Indians often refuse to behave as one people…. Put three Indians together, and they wi...

Sepoys, Convicts and the 'Bazaar' Contingent: The Emergence and Exclusion of 'Hindustani' Pioneers at the Singapore Frontier

Abstract: The article studies migrants from Uttar Pradesh in Singapore who have historically identified themselves as ‘Hindustani’ – a group that has largely been ignored in historical literature of the Indian diaspora in Singapore. Through an examination of British expansion in India in the early nineteenth century, parallel developments in Southeast Asia, community publications and oral testimonies, the article attempts to ‘(re)discover’ the history of Hindustani migration in Singapore.

Indians in Singapore, 1819-1945: Diaspora in the Colonial Port-city

Abstract: PART ONE: PIONEERS AT THE FRONTIER - 1819-1867 PART TWO: DIASPORIC TRANSFORMATIONS IN THE AGE OF MASS MIGRATION - 1867-1941 PART THREE: THE JAPANESE OCCUPATION & THE INDIAN NATIONAL ARMY

Homogenisation and fragmentation, inclusivism and exclusivism in the development of Hinduism in Singapore

Abstract: Even as scholars question the efficacy of the term Hinduism to denote a single world religion, there is widespread acknowledgement that the label Hindu and Hinduism hold considerable resonance in the diaspora Alongside identification with these categories, scholars have provided evidence of the advance of a ‘homogenised Hinduism’, which has underplayed differences between groups Through a study of the historical development of Hinduism in Singapore, this article posits that evolving tensions between exclusive and inclusive community structures have had reverberations that problematise the notion of a simplistic linear move from plurality to homogenisation In addition to differences in region, caste and sect, at various points in time this process has been punctuated by the influence of socio‐religious and political currents from the subcontinent In recent decades the advent of new transnational Hindu‐oriented religious movements and the arrival of migrant professionals, have reconfigured earlier patte

A Global Perspective: Reframing the History of Health, Medicine, and Disease.

Abstract: The emergence of global history has been one of the more notable features of academic history over the past three decades. Although historians of disease were among the pioneers of one of its earlier incarnations—world history—the recent “global turn” has made relatively little impact on histories of health, disease, and medicine. Most continue to be framed by familiar entities such as the colony or nation-state or are confined to particular medical “traditions.” This article aims to show what can be gained from taking a broader perspective. Its purpose is not to replace other ways of seeing or to write a new “grand narrative” but to show how transnational and transimperial approaches are vital to understanding some of the key issues with which historians of health, disease, and medicine are concerned. Moving on from an analysis of earlier periods of integration, the article offers some reflections on our own era of globalization and on the emerging field of global health.

Cationic Reduced Graphene Oxide as Self-Aligned Nanofiller in the Epoxy Nanocomposite Coating with Excellent Anticorrosive Performance and Its High Antibacterial Activity.

Abstract: The design and preparation of an excellent corrosion protection coating is still a grand challenge and is essential for large-scale practical application. Herein, a novel cationic reduced graphene oxide (denoted as RGO-ID+)-based epoxy coating was fabricated for corrosion protection. RGO-ID+ was synthesized by in situ synthesis and salification reaction, which is stable dispersion in water and epoxy latex, and the self-aligned RGO-ID+-reinforced cathodic electrophoretic epoxy nanocomposite coating (denoted as RGO-ID+ coating) at the surface of metal was prepared by electrodeposition. The self-alignment of RGO-ID+ in the coatings is mainly attributed to the electric field force. The significantly enhanced anticorrosion performance of RGO-ID+ coating is proved by a series of electrochemical measurements in different concentrated NaCl solutions and salt spray tests. This superior anticorrosion property benefits from the self-aligned RGO-ID+ nanosheets and the quaternary-N groups present in the RGO-ID+ nanoco...

Muslims and the State in Britain, France, and Germany

Abstract: Muslims and the State in Britain, France, and Germany. By Joel S. Fetzer and J. Christopher Soper. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. 224p. $60.00 cloth, $14.99 paper. The central question of Joel Fetzer and J. Christopher Soper's well-written and highly accessible book—how to explain the disparate political responses to the religious concerns of Muslims in Britain, France, and Germany—is clearly important. Indeed, while the question was pertinent before the tragedy of September 11 in 2001 and the American invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003, it has become exponentially more urgent since. Although the difficulties of incorporating Muslim populations into the countries receiving them were neither a cause of nor directly connected to the aforementioned events, the negative chain reaction they subsequently precipitated within and outside of the diverse Muslim community within Western Europe nevertheless exposed serious tensions between many of the community's religious practices and the dominant cultural, social, and political mores of the host societies. In short, the answer to the book's organizing question very much matters for Western Europe's political, religious, and social tranquility.