What We Inherit is a collection of essays (including a few poems!) by the Indian minority living in Singapore. Most of the authors are women. This is the second book of this kind, after Growing up Perempuan which focused of Muslim women in Singapore, published by feminist advocacy group Aware. As we read in the introduction, this collection is a response to the attempts to erase the Indian community from Singapore’s history, and helps in giving a platform to a long-silenced group and to affirming their autonomy.
These are mostly stories from everyday life and major or minor acts of discrimination which the local women face everyday: teachers scrubbing “dirty” dark skin on student’s knees, taunting peers with oiled hair, telling them to return to their country. But there are also stories about appreciating Indian culture, dating, learning to talk to conservative parents and celebrating life on your own terms.
It’s been a long time since I read such a powerful book which would be a similar emotional rollercoaster for me as What We Inherit. There were testimonies that touched me, like a letter from a mother telling her daughter to not be ashamed and to celebrate her culture or a story of a pregnant woman who prayed that her child be born fair-skinned so that it wouldn’t experience the same hell that she had to go through growing up with a dark complexion. I found myself cheering on the girls and women who found the strength to stand up for themselves – to leave the school roll-call, to argue with their relatives, or to talk back in the parking lot. And at the same time I was mad that they had to do it at all.
If you have already read Szkice Malajskie (Malay Sketches) and want to get to familiarise yourself with the life of another Singapore minority, make sure to read this book as well.
