text:
Indian Singaporeans

Indian Singaporeans are Singaporeans of Indian or of general South Asian ancestry. They constitute approximately 9.0% of the country's citizens, making them the third largest ancestry and ethnic group in Singapore.

While contact with ancient India left a deep impact on Singapore's indigenous Malay culture, the mass settlement of Indians on the island began with the founding of modern Singapore by the British Empire in 1819. Initially, the Indian population was transient, mainly comprising young men who came as workers and soldiers. By the mid-20th century, a settled community had emerged, with a more balanced gender ratio and a better spread of age groups.

Indian Singaporeans are linguistically and religiously diverse, with ethnic Tamils forming a plurality – although there are significant amounts of Singaporeans of South Asian descent that do not identify with the former, most notably the Sikhs. The Indo–Singaporean culture has endured and evolved over 200 years. By the late 20th century, it had grown distinct from contemporary South Asian cultures, with Indian Singaporean elements becoming diffused within a broader Singaporean culture that includes other ethnic groups.

Prominent individuals of South Asian descent have long made a mark in Singapore as leaders of various fields in national life. Indian Singaporeans are also collectively well represented, in areas such as politics, education, diplomacy the law and sports, among others.

Definitions of Indian Singaporeans

The Singapore Department of Statistics broadly defines Indians as a race (or ethnic group), comprising "persons of Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi or Sri Lankan origin such as Tamils, Telugus, Malayalis, Punjabis, Bengalis, Sinhalese etc."

Indians 'in Singapore' may be further defined in terms of nationality and residency status. Most ethnic Indians are Singapore citizens, known in local parlance as 'Singaporean Indians', or 'local Indians'. They are usually the locally-born and nativised second, third, fourth or even fifth generation descendants of settlers from the Indian subcontinent, many with little to no connection left with the latter. In addition, there are also many ethnic Indian immigrant workers in Singapore. Foreign citizens of the Republic of India are called 'Indian nationals', or even 'Indian Indians'. Foreign Indians may be distinguished in terms of residency status.

Well educated professionals or entrepreneurs with a high earning capacity may be granted renewable Employment Passes. These entitle the holder's spouse, children and parents to Dependents Passes. Students may enter on Students Passes. Pass holders may apply for Permanent Residence, which lets them live in Singapore on a long term-basis on a five-year renewal term. As part of Singaporean nationality law, they are also eligible to apply for Singapore Citizenship although acceptance have been stringent since the 2010s. In contrast, unskilled foreign workers enter Singapore with Work Permits. They are rarely allowed to stay in Singapore for more than two years and are never allowed to bring dependents with them. Nor are they eligible to apply for either Permanent Residence or Citizenship.

Demographic statistics are generally restricted to 'Singapore residents', defined as both Singapore citizens and Permanent Residents. Many of the statistics about Indians in Singapore in this article are restricted to this group. Scholars have noted "(o)fficial figures for workers on temporary contracts are difficult to obtain because the Ministry of Manpower in Singapore considers the information sensitive." Consequently, there is limited information about short-term or 'non-resident' Indians in Singapore. Note that use of the term 'non-resident' Indian should not be confused with the concept of the Non Resident Indian or NRI, which the government of the Republic of India uses to describe its citizens living abroad. In Singapore, an NRI may be statistically non-resident (in the case of work permit or pass holders) or he/she may be considered a Singapore resident (in the case of permanent residents).

Ethno-linguistic profile of Indian Singaporeans
Indian Singaporean are grouped according to their respective ethnolinguistic backgrounds in the Indian subcontinent or 'dialect group'. Most Indians in Singapore have ancestral links to Southern India and Sri Lanka, with substantial groups from Northern India and Western India accounting for most of the remainder. These are generally the descendants of both free and indentured settlers from India during the 19th and early half of the 20th century.

In 2010, the Singapore census categorised 237,473 Singaporeans and 110,646 permanent residents into a number of 'dialect' groups. However, these groups included Sikhs, who are a religious rather than linguistic group. Virtually all of the Sikhs are Punjabi, which was also captured as a separate 'dialect' category (comprising mainly Hindu Punjabis). Given their small absolute and relative numbers, the following table adapts the 2010 census data by combining the 'Sikh' (12,952) and 'Punjabi' (5,672) category under 'Punjabi'.

The percentages in the table refer to the proportion of each language group within the larger Resident Indian community in Singapore.

The Singaporean Indian demographic is characterised by an ethnic Tamil majority (54.18%) and a large number of smaller groups. Ethnic Tamils in Singapore include the descendants of Tamil settlers from India and Sri Lanka (sometimes referred to as 'Ceylonese'). Ethnic Malayalees, tracing their heritage to Kerala in southern India, form the second largest community, making up 7.57% of the local Indian population. Tamils and Malayalees are the two main South Indian ethnolinguistic communities in Singapore, forming two-thirds of the Indian population. Meanwhile, the three main North Indian ethnolinguistic groups in Singapore (the Punjabi, Gujarati, and Sindhi communities) constitute 7.67% of the Singaporean Indian populace. The remaining 29.68% is composed of many smaller groups with ancestry from both southern India (such as the Telugus) and northern India (such as the Hindustanis, the Malay colloquial term for Hindi-speaking Indians), or ethnically mixed Singaporeans with paternal Indian ancestry.

Pre-colonial period
Ancient India exerted a profound influence over Southeast Asia through trade, religious missions, wars and other forms of contact. Pre-colonial Singapore was part of 'Indianised Kingdoms' like Srivijaya and the Majapahit, which formed part of a cultural region known as Greater India.

Prior to the spread of Islam, Singapore and the rest of the Malay world, was Hindu-Buddhist. One of the most extensive and enduring Indian influence in Malay culture is the vast number of Indian loan words in the Malay language.

Indian influence is also seen in symbols and mythology associated with ancient Singapore. The Sejarah Melayu or Malay Annals describe the Indian prince who founded Singapore – Sang Nila Utama – as being a descendant of Alexander the Great and an Indian Princess. Meanwhile, the royal and sacred associations of Fort Canning Hill, the seat of ancient rulers, are related to the Hindu Mount Meru concept.

Archaeological digs have unearthed Hindu-Buddhist artefacts from the pre-colonial period. In 1822, John Crawfurd documented the ruins of a Hindu or Buddhist temple on Fort Canning Hill. Singapore's two most important pre-colonial artefacts are the Singapore Stone, which is inscribed with an Indic script and a gold armlet bearing the motif of a Hindu 'kala' head.

Migration and settlement
Following the Portuguese colonisation of Malacca (Malaysia) in 1511, the Portuguese government encouraged their explorers to bring their married Indian women who were converted already to Roman Catholic Christianity, under a policy set by Afonso de Albuquerque, then Viceroy of India. These people were Goan Catholics (Konkani Catholics) and Bombay East Indians (Catholics of Marathi descent). Kuparis who were of mixed Samvedic Brahmin, Goan and Portuguese descent also arrived. Sinhalese and their children from Portuguese that include Portuguese Burghers from Portuguese Ceylon also came later. Their children already intermarried with Malay population, losing their ethnic identities. Indian contact was rekindled from 1819 to World War II, when both India and Singapore were under British colonial rule. Unlike earlier forms of contact, this led to mass migration and, eventually, the formation of a large, settled and distinct population. By 1824, Singapore's first census counted 756 Indian residents, or about 7% of the total population. In 1826, official figures give a total population of 13,750, of which 1,021 are Indians – 244 from Bengal and 777 from the Coromandel Coast, most of whom were males.

Initially, Indian immigrants were predominantly adult men who came from India to find work, serve military duties or prison sentences for several years before returning home. There was a constant flow of Indians in and out of the city, keeping the local community fairly transient. A minority of Indians were also wealthy merchants who settled in Singapore and built local commercial and social institutions. Best known amongst them was Naraina Pillai, the earliest Indian community leader and the island's first building contractor. In 1827, he also founded the Sri Mariamman Temple, Singapore oldest Hindu place of worship.

The influx of Indians in the half century after 1819 led to a brief period when Indians, for the only time, overtook the Malays to become the second largest ethnic group. In 1860, they formed 16% of the population. However, their number then fell from 13,000 that year to 12,000 in 1880, or 8.7% of the population. Following this, Indians slowly began to settle permanently in greater numbers and the relative size of the community in colonial Singapore became stable, fluctuating between 7.7% and 9.4%.

Social characteristics
Scholars have characterised the Indian community in colonial times as being diverse and highly stratified along class lines. According to Dr Rajesh Rai, the social hierarchy comprised four main groups: the educated professional elite (over 0.5% of the Indian community), mercantile groups (under 10%), the white collar middle class (5–7%) and the uneducated labourers (over 80%).

Economic class and job functions were also aligned with the ethnic origins of immigrants. For example, Sri Lankan Tamils and Malayalees formed the core of the English educated upper middle class. Mercantile families tended to be Sindhi, Gujarati, and Tamil Muslim. South Indian upper caste Hindus tended to perform traditional skilled jobs, such as moneylenders (Chettiars) and priests (Brahmins). Sikhs were often policemen or private security guards. Most of these migrants were voluntary migrants who entered and left Singapore freely on their own resources. Unskilled coolies tended to be landless Tamil peasants from the Shudra caste as well as Adi Dravidas or 'Untouchables'. These were often indentured labourers who were brought through various labour recruitment systems to work on rubber plantations in Malaya. Many later came to work in Singapore once free of their bonds. Another group which was less than free was the military. The first Indians in Singapore were 120 sepoys in the Bengal Native Infantry and a 'bazaar contingent' of washermen, servants and others who came with Stamford Raffles on his first visit in 1819. Throughout the colonial period, military personnel came from all over India. Most returned home after their service without settling in Singapore.

Finally, there were the convicts. In the 19th century, the British shipped Indian convicts to Singapore to relieve overcrowded Indian jails. These men (and some women) were used as labour to build public buildings and roads in Singapore. Like the sepoys, they came from all parts of India. While some returned to India, several settled in Singapore after serving their sentences.

Social reform movements
From the 19th century, Hindu reform movements emerged in India as part of a broader cultural modernisation. These movements sought to promote what they saw as a more authentic form of Hinduism while addressing social abuses, such as the Hindu caste system. These movements spread to overseas Indian communities, including Singapore. Groups like the Ramakrishna Mission, Arya Samaj and Sree Narayana Mission were active conduits of this reform movement. Traditional religious practices, especially among lower caste Hindus, centred around various rural folk traditions, esoteric rituals and superstitions. In contrast, the new movement appealed to better educated urban Hindus, by conducting religious education classes for children and adults, and interpreting the values, concepts and principals behind the religion for lay people. These groups also encouraged a more direct relationship with God, unmediated by Brahmin priests and rituals, through individual devotion (stemming from the Bhakti movement), chanting Bhajans, or hymns, as well as through yoga. Charitable service was also promoted. The Ramakrishna Mission in Singapore set up a home for boys from troubled homes, while the Sree Narayana Mission set up a home of the destitute elderly.

Another social reform movement was the Self-Respect Movement, which emerged in Tamil Nadu in the 1920s to liberate Dravidian people, and especially Adi Dravidas and lower caste Tamils from what was seen as Brahmin oppression. This movement sought inspiration from Tamil history and culture. In Singapore, groups like the Tamil Reform Association were inspired by this movement. They imported publications from India that promoted the movement, and they also hosted visiting leaders of the Self-Respect Movement from Tamil Nadu when they visited Singapore. The Singapore groups focussed on moral, social and religious reform. For example, they campaigned against caste distinctions and alcohol abuse. These groups also promoted the use of the Tamil language, and the development of Tamil literature in Singapore, through the establishment of Tamil newspapers and schools. They were also involved in the union activism, especially in those work sectors dominated by Tamils. Tamil-educated journalists and teachers were at the forefront of this movement. Leaders like Thamizhavel G. Sarangapani were especially instrumental in championing the rights of Tamils and Indians, by encouraging Indians to register for Singapore citizenship in the 1950s and by campaigning to make Tamil one of Singapore's official languages.

1915 Singapore Mutiny

The 1915 Singapore Mutiny, also known as the 1915 Sepoy Mutiny, was an incident concerning 850 Indian Army soldiers who mutinied against their British superiors on 15 February 1915 in Singapore, as part of the 1915 Ghadar Conspiracy (not to be mistaken for the Indian Mutiny of 1857). The predominantly Muslim soldiers mutinied because they believed they were being sent to fight against Islamic Ottoman Empire as part of the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I. This mutiny lasted nearly seven days, and resulted in the deaths of 47 soldiers and civilians at the hands of the mutineers, who were subsequently arrested and court-martialled; those who were found guilty of capital crimes were executed by the Singapore Volunteer Corps. In general, the mutiny was restricted to Muslim soldiers, and did not involve the wider Indian population in Singapore. While the mutiny was a significant event in Singaporean history, and one of the most important ones specifically involving the Indian diaspora, it was somewhat distinct from the mainstream development of nationalist sentiments among the Indian population in Singapore, which emerged most prominently around the time of the Second World War.

Political movements

Nationalist movements in India established branch organisations in Singapore to draw on local Indian support for Indian independence. The Indian Independence League was a political organisation operated from the 1920s to the 1940s to organise those living outside of India to remove the British from India. Founded in 1928 by Indian nationalists Subhas Chandra Bose and Jawaharlal Nehru, the organisation was active in Singapore and Malaya following Japan's successful Malayan Campaign in the Second World War.

The Indian National Army (INA) was an armed force formed by Indian nationalists in 1942 in Southeast Asia, also during World War II. Their aim was to overthrow the British Raj in colonial India, with Japanese assistance. Many Indian soldiers and civilians were recruited in Singapore and Malaya to join the INA during the Japanese occupation. Many of them died fighting alongside the Japanese against the British in Burma during the war.

Indian nationalist sentiments in Singapore and Malaya were paralleled by the rise of Chinese nationalism amongst the overseas Chinese in these territories. As these colonies progressed towards independence, Indians and Chinese in Malaya organised themselves along the lines of ethnic political parties. For instance, the Indian Association in Singapore, today a social and recreational club, was one of a network of such clubs in early 20th century Malaya which came together to form what would become the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC), the current ethnic Indian party within Malaysia's ruling Barisan National coalition government.

Unlike Malaysia's delicate ethno-demographic balance, Singapore had a large Chinese majority. This rendered ethnic-based politics less viable, and tended to support class-based politics instead. For example, several Indian professionals supported the more conservative pro-British parties, as they had been beneficiaries of the colonial system. In contrast, the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) espoused an ideology of social democracy which gained the support of Indian union workers. S. Rajaratnam was one of the founding members of the PAP, and he worked to define and champion its vision of a multi-racial country, in contrast to the Malaysian model.

More left-leaning Indian leaders and intellectuals, such as C.V. Devan Nair and James Puthucheary initially supported more radically left-wing groups. They had been imprisoned by the British for their radical union activism. Later, some of these men join the more moderate wing of the PAP. Devan Nair went on to build the modern trades union movement in Singapore, the National Trades Union Congress. Consequently, Indians in Singapore tended to align themselves, both individually and as groups, with parties advocating specific political or economic ideologies, rather than along purely racial lines. This basic difference between the Indian communities of Singapore and Malaysia has endured to the present day.

Immediate post-colonial period: 1960s – 1980s
Scholars have identified two phases in the development of the Indian community after Singaporean independence in 1965. The first phase, from 1965 to the early 1990s, saw a decline in the proportion of the community from 9% in 1957 to a low of 6.4% in 1980. One reason was the withdrawal of British military forces in the early 1970s, which led to the repatriation of many Indian base workers. Another factor was the retirement of older men, who chose to return to families in India. Meanwhile, post-1965 immigration restrictions ended new migration from India. Furthermore, there was a rise in the emigration of Indian Singaporeans to the West in the late 1980s. During this time, the Indian population continued to grow in absolute terms due to natural increase. Even as it grew proportionally smaller, the community also became more settled, with several new generations born locally. A historical novel titled 'Sembawang: A Novel' explores this notion as well traces the lives of Indian migrants who lived in an Indian enclave outside the HM Naval Base in the 1960s.

From the 1960s to 1980s, the People's Action Party government tried to cultivate a shared national identity and to end the historical tendency of Singaporeans to identify with the national – and often nationalistic – politics of their ancestral homelands. While different ethnic groups were allowed and sometimes encouraged to retain their cultural identities, they were also pushed to integrate socially, politically and economically across ethnic lines. The government pursued policies to integrate the races in public housing estates and national schools. Young men underwent two years of compulsory national service in ethnically mixed military or police camps. Traditional family businesses were superseded by government agencies or foreign multi-national corporations, which hired multi-ethnic workforces on the basis of meritocratic ability rather than kinship or ethnicity. Consequently, "the cultivation of a Singaporean identity has been largely successful in converting Indian migrants into Indian-Singaporeans." In general, Indian social patterns and political activities became aligned and integrated within the national mainstream from the 1960s.

Although the Singapore government championed public policies and a political discourse of racial integration and national identity, it came to recognise that important differences in the socio-economic profiles of the three main races continued to endure in the post-colonial period. Initially, it had set up Mendaki, a quasi-autonomous Malay community self-help group to promote educational advancement within that community to address underperformance by Malay students. In the 1980s, this approach – which was initially seen as an exceptional measure taken in the case of the Malay community – became entwined with the rhetoric of Asian values, which saw the promotion of a greater consciousness and pride in each citizen's own ethnic heritage, as a bulwark against the supposedly negative influence of Western culture. Consequently, the government established the Singapore Indian Development Association (SINDA) in 1991 to address the educational and social problems of the Indian community. Shortly after, a similar body was set up for the majority Chinese community.

Apart from ethnic self-help groups like SINDA (which remain controversial in Singapore), the government has in the main pursued policies emphasising racial integration and national identity. It is against this backdrop that immigration policies were liberalised in the 1990s, leading to an influx of foreigners in Singapore, particularly Indian nationals. This led to a new phase in the history of the Indian community in Singapore.

Contemporary period: 1990s – present

A second phase began in the early 1990s, when immigration policies were liberalised to attract foreign professionals to boost the size and skills of the local workforce. The government was keen to draw in well educated migrants from Asian countries who, it was hoped, would be both keen and able to settle permanently. This also addressed the problem of Singapore's extremely low fertility rates. In addition to these professionals, unskilled foreign workers were recruited as low cost manual labour for construction sites and the cleaning sector, albeit without the prospect of permanent settlement. As a result of these policies, the Indian population grew faster than other groups. The proportion of Indian citizens and permanent residents rose from 6.4% in 1980 to 9.23% in 2010. This was mainly due to rapid growth in the number of Indian nationals who acquired Singapore citizenship or permanent residency.

For some years now, the Department of Statistics has stopped providing ethnic data about the short-term or 'non-resident' foreign citizens living in Singapore (i.e. those without Singapore Permanent Residence). As of end June 2007, there were 1,005,500 such persons, or 21.5% of the total population. This group includes two-year work permit holders as well as those holding renewable Employment, Dependant and Student Passes. In 2005, Dr Rajesh Rai from the National University of Singapore has observed that "independent surveys approximate the number of South Asians on work permits to be… approximately 90,000–100,000." In November 2007, a cabinet minister said "more than 20,000 Indian professionals had set up home" in Singapore, although it is unclear if this referred only to Employment Pass holders, or if it included Permanent Residents, Student Pass and/or Dependant Pass holders. Based on these figures, the number of short-term or 'non-resident' Indians in Singapore in 2007 is likely to be in the region of 100,000. As such, the proportion of Indians in the total population is likely to range from 9% to 10% (suggesting 89,000 to 135,000 'non-resident' Indians).

The advance release figures from Singapore's 2010 Census show, for the first time, the number of ethnic Indian Singapore citizens, and ethnic Indian Singapore Permanent Residents, separately – instead of combining the two. As of 2010, there were 237,473 Indian Singapore citizens, or 7.35% of the citizen population. There were 110,646 Indian PRs, or 20.45% of the PR population. In total, ethnic Indians formed 348,119, or 9.23% of the 'resident' population of citizens and PRs.

In-depth studies
Several in-depth studies have been conducted and published in the recent years on the Indian communities in Singapore such as Rajesh Rai's, Indians in Singapore, 1819–1945: Diaspora in the Colonial Port City, Anitha Devi Pillai's, From Kerala to Singapore: Voices from the Singapore Malayalee Community, Mathew Mathews, The Singapore Ethnic Mosaic, S A Nathanji's Singapore: Nation Building and Indians' Legacy amongst others.

Income and education

Alongside other ethnic groups, Indians from all social backgrounds have achieved significant advances in their educational levels, income, life expectancy and other social indicators. Singapore's extraordinary economic growth from the 1960s to 1990s lifted many out of poverty and created a broad middle class. In the process, many Indians experienced upward social mobility for the first time. Despite this progress, Indians remain somewhat stratified in terms of class relative to other ethnic groups. With the influx of highly qualified Indian Permanent Residents, the socio-economic indicators of the Indian community have improved, arguably masking the under-achievement of some Indians. In 2005, both the average and median monthly income for Indian Residents (S$3,660 and $2,480 respectively) exceeded those for all Residents (S$3,500 and S$2,410 respectively). In the same year, 25% of Indian Residents had a university degree as their highest qualification attained. In contrast the national average was only 17%.

Other educations statistics are less positive. In 2004, 73% of Indians among the Primary One cohort were admitted to a post-secondary institution, compared with 86% for the Chinese, and 75% for the Malays. In the same year, 73.7% of Indian students received 5 or more passes in the Singaporean GCE 'O' Level examinations, compared with 86.5% of Chinese students and 59.3% of Malays. Given their performance in the 'O' level examinations, it would appear Indians would have been under represented among students who sat for the 'A' level examination. However, those Indians who did reach the 'A' level and sat for this exam marginally outperformed the national average. 93% of Indians received 2 'A' and 2 'AO' level passes, compared with 92.6% among Chinese students, and 92.3% nationally. The socio-economic problems, and especially educational under-performance, facing Singapore Indians is addressed by the community through Singapore Indian Development Association (SINDA), the national self-help group for the Indian community.

Singapore has the following international schools for expatriate Indians:
 * Global Indian International School Singapore
 * DPS International School Singapore
 * National Public School Singapore

Languages

The official languages of Singapore are English, Malay, Chinese (Mandarin) and Tamil. The national language of Singapore is Malay for historical reasons, and it is used in the national anthem, "Majulah Singapura".

Persons of ethnic Tamil ancestry form about 58% of Singapore's Indian residents. Minority Indian groups include Malayalees, Telugu, Punjabis, Sindhis, Gujaratis, Sinhalese, and Hindi-speaking people, among others. In terms of actual daily language use, 39% of Indian residents speak mainly English at home, and a similar number use Tamil. The remainder speak either Malay (11%) or other languages, including other Indian languages and Kristang (11%).There are about 3000 families which speak Marathi at home.

3.1% of all Singapore residents speak mainly Tamil at home and it is one of the country's four official languages. Tamil is taught as a second language in most public schools. Tamil content (produced locally or abroad) is available on free-to-air and cable television as well as radio channels, and in libraries, cinemas, theatres and bookshops. Tamil is used in temples, mosques and churches catering to the community. Some business and non-profit groups, especially those in the Little India neighbourhood, use Tamil on a daily basis.

Many Indian loan words are found in Malay, and, to a lesser extent, in English. The influence of Indian vocabulary, syntax and pronunciation are also found in Singlish, the local English dialect. At the same time, Singapore Tamil is slightly distinct from the versions spoken in India and Sri Lanka, with its closest cousin being the Malaysian Tamil spoken across the border. Local usage includes some words from English, Malay and other languages. Meanwhile, certain Tamil words or phrases that are archaic in India and Sri Lanka are still used in Singapore.

Religions

Majority of the Indian Singaporeans are Hindus. The proportion of Indians following Islam, Christianity and Buddhism are relatively higher as the census include Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans and other South Asian ethnic groups under the category of "Indians".

According to the latest 2020 Census, 57.3% of Singapore's Indian population declared themselves as Hindus, including 23.4% Muslims, 12.6% Christians, 4.6% other religions and 2.2% non-religious, as stated in the following statistics.

Hinduism in Singapore
Based on the latest 2020 Census, 5.0% of the resident population aged above 15 years, were Hindu. Almost all Hindus in Singapore were ethnic Indians (99%), with the majority of Singapore's ethnic Indians (57.3%) being Hindu.

There are approximately 35 temples serving Hindus in Singapore. Most are built in the South Indian Dravidian style. Specific communities have established their own temples. For instance, the Sri Lankan Tamil community built the Sri Senpaga Vinayagar Temple at Ceylon Road, while the Chettiar community set up the Sri Thandayuthapani Temple at Tank Road. The North Indian community also established the Sri Lakshminarayan Temple, built in the North Indian style. Two Hindu temples have been gazetted as National Monuments of Singapore. Although temples may be historically associated with certain communities, Hindu temples in Singapore are open to all regardless or language, caste or religion (non-Hindus may visit the temples). A unique feature of Hinduism in Singapore is the fact that a noticeable number of non-Indians, usually Buddhist Chinese, do participate in a variety of Hindu activities, including praying to Hindu deities, donating money to the temple funds and participating in Hindu festivals like the fire-walking ceremony, and Thaipusam.

The most visible Hindu festivals in Singapore are Deepavali and Thaipusam. Minor celebrations include the Fire walking festival and Hindu temple chariot processions. Deepavali is a national public holiday in Singapore. For a month before it, the Little India district is decorated with ornamental fairy lights. Bazaars are held in different parts of the district, with stalls selling religious paraphenilia, greeting cards, food, decorations, clothes, etc. Deepavali day itself is marked with a ritual bath and prayers in the morning, followed by feasting and visits to family and friends.

Thaipusam is celebrated prominently in Singapore, Malaysia and other countries with large Tamil populations. As a penance, participants carry 'kavadis' along a processional route. Some men carry kavadis attached to their bodies via hooks and spears that pierce their skin. Thaipusam is the only time when major Singapore roads are closed for a religious procession. The festival is a major religious and urban event, drawing thousands of devotees, supporters and onlookers.

Other religions

Singapore's approximately 10,000 Indian Sikhs formed 3.4% of the Indian Singaporean population aged above 15 years. Most Sikhs in Singapore are of Indian Origin(accounting to 80-90% of Sikhs). There is a smaller Jain community consisting of a few thousand in population.

Among over 15% Muslim Singapore Residents, approximately 13% were Indian, with most of the remainder being Malay (82%), including some Chinese (2.2%) and other ethnicity (2.8%); Indian Muslim Singaporeans easily intermarried with Malays. predate the Islamic period (c. 570-632 AD), or the birth of Islam. In reality, Indonesians and Malays came to know about Islam through the merchants of South India and not through Arab missionaries. Among Christian Singapore Residents, about 5.8% were Indian, with most of the remainder being Chinese (86%), including small Malay (0.4%) and other ethnicity (7.8%). Within the Christian community, Indians formed 10.3% of Roman Catholics (including Kristangs of part-Indian descent), and 3.9% of Non-Catholic Christians (mainly Protestants).

Within the wider Muslim and Christian communities, Indians have established their own places of worship, where sermons, services and prayers are conducted in Indian languages. Consequently, there are a substantial number of 'Indian' churches, mosques and Buddhist temples in Singapore. For example, the Masjid Jamae, built in 1826, is the oldest Tamil mosque in Singapore, and a National Monument. In 1888, the Tamil Catholic community set up the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes, Singapore's oldest Tamil Catholic Church, as well as a National Monument. The Sakya Muni Buddha Gaya Temple is a Theravada temple, built in a mix of Chinese, Indian, Sri Lankan and Thai styles, and is quite different from most Chinese Buddhist Mahayana temples in Singapore. The small Indian Buddhist community (mainly Sri Lankan Sinhalese) in Singapore often frequents this temple, which is located in Little India.

Cuisine
The great variety of Singapore food includes Indian food, which tends to be Tamil cuisine and especially local Tamil Muslim cuisine, although North Indian food has become more visible recently. Indian dishes have become modified to different degrees, after years of contact with other Singapore cultures, and in response to locally available ingredients as well as changing local tastes. The local forms of Indian food may be seen as localised or even regional variations of Indian food, or in some cases, a form of hybrid Indian-Singaporean cuisine. Popular 'Indian' dishes and elements of Indian cuisine (although sometimes prepared and sold by non-Indians) include achar, curry (such as laksa and Fish head curry), Indian rojak, Indian mee goreng, murtabak, nasi biryani, roti john, roti prata and teh tarik.

Other dishes were popular during the colonial period, when Indian ingredients and other culinary influences spread with the Empire to places like Singapore. Many of them endure in some homes and restaurants. Some of these dishes include mince, mulligatawny soup, fish moolie, curry tiffin, pork vindaloo and spiced Mutton chop.

There are also many other Indian foods that are less widely available foods, but which can still be found in several areas serving a more specifically Indian clientele, especially in and around Little India, Singapore. These include appam, bhatura, chutney, sambar, idli, muruku, putu mayam, samosa, tandoori, thosai, upma and various sweets, including jalebi, halva, laddu, paayasam and gulab jamun.

Milo dinosaur is a drink that originated within Indian Singaporean eateries during the 1990s.

Little India
The Indian imprint on Singapore's urban landscape can be seen most prominently in the form of the Little India neighbourhood. On 7 July 1989, at the start of architectural conservation in Singapore, this area was gazetted for conservation, which makes its buildings legally protected from unauthorised modifications and demolition. Bounded by Serangoon Road, Sungei Road and Jalan Besar, the area is recognised as the hub of the Indian community in Singapore. It contains mainly two-storey shophouses of the Early, Transitional, Late and Art Deco Shophouse Styles, as well as several places of worship for different faiths. Apart from serving the social, cultural and commercial needs of the Indian community, the area is established as one of the more historic urban districts Singapore, with a colourful personality that makes it an indelible part of the national landscape and identity. In 2004, it was also Singapore's third most popular free-access tourist attraction, after Orchard Road and Chinatown.

Naming conventions

Because of their linguistic and religious diversity, Singapore Indians use a variety of naming conventions. Traditionally, most Tamil Hindus place their father's name after their given name, linked by 's/o' (son of) or 'd/o' (daughter of), e.g. 'Ravi s/o Govindasamy'. Similarly, Tamil Muslims have names in the form 'Abdul s/o Rahman' (in contrast to Malay Muslims, who use the connector 'bin' (son of) or 'binte / bte' (daughter of) instead). Likewise, a Tamil Christian name might be Daryl s/o David. The use of these connectors arose during the colonial period. However, this format is somewhat rare today.

Often, an individual will reduce their father's name to an initial, hence 'G. Ravi'. This approach is popular among many Singapore politicians, as it simplifies names that, to non-Indian Singaporeans, can be very long, complicated and difficult to pronounce. Thus, the late Senior Minister Sinnathamby Rajaratnam was known as S. Rajaratnam, while late former President Sellapa Ramanathan is known as S.R. Nathan. Likewise, other prominent Indians include S. Dhanabalan, S. Jayakumar and J. B. Jeyaretnam (also known simply as 'JBJ'). Likewise, Tamil Muslims and Christians also use initials in a similar way. This convention is regularly used in South India.

Another popular approach is to omit the 's/o' or 'd/o' connector altogether, e.g. 'Ravi Govindasamy'. While the name appears to conform to a Western format, the last name (Govindasamy) technically remains the father's name, and is not the family surname. As such, the individual should properly be addressed as 'Mr Ravi', rather than 'Mr Govindasamy'. However, some people use their father's name as a surname, i.e. Ravi calls himself 'Mr Govindasamy' and uses it as a surname for his children. Instead of naming his son 'Arun (s/o) Ravi', he would name him 'Arun Govindasamy' (or even 'Arun Govind'). This approach is also adopted among several Tamil Christians. Some new surnames have been created in this way.

Several South Indians use caste names as surnames in the Western mode. Common examples of such names in Singapore include Iyer and Pillay/mudaliyar (Tamil), Nair and Menon (Malayalee). While Telugu people use caste as the middle name Reddy/Naidu and family name as surname.

Some Tamil Christian families have retained Indian names (as given names or 'family' names), generally alongside or in place of Western or Christian names, e.g. Vivian Balakrishnan.

Some West and East Indian groups, such as the Gujaratis, Marathis and Bengalis, use family surnames, although the Gujaratis may choose whether to merge their father's name with the surname. Sikh men invariably adopt 'Singh' as their surname, while Sikh women adopt 'Kaur', as is their traditional practice. However, some Sikhs have also re-introduced supplementary family or clan names, thus instead of simply 'Charanjit Singh', an individual might adopt the name 'Charanjit Singh Siddhu' for himself or his son.

Indian institutions
Many of the clubs and associations established by and for Indians in Singapore are defined along narrower linguistic, religious or other sub-ethnic lines. The following groups are among the more important national Indian organisations in Singapore that cater to all Indians, regardless or cultural background.
 * Singapore Indian Development Association (SINDA) – SINDA was set up in 1991 to address educational under-performance in the Indian community. It also deals with other social and economic problems faced by Indians.
 * Singapore Indian Association (IA) – The IA was set up in 1923 by Singapore's Indian elite to promote the social, physical, intellectual, cultural and the general welfare of its members. While the association initially focussed on social and political issues faced by the Indian community, it has evolved into a private sports and recreation members-only club.
 * Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SICCI) – Established first in 1924 as the Indian Merchants Association, the SICCI is an independent, non-profit organisation with over 500 members.
 * Society of Indian Students (SOIS) – Established first in 1999 in the National University of Singapore, the primary objective of SOIS is to provide a framework for students to interact with and to assist one another; Virtually all Indian students at NUS are directly or indirectly linked to SOIS.

Participation in national life

Indian Singaporeans have made their mark nationally and even internationally in a variety of arenas.

 * Politics – Indians have been well represented in national politics, including the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) as well as opposition parties. Indians have served as two out of eight Presidents of Singapore, two out of four Senior Ministers and three out of eleven Deputy Prime Ministers. At some point, Indians have been Ministers of almost all ministries, including Foreign Affairs and Finance. The only key posts Indians have not held are Prime Minister and Defence Minister. As of June 2018, Indians were over-represented in the Cabinet (5 out of 19 cabinet ministers, or 26% of the total). They also comprise 10 out of 89 MPs in the 13th Parliament of Singapore, and one of three of its Non-constituency MPs.
 * The law – Historically, Indians have been prominent in the legal profession, including the judiciary. In 2007, 21 out of 81 persons listed in the Singapore Academy of Law's senior counsel directory in June 2018, or 26%, were Indian. In the Subordinate Courts of Singapore, 9.8% of all District Judges was ethnic Indian. Meanwhile, in the Supreme Court of Singapore, 14%, or two of the 14 Supreme Court Judges and Judicial Commissioners, are Indian.
 * Diplomacy – Indians have traditionally served in the Singapore Diplomatic Service in disproportionate numbers. The Second Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr Bilahari Kausikan, is Indian, as have been three of its five Ministers to date. As of March 2007, a survey of the Singapore Government Directory Interactive website showed about 27% of the heads of Singaporean diplomatic missions abroad were Indian, including heads of missions to the UN in New York and Geneva, High Commissioners to Malaysia and South Africa and Ambassadors to Belgium (de facto representative to the European Union) Germany, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia.
 * Education – Since colonial times, teaching was a job Indians were traditionally involved in. In 2006, Indians remained well represented in the teaching service. In March 2007, the Singapore Government Directory Interactive website showed that 13.3% of primary school principals were Indian, as were 10.3% of secondary school principals. Indians also head prominent higher education schools and think tanks, including the NUS Faculty of Engineering, Institute of Policy Studies, Institute of South Asian Studies, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies and Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.
 * The arts – Indian Singaporeans have distinguished themselves in a number of cultural fields, including contemporary forms of art targeted at a broad national and international audience, as well as more traditional Indian art forms. From 1979 to 2006, Indian Singaporeans have won 10, or 11.4%, of the 88 Cultural Medallions conferred, the highest honour to artists given by the Singapore government.
 * Civil Service – In addition to the foreign, legal and education services, Indians have also traditionally entered the Singapore Civil Service. Several individuals have risen to prominence in various government ministries and statutory boards. 9.4% of the heads of Singapore's 64 statutory boards are Indian – these are the National Library Board, Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority, Hindu Endowments Board, Hindu Advisory Board and Sikh Advisory Board.
 * Business – In 2006, Forbes listed four ethnic Indians among the 40 largest private individual and family fortunes in Singapore, which is 10% of the list. These four individuals each represent large and diversified business empires in their own right, ranging from commodities to retail to electronics, amongst others.

Media
The state-owned broadcaster Mediacorp operates two Tamil-language properties serving Singapore's Indian community—the radio station Oli 968, and television channel Vasantham. The country's Tamil newspaper—the Tamil Murasu—was first published on 2 May 1936.

title: Indian Singaporeans


text:
1997 in art

Events from the year 1997 in art.

Events

 * January 27 – It is revealed that French museums have nearly 2,000 pieces of art that had been stolen by Nazis.
 * February 22 – Gustav Klimt's Portrait of a Lady (overpainted 1917 on Portrait of a Young Lady) is stolen from the Galleria d'arte moderna Ricci Oddi in Piacenza, Italy. It is recovered from a hiding place in the exterior of the building in December 2019.
 * March 6 – Pablo Picasso's Tête de Femme is stolen from the Lefevre Gallery in London's Mayfair by an armed robber. It is recovered a week later.
 * April 27 – Andrew Cunanan murders Jeffrey Trail, beginning a murder spree that will last until July and end with the murder of fashion designer Gianni Versace.
 * September 8 – Marcus Harvey's controversial painting of Myra Hindley goes on display at the Royal Academy of Art in London and is vandalised twice, by two different artists, on the opening day.
 * October 18 – Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, designed by Frank Gehry, is opened.

Full date unknown

 * Puppy by Jeff Koons is moved from Sydney Harbour to the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.
 * Robert Colescott becomes the first African-American to represent the United States in a solo exhibition at the Venice Biennial.
 * Istanbul Contemporary Art Museum is established by conceptual artist Genco Gulan in Turkey as an art project.
 * Patricia Martín conceives La Colección Jumex in Mexico City.

Exhibitions

 * Sensation opens at the Royal Academy of Art in London.
 * Kate and Helen Storey's Primitive Streak opens at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London.
 * Documenta X opens in Kassel.

Awards
-The Venice Biennial-
 * Archibald Prize – Nigel Thomson, Barbara Blackman
 * John Moores Painting Prize - Dan Hays for "Harmony in Green"
 * Schock Prize in Visual Arts – Torsten Andersson
 * Turner Prize – Gillian Wearing
 * The Lion d'or (Golden Lion) for Lifetime Achievement: Emilio Vedova (Italy), Agnes Martin (USA)
 * The Lion d'or for Best Pavilion: France exhibiting the work of Fabrice Hyber

Artworks
Freedom Park]] in Atlanta, Georgia
 * Matthew Barney - The Erich Weiss Suite
 * Louise Bourgeois – Eye Benches I, II and III (Seattle)
 * Maurizio Cattelan – Turisti (installation, first version)
 * Thornton Dial - The Bridge dedicated to Congressman John Lewis at John Lewis Plaza in [[Freedom Park (Atlanta)|
 * Lucian Freud – Eight Months Gone
 * Zenos Frudakis – Statue of Ellis Arnall (Atlanta)
 * Antony Gormley – Another Place (sculpture)
 * Rodney Graham – Vexation Island (film loop)
 * Philip Jackson
 * Gurkha Memorial, London
 * Raoul Wallenberg Monument, London
 * Larry Kirkland – Garden Wreath (installation, Portland, Oregon)
 * Gabriel Koren - El-Hajj Malik Shabazz, Malcolm X placed at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan, New York City
 * Sarah Lucas – Bunny Gets Snookered (installation, including Pauline Bunny)
 * Ron Mueck – Dead Dad, Angel, Big Baby II and III, Man in a Sheet and Mask (Self Portrait) (sculptures)
 * Odd Nerdrum
 * The Savior of Painting
 * Self-Portrait in Golden Cape
 * Cornelia Parker
 * Mass (Colder Darker Matter) (installation)
 * The Negative of Whispers (sculpture of found material)
 * Pornographic Drawings
 * Martin Puryear – Bearing Witness (sculpture, Washington, D.C.)
 * Richard Serra - Snake (completed)
 * Gillian Wearing – 10–16 (video)

Films

 * The Dog of Flanders: The Movie

January to June

 * January 23 – Jeremy Maas, English art dealer and historian of Victorian painting (b. 1928).
 * January 25 – Dan Barry, American cartoonist (b. 1923)
 * February 2 – Theodoros Stamos, Greek American abstract expressionist painter (b.1922).
 * March 7 – Martin Kippenberger, German artist (b.1953).
 * March 11 – Sam Golden, paint maker (b.1915).
 * March 15 – Victor Vasarely, Hungarian-French artist (b.1906).
 * March 19 – Willem de Kooning, Dutch born American abstract expressionist painter (b.1904).
 * April 16 – Roland Topor, French illustrator, painter, writer and filmmaker (b.1938).
 * April 20 – Jean Louis, French costume designer (b.1907).
 * April 22 – Reg Gammon, English painter and illustrator (b.1894)
 * May 23 – James Lee Byars, American artist (b.1932).

July to December

 * July 15 – Gianni Versace, Italian fashion designer, murdered (b.1946).
 * July 16 – Dora Maar, French photographer, poet and painter, lover of Pablo Picasso (b.1907).
 * August 4 – Tom Eckersley, English poster artist (b.1914)
 * September 6 – Jean-Pierre Sudre, French photographer (b.1921)
 * September 29 – Roy Lichtenstein, American pop artist (b.1923).
 * October 22 – Leonid Amalrik, Russian animator and animation director (b.1905).
 * October 23 – Claire Falkenstein, American sculptor and painter (b.1908).
 * November 26 - Philip Berman, art collector, philanthropist, and co-founder of the Philip and Muriel Berman Museum at Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania (b. 1915
 * December 16 – Lillian Disney, American artist and wife of Walt Disney (b.1899).

Full date unknown

 * Jean Pierre Capron, French painter (b.1921).

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: 1997 in art


text:
People's Democratic Party (Tonga)

The People's Democratic Party (PDP) is a political party in Tonga. It was formed after a split in the Human Rights and Democracy Movement. The party was founded on 8 April 2005 in 'Atenisi. Teisina Fuko was the first person elected to the party presidency at a meeting on 15 April 2005.

The PDP was legally registered on July 1, 2005, being the first Tongan party to do so.

The party has not won any seats to the Tonga Parliament. It is currently inactive without any candidates or Members of Parliament.

title: People's Democratic Party (Tonga)


text:
Talk:Hiplife

The result of the VfD discussion on this article was: KEEP. The discussion is archived here. — mark ✎ 12:44, 20 Apr 2005 (UTC)

title: Talk:Hiplife


text:
Harum Scarum (film)

Harum Scarum (released in the United Kingdom as Harem Holiday) is a 1965 American musical comedy film starring Elvis Presley. It was shot on the original Cecil B. DeMille set from the film The King of Kings, with additional footage shot on location at the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, Los Angeles. Some of the film was based on Rudolph Valentino's 1921 movie The Sheik.

The film reached #11 on the Variety national weekly box office chart, earned $2 million at the box office, and finished #40 on the year end list of the top-grossing films of 1965. The film is listed in Golden Raspberry Award founder John Wilson's book The Official Razzie Movie Guide as one of The 100 Most Enjoyably Bad Movies Ever Made.

Plot
American movie star Johnny Tyrone goes to the Middle East to premiere his new picture. He is seduced by the lovely Aishah, then kidnapped by a man named Sinan who wants Johnny to help him kill the king in the fictional town of Bar Esalaam. Johnny escapes the palace with the help of a slave girl, Shalimar. Once out of the palace walls, Johnny tells her that he was brought to the Middle East to assassinate the king, which causes Shalimar to run off in fear as she is actually the king's daughter.

Johnny meets up with his fellow escapee Zacha and makes a plan to foil the assassination plot by joining a troupe of musicians who will be going to entertain the people of Bar Esalaam on the last day of Ramadan. Johnny successfully befriends the troupe, but that night they are ambushed by Aishah and her men after being betrayed by Zacha. Aishah orders Johnny to go through with the assassination after threatening the lives of the musicians and their children. Meanwhile, Princess Shalimar can not shake the feelings she has for Johnny. On the day of the festivities Johnny reluctantly moves in to kill the King but is thwarted by Shalimar. Johnny, the musicians and the kids are sentenced to death.

The troupe is spared death after they are rescued by their associate, a dwarf named Baba. Johnny breaks into the King's room and convinces him that he was blackmailed into the plot by Sinan and also confesses his love for Shalimar. The King believes Johnny and helps him infiltrate Sinan's lair where it is revealed that the man who orchestrated the assassination plot was none other than the King's brother Prince Dragna. Johnny manages to overpower Sinan but learns that his army has grown in number and taken the town by force.

Johnny, The King, Shalimar, the musicians and the remorseful Zacha gather as many of the King's most loyal servants to battle the assassins and take back the town while the King enters Dragna's hideout vowing revenge. However it is revealed that rather than kill Dragna he has chosen to banish him after besting him in a game of chess. Johnny asks the King not to banish him to the United States. With order restored, Johnny and his new royal bride honeymoon in Las Vegas, along with a few of her dancing girls.

Cast

 * Elvis Presley as Johnny Tyronne
 * Mary Ann Mobley as Princess Shalimar
 * Fran Jeffries as Aishah
 * Michael Ansara as Prince Dragna
 * Jay Novello as Zacha
 * Philip Reed as King Toranshah
 * Theo Marcuse as Sinan
 * Billy Barty as Baba
 * Dirk Harvey as Mokar
 * Jack Costanzo as Julna
 * Larry Chance as Captain Herat
 * Barbara Werle as Leilah
 * Brenda Benet as Emerald
 * Gail Gilmore as Sapphire
 * Wilda Taylor as Amethyst
 * Vicki Malkin as Sari
 * Ryck Rydon as Mustapha
 * Joey Russo as Yussef

Production
Upon hearing about the movie for the first time, Elvis loved the idea of his character as being similar to a sheik. Eventually, he grew tired of the film because his character was made to look like a fool.

Similar to Elvis' misconception of the script, Colonel Tom Parker thought the film was a comedy and suggested introducing a talking camel.

Home media
Harum Scarum was released to DVD by Warner Home Video on August 7, 2007, as a Region 1 widescreen DVD.

Reception
Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote in a negative review that Presley walked through the film "with all the animation of a man under deep sedation, but then he had read the script". Variety wrote that the picture "suffers from a lack of imagination" in providing Presley with a "substantial showcase", but that the eight song numbers in the film would "probably meet with response similar to Presley's past entries". Margaret Harford of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "Nobody, least of all Elvis, can bring parody to heel in this effort from MGM, directed by Gene Nelson. Presley isn't Bob Hope and Mary Ann Mobley, beauty winner though she is, won't pass for Dorothy Lamour. Put them together and you realize right off that Harum Scarum isn't going to be much fun." Jack Shaheen listed Harum Scarum in his "Worst List" of films with anti-Arab stereotypes.

title: Harum Scarum (film)


text:
File:U2uabrs.jpg

Cover of U2's Under a Blood Red Sky live album.

title: File:U2uabrs.jpg


text: User talk:66.144.4.77

title: User talk:66.144.4.77


text:
Sun TV (India)

Sun TV is an Indian Tamil-language general entertainment pay television channel owned by Sun TV Network. It was launched on 14 April 1993. It is the flagship channel of the Chennai-based media conglomerate Sun Group's Sun TV Network. It was founded and is owned by Kalanithi Maran.

It started airing on open network (Antenna) on 14 July 2002 at the time of "Majunu" Tamil movie premiering. Then it was removed from this open network on 2005. It was also removed from free on 9 November 2007. Sun TV launched its HD version on 11 December 2011.

Since its inception, the channel consistently remains the top rated Tamil channel and one of the top rated Indian television channel.

History
Sun TV is the flagship channel of Sun TV Network which started on the Tamil New Year, 14 April 1993.

It started off with a four and a half hour programming per day on a time sharing agreement with ATN. However, in January 1997 it became 24 hours programming channel.

In 1995, it signed an agreement with ST Teleport in Singapore to provide uplink.

Sun TV was listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange on 24 April 2006 upon raising $133 million. It is the most viewed Tamil television channel in the world with syndicated broadcasts in several countries such as the United States, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Australia, Canada, South Africa, Qatar, Hong Kong, Europe (United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Austria, Switzerland, Netherlands and Ireland) and other countries.

Scandal
On 8 December 2013, the Little India Riot broke out at Singapore. On 9 December 2013, Sun TV made a false news report on the riot saying that the deceased was pushed out of the bus by the driver, as well as attacked by locals. Lim Thuan Kuan, Singapore's High Commissioner to India, protest against the false report. As a result, Sun TV issued a correction the following day and apologized for the error.

Awards
Sun TV also hosts numerous film-industry–related events in Tamil Nadu and the Sun Kudumbam Awards ceremony biannually.

KTV
KTV is an Indian Tamil language movie pay television channel owned by Sun TV Network, broadcasting Tamil language films. It was launched on 22 October 2001.

Sun Music
Sun Music is India's first Tamil language music pay television channel owned by Sun TV Network. It was launched on 5 September 2004. Its HD counterpart was launched on 11 December 2011.

Chutti TV
Chutti TV is an Indian Tamil language kids pay television channel from the Sun TV Network in India. The target audience are children aged between 3 and 17. It was launched on 29 April 2007, making it Sun TV Network's first ever television channel for kids.

Adithya TV
Adithya TV is an Indian Tamil language comedy pay television channel owned by Sun TV Network in India. It was launched on 8 February 2009.

Sun News
Sun News is an Indian Tamil language news pay television channel owned by Sun TV Network, headquartered at Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was launched on 7 May 2000.

Sun Life
Sun Life is an Indian Tamil language classic movie pay television channel owned by Sun TV Network, which broadcasts classic movies. It was launched in 2013.

title: Sun TV (India)


text:
Automatic train operation

Automatic train operation (ATO) is a method of operating trains automatically where the driver is not required or required for supervision at most. Alternatively, ATO can be defined as a subsystem within the automatic train control, which performs any or all of functions like programmed stopping, speed adjusting, door operation, and similar otherwise assigned to the train operator.

The degree of automation is indicated by the Grade of Automation (GoA), up to GoA4 in which the train is automatically controlled without any staff on board. On most systems for lower grades of automation up to GoA2, there is a driver present to mitigate risks associated with failures or emergencies. Driverless automation is primarily used on automated guideway transit systems where it is easier to ensure the safety due to isolated tracks. Fully automated trains for mainline railways are an area of research. The first driverless experiments in the history of train automation date back to 1920s.

Grades of automation
According to the International Association of Public Transport (UITP) and the international standard IEC 62290‐1, there are five Grades of Automation (GoA) of trains. These levels correspond with the automotive SAE J3016 classification:

Operation of ATO
Many modern systems are linked with automatic train protection (ATP) and, in many cases, automatic train control (ATC) where normal signaling operations such as route setting and train regulation are carried out by the system. The ATC and ATP systems will work together to maintain a train within a defined tolerance of its timetable. The combined system will marginally adjust operating parameters such as the ratio of power to coasting when moving and station dwell time in order to adhere to a defined timetable.

Whereas ATP is the safety system that ensures a safe spacing between trains and provides sufficient warning as to when to stop. ATO is the "non-safety" part of train operation related to station stops and starts, and indicates the stopping position for the train once the ATP has confirmed that the line is clear.

The train approaches the station under clear signals, so it can do a normal run-in. When it reaches the first beacon – originally a looped cable, now usually a fixed transponder – a station brake command is received by the train. The on-board computer calculates the braking curve to enable it to stop at the correct point, and as the train runs in towards the platform, the curve is updated a number of times (which varies from system to system) to ensure accuracy.

When the train has stopped, it verifies that its brakes are applied and checks that it has stopped within the door-enabling loops. These loops verify the position of the train relative to the platform and which side the doors should open. Once all this is complete, the ATO will open the doors. After a set time, predetermined or varied by the control centre as required, the ATO will close the doors and automatically restart the train if the door closed proving circuit is complete. Some systems have platform screen doors as well. ATO will also provide a signal for these to open once it has completed the on-board checking procedure. Although described here as an ATO function, door enabling at stations is often incorporated as part of the ATP equipment because it is regarded as a "vital" system and requires the same safety validation processes as ATP.

Once door operation is completed, ATO will accelerate the train to its cruising speed, allow it to coast to the next station brake command beacon and then brake into the next station, assuming no intervention by the ATP system.

Advantages of GoA3+
In 2021, the Florida Department of Transportation funded a review by scientists from Florida State University, University of Talca and Hong Kong Polytechnic University, which showed the following advantages of autonomous trains:
 * 1) Eliminating human sources of errors
 * 2) Increasing capacity by stronger utilisation of existing rail tracks
 * 3) Reduction of operational costs. Paris Métro reduced its operational costs in case of GoA 4 by 30%.
 * 4) Increasing overall service reliability
 * 5) Improving fleet management and service flexibility
 * 6) Increasing energy efficiency

Accidents and incidents involving ATO
While ATO has been proven to drastically reduce the chance of human errors in railway operation, there have been a few notable accidents involving ATO systems:

Future
In October 2021, the pilot project of the "world's first automated, driverless train" on regular tracks shared with other rail traffic was launched in the city of Hamburg, Germany. The conventional, standard-track, non-metro train technology could, according to reports, theoretically be implemented for rail transport worldwide and is also substantially more energy efficient.

ATO will be introduced on the London Underground's Circle, District, Hammersmith & City, and Metropolitan lines by 2022. ATO is used on parts of Crossrail. Trains on the central London section of Thameslink were the first to use ATO on the UK mainline railway network with ETCS Level 2.

In April 2022, JR West announced that they will test ATO on a 12-car W7 series Shinkansen train used on the Hokuriku Shinkansen at the Hakusan General Rolling Stock Yard during 2022.

The U-Bahn in Vienna will be equipped with ATO in 2023 on the new U5 line.

All lines being built for the new Sydney Metro will feature driverless operation without any staff in attendance.

Since 2012, the Toronto subway has been undergoing signal upgrades in order to use ATO and ATC over the next decade. Work has been completed on sections Yonge–University line. The underground portion of Line 5 Eglinton will be equipped with ATC and ATO in 2022. The underground portion will use a GoA2 system while the Eglinton Maintenance and Storage Facility will use a GoA4 system and travel driverless around the yard. The Ontario Line is proposed have a GoA4 driverless system and will open in 2030.

Since March 2021, SNCF and Hauts-de-France region have begun an experimentation with a French Regio 2N Class, equipped with sensors and software(fr).

In 2025, regular driverless passenger services on the line from Kopidlno to Dolní Bousov will be resumed by AŽD Praha.

title: Automatic train operation


text:
Nicholas Kurti

Nicholas Kurti, (Kürti Miklós) (14 May 1908 – 24 November 1998) was a Hungarian-born British physicist who lived in Oxford, UK, for most of his life.

Career
Born in Budapest, Kurti went to high school at the Minta Gymnasium, but due to anti-Jewish laws he had to leave the country, gaining his master's degree at the Sorbonne in Paris. He obtained his doctorate in low-temperature physics in Berlin, working with Professor Franz Simon. Kurti and Simon continued to work together during 1931–1933 at the Technische Hochschule in Breslau. However, when Adolf Hitler rose to power, both Simon and Kurti left Germany, joining the Clarendon Laboratory in the University of Oxford, England.

During World War II, Kurti worked on the Manhattan project, returning to Oxford in 1945. In 1955 he won the Fernand Holweck Medal and Prize. In 1956, Simon and Kurti built a laboratory experiment that reached a temperature of one microkelvin. This work attracted worldwide attention, and Kurti was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. He later became the society's Vice-President from 1965 to 1967.

Kurti became a Fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1947 and became Professor of Physics at Oxford in 1967, a post he held until his retirement in 1975. He was also Visiting Professor at City College in New York City, the University of California, Berkeley, and Amherst College in Massachusetts.

Nicholas Kurti was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1956, becoming vice-president in 1965, and was appointed as a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 1973.

Personal life
Kurti's hobby was cooking, and he was an enthusiastic advocate of applying scientific knowledge to culinary problems, a field known today as gastrophysics. In 1969 he gave a talk at the Royal Institution titled "The physicist in the kitchen", in which he amazed the audience by using the recently invented microwave oven to make a "reverse Baked Alaska" — a Frozen Florida — hot liquor enclosed by a shell of frozen meringue. Over the years he organized several international workshops in Erice, Italy on "Molecular and Physical Gastronomy."

title: Nicholas Kurti


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Logarithmic timeline/New version

 This page is an archive of the discussion about the proposed deletion of the article below. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page rather than here so that this page is preserved as an historic record. The result of the debate was delete (pending; error). Mindspillage (spill yours?) 15:02, 4 May 2005 (UTC)

Logarithmic timeline/New version
I created this page to get consensus for a change to Logarithmic timeline. This has now been accepted and the main page altered (not by me), but this page was not deleted. I'd blank it, but other people have also edited the page. G Rutter 12:58, 20 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete after merging as necessary. — RJH 15:11, 20 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Is there a reason not to redirect in order to preserve the attribution history? Rossami (talk) 22:55, 20 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Comment:There's nothing to merge, as the changes were accepted and made to the main article, so I also don't see any need to keep this, even for its attribution history. --G Rutter 10:51, 21 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and, like some other VfD subpages, is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue, the deletion, or the decision-making process should be placed on the relevant 'live' pages. Please do not edit this page.


text:
Xerox 914

The Xerox 914 was the first successful commercial plain paper copier. Introduced in 1959 by the Haloid/Xerox company, it revolutionized the document-copying industry. The culmination of inventor Chester Carlson's work on the xerographic process, the 914 was fast and economical. The copier was introduced to the public on September 16, 1959, in a demonstration at the Sherry-Netherland Hotel in New York, shown on live television.

Background
Xerography, a process of producing images using electricity, was invented in 1938 by physicist-lawyer Chester Floyd "Chet" Carlson (1906–1968), and an engineering partner, Otto Kornei. Carlson entered into a research agreement with the Battelle Memorial Institute in 1945, when he and Kornei produced the first operable copy machine. He sold his rights in 1947 to the Haloid Company, a wet-chemical photopaper manufacturer, founded in 1906 in Rochester, New York.

Haloid introduced the first commercial xerographic copier, the Xerox Model A, in 1949. The company had, the previous year, announced the refined development of xerography in collaboration with Battelle Development Corporation, of Columbus, Ohio. Manually operated, it was also known as the Ox Box. An improved version, Camera #1, was introduced in 1950. Haloid was renamed Haloid Xerox in 1958, and, after the instant success of the 914, when the name Xerox soon became synonymous with "copy", would become the Xerox Corporation.

In 1963, Xerox introduced the first desktop copier to make copies on plain paper, the 813. It was designed by Jim Balmer and William H. Armstrong of Armstrong-Balmer & Associates, and won a 1964 Certificate of Design Merit from the Industrial Designers Institute (IDI). Balmer had recently left Harley Earl, Inc., where he had been a designer since 1946, to co-establish Armstrong-Balmer & Associates in 1958. At Earl, Balmer had been involved in the Secretary copy machine designed for Thermofax and introduced by 3M in 1958, and Haloid Xerox had been impressed with the design, engaging Balmer to consult on the final design of the 914.

A year later, in 1964, Balmer worked with Xerox to establish their first internal industrial design group. Among those first design employees were William Dalton and Robert Van Valkinburgh.

Specifications and features
The 914 model (so-called because it could copy originals up to 9 inches by 14 inches (229 mm × 356 mm) could make 100,000 copies per month (seven copies per minute). In 1985, the Smithsonian received a Xerox 914, number 517 off the assembly line. It weighs approximately 650 pounds (294 kg) and measures 42" (107 cm) high × 46" (117 cm) wide × 45" (114 cm) deep.

The machine was mechanically complex. It required a large technical support force, and had a tendency to catch fire when overheated. Because of the problem, the Xerox company provided a "scorch eliminator", which was actually a small fire extinguisher, along with the copier. Ralph Nader was among those to complain about the copier fires, reporting that the machine at his office in Washington had caught fire three times in four months. A 1967 article in The New Yorker by John Brooks detailed the relationship between the office secretary and the copier. A secretary he had interviewed for the piece said that a technical representative from Xerox had warned her "not to be afraid of the 914 because the machine would sense her fear and, like a mischievous child, misbehave." Despite these problems, the machine was regarded with affection by its operators, due to it being complex enough to be interesting to use, but without being so complex as to be beyond understanding.

The pricing structure of the machine was designed to encourage customers to rent rather than buy: it could be rented in 1965 for $25 per month, plus 10 cents per copy. There was a meter, which the customer would read to fill out and mail a card to Xerox each month. Its purchase price was $27,500, which was established by the US Government, as they would not rent equipment. The customer also bought paper and toner (ink) at a cost of about 5 cents per copy.

Sales
The Xerox 914 was produced between 1960 and 1977. It was introduced to the public on September 16, 1959, in a demonstration at the Sherry-Netherland Hotel in New York, shown on live television. One of the two copiers that were present that day caught fire.

The 914 was one of the most successful Xerox products ever, and was a significant component of Xerox's revenues in the mid-1960s, with one author estimating that the machine accounted for two thirds of the company's revenue in 1965, with income generated of $243M.

The second television commercial produced by Xerox for the 914 featured a trained chimpanzee using the copier. The day after the commercial debuted, the company received calls from angry customers complaining of co-workers leaving bananas on the copier and suggesting that a monkey could do their jobs. The commercial was taken off the air.

Legacy
The company's subsequent models were the Xerox 710, the Xerox 1000, the Xerox 813 and the Xerox 2400. One writer has assessed that the popularity of the machine has had a number of lasting impacts, such as prompting the introduction of highlighter pens, and university courses switching from reading lists of single chapters from several books, each of which needed to be purchased by the student, to requiring the students to purchase a single compilation of those chapters produced by local copy shops.

In popular culture
The arrival of a Xerox 914 is a cultural signifier in the second season of Mad Men, set in a 1961 Manhattan advertising agency. It is acquired specifically to impress a potential client with how modern the agency is.

In the 2017 film The Post, Daniel Ellsberg, portrayed by Matthew Rhys, is seen using a Xerox 914 to copy the Pentagon Papers.

title: Xerox 914


text:
Coghlan, Buenos Aires

Coghlan is a barrio (neighbourhood), of the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

It is the name of a middle class neighbourhood located between Belgrano, Saavedra, Núñez and Villa Urquiza; it was originally inhabited by Irish and English immigrants.

The 1887 sale of 30 hectares (75 acres) of land to the Mitre Railway led to the railway's extension under the direction of Irish Argentine engineer John Coghlan, in whose honor the train station was named. The sale of residential lots after 1891 led to the rapid growth of what was then a suburb of Buenos Aires and, in 1896, Dr. Ignacio Pirovano opened an emergency hospital, today among the city's public medical facilities.

Coghlan was formally designated as a barrio (borough) in 1968 and is today still a quiet bedroom community known for its big, English style residences.

title: Coghlan, Buenos Aires


text:
Homero Manzi

Homero Nicolás Manzione Prestera, better known as Homero Manzi (November 1, 1907 – May 3, 1951) was an Argentine tango lyricist, author of various famous tangos.

He was born on November 1 of 1907 in Añatuya (province of Santiago del Estero), Argentina. Manzi was interested in literature and tango since he was young. After a brief incursion in journalism, he worked as a literature and Spanish professor but for political reasons (in addition to his membership in the Unión Cívica Radical) he was expelled from his professorship and decided to dedicate himself to the arts.

In 1935 he participated in the beginnings of FORJA (Fuerza de Orientación Radical de la Joven Argentina – Force of Radical Orientation of the Young in Argentina), group whose position has been classified as “peoples nationalism”. It was centered almost exclusively in the problems in Argentina and Latin America. They manifested to “reconquer the political Sunday from our own land” since it was considered that the country was still in a colonial situation. In relation to the European conflict at the time, it supported a neutral position sustaining that there was no great interest was in play in Argentina or Latin America, it was more of a rejection position towards fascism just as much as communism.

In 1934 Manzi founded Micrófono ("Microphone") magazine which covered subjects related to radio telephony, Argentine movies and film making. He wrote the screenplay for Nobleza Gaucha in 1937 in collaboration with Hugo Mac Dougall, and a new version of the silent movie of 1915, Huella ("Footprint") (1940), for which they received second prize from Buenos Aires City Hall. He also worked in Confesión ("Confession") (1940), without achieving commercial success with any of these movies.

In 1940 Manzi started what would be a long collaboration with Ulyses Petit de Murat, writing the screenplay for Con el dedo en el gatillo ("Finger on the trigger") (1940) Fortín alto ("High Fort") (1940), and The Gaucho War (1942). At the 1943 Argentine Film Critics Association Awards, Manzi and Murat won the Silver Condor Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for their screenplay of  The Gaucho War which proved highly successful.

The early death of the poet was caused by cancer on Thursday, May 3, 1951.

Selected filmography

 * The Caranchos of Florida (1938)
 * His Best Student (1944)
 * Savage Pampas (1945)
 * Where Words Fail (1946)
 * My Poor Beloved Mother (1948)

title: Homero Manzi


text:
Lenny Murphy

Hugh Leonard Thompson Murphy (2 March 1952 – 16 November 1982) was a Northern Irish loyalist and UVF officer. As leader of the Shankill Butchers gang, Murphy was responsible for the murders of mainly Catholic civilians, often first kidnapping and torturing his victims. Due to a lack of evidence, Murphy was never brought to trial for these killings, for which some of his followers had already received long sentences in 1979. In the summer of 1982, Murphy was released just over half-way through a 12-year sentence for other offences. He returned to the Shankill Road, where he embarked on a murder spree.

Details of his movements were apparently passed by rival loyalist paramilitaries to the Provisional IRA, who shot Murphy dead that autumn.

Early life
Murphy was the youngest of three sons of William and Joyce Murphy from the loyalist Shankill Road, Belfast. His elder brothers were William Jr. and John. William Sr. was originally from Fleet Street, Sailortown in the Belfast docks area, where he met Joyce Thompson, who came from the Shankill. Like his own father (also named William), William Sr. worked as a dock labourer. The Murphy family changed their residence several times; in 1957 they returned to Joyce's family home in the lower Shankill, at 28 Percy Street. Murphy did not use his first name "Hugh" possibly because of its close resemblance to the surname "Hughes", common among Irish Catholics, which when coupled with the conspicuously Irish surname Murphy it might have added to the Catholic connotation. Prior to the erection of a peace wall in the 1970s, Percy Street ran from the lower Shankill area to the Falls Road. At Argyle Primary School, he was known for the use of a knife and had his elder brothers to back him up; he logged his first conviction at the age of twelve for theft. After leaving the Belfast Boys' Model School at sixteen, he joined the Ulster Volunteer Force and was involved in the rioting that broke out in Belfast in August 1969. In his book The Shankill Butchers, Belfast journalist Martin Dillon suggests Murphy's bigoted Loyalism may have stemmed from his bearing a surname associated with Catholics.

His character was marked by a hatred of Catholics, which he brought into all his conversations, often referring to them as "scum and animals". He held a steady job as a shop assistant, although his increasing criminal activities enabled him to indulge in a flamboyant lifestyle which involved socialising with an array of young women and heavy drinking.

Dillon wrote that it is "incredible to think that Murphy was in fact a murderer at the age of twenty" (1972). Physically Murphy was below average height, of slim build and sallow complexion, Murphy was blue eyed and had curly dark brown hair. He sported several tattoos; most of them bearing Ulster loyalist images. He was a flashy dresser, often wearing a leather jacket and scarf, and occasionally leather driving gloves, similar to those worn by a World War I fighter-pilot.

First crimes
According to Dillon, Murphy was involved in the torture and murder of four Catholic men as early as 1972. On 28 September of that year, a Protestant man named William Edward Pavis, who had gone bird shooting with a Catholic priest, was killed at his home in East Belfast. Pavis had been threatened by loyalists, who accused him of selling firearms to the IRA. Murphy and an accomplice, Mervyn Connor, were arrested for this crime. During pre-trial investigations, Murphy was placed in a line-up for possible identification by witnesses to Pavis' shooting. Before the process began formally, he created a disturbance and stepped out of the line-up. However, two witnesses picked him out when order was restored.

Connor and Murphy were held in prison together but, in April 1973, before the trial, Connor died after ingesting cyanide in his cell. He had written a suicide note in which he confessed to the crime and exonerated Murphy. It is believed Connor was forced to write the note and take the cyanide. Murphy was sent to trial for the murder of Pavis in June 1973. Although two witnesses identified him as the gunman, he was acquitted on the basis that their evidence may have been contaminated by the disturbance during the police line-up inquiry. However, Murphy was re-arrested and jailed for attempted escapes.

By May 1975, Murphy, now aged twenty-three, was back on the streets of Belfast. On 5 May 1973, inside Crumlin Road prison, he had married 19-year-old Margaret Gillespie, with whom he had a daughter. He moved his wife and child to Brookmount Street in the upper Shankill, where his parents had a new home. Murphy spent much of his time drinking in Shankill pubs such as The Brown Bear and Lawnbrook Social Club. He also frequented the Bayardo Bar in Aberdeen Street. Murphy later told a Provisional IRA inmate that on 13 August 1975 he had just left the Bayardo ten minutes before the IRA carried out a gun and bombing attack against the pub which killed a UVF man and four other Protestants and left over 50 injured. With his brother William he soon formed a gang of more than twenty men that would become known as the Shankill Butchers, one of his lieutenants being William Moore.

Shankill Butchers murders
The gang shot dead four Catholics (two men and two women) during a robbery at a warehouse in October 1975. Over the next few months, the gang began abducting, torturing and murdering random Catholic men they dragged off the streets late at night. Murphy regarded the use of a blade as the "ultimate way to kill", ending the torture by hacking each victim's throat open with a butcher's knife. By February 1976 the gang had killed three Catholic men in this manner. Murphy achieved status through his paramilitary activity and was widely known in the Shankill. Many regarded his crimes as shaming the community but feared the consequences of testifying against him. None of the victims had any connection to the IRA, and there was suspicion among some of their families that the murders were not properly investigated because those being killed were Catholics.

The Butchers were also involved in the murder of Noel Shaw, a loyalist from a rival UVF unit, who had shot dead Butcher gang-member Archie Waller in Downing Street, off the Shankill Road, in November 1975. Four days before his death, Waller had been involved in the abduction and murder of the Butchers' first victim, Francis Crossin. One day after Waller's death, Shaw was beaten and pistol-whipped by Murphy while strapped to a chair, then shot. His body was later dumped in a back street off the Shankill.

By the end of 1975, the UVF Brigade Staff had a new leadership of "moderates", but Murphy refused to submit to their authority, preferring to carry out attacks by his own methods. Dillon suggested that despite some Brigade Staff knowing about Murphy's activities (albeit not the precise details), they were too frightened to put a stop to it. This suggestion was given further credibility by Gusty Spence, when he was asked by BBC journalist Peter Taylor in a 1998 interview why the leadership of the UVF failed to stop the Butchers. "I don't think they had the bottle to stop them", was Spence's reply. On 10 January 1976, Murphy and Moore killed a Catholic man, Edward McQuaid (25), on the Cliftonville Road. Murphy, alighting from Moore's taxi in the small hours, shot the man six times at close range.

Imprisonment
Early on 11 March 1976, Murphy shot and injured a young Catholic woman, once again on the Cliftonville Road. Arrested the next day after attempting to retrieve the gun used, Murphy was charged with attempted murder and remanded in custody for a prolonged period. However, he was able to plea bargain whereby he was allowed to plead guilty to the lesser charge of a firearms offence, and received twelve years' imprisonment on 11 October 1977. Dillon notes that the police believed Murphy was involved in the Shankill Butcher murders. To divert suspicion from himself Murphy ordered the rest of the gang to continue the cut-throat murders while he was in prison. The Butchers, now under the operational command of William Moore, went on to kill and mutilate at least three more Catholics.

The team of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) detectives investigating the murders was led by Detective Chief Inspector Jimmy Nesbitt who headed C Division based at Tennent Street off the Shankill Road. However, the police were overworked during this period and little progress was made in the investigation until one victim, Gerard McLaverty, survived his assault. Detectives were driving him down the Shankill Road on the way to the scene of his abduction when he recognised two of his assailants walking in the street. This identification of Sam McAllister and Benjamin Edwards led to the arrest of much of the gang in May 1977 and, in February 1979, they were imprisoned for long periods. Confessions of gang members had named Murphy as the leader but statements incriminating him were later retracted. He was questioned once again about the Butcher murders but denied involvement. The total of sentences handed down to the gang at Belfast Crown Court was the longest in legal history in the UK.

Last months on the Shankill
On completing his sentence for the firearms charge, Lenny Murphy walked out of the Maze Prison on Friday, 16 July 1982. During his term inside, his wife Margaret initiated divorce proceedings which were being finalised at the time of his death.

Murphy killed at least four more people over the next four months. He beat a partially disabled man to death one day after returning to the Shankill. Another victim sold him a car and was shot dead after demanding full payment. Murphy also attempted to extort money from local businessmen who had been sympathetic in the past, however this encroached on other loyalist paramilitaries with established protection rackets.

In late August 1982, Murphy killed a part-time Ulster Defence Regiment soldier from the lower Shankill area who was closely involved with the UVF in Ballymena and was allegedly an informer. The man's body was not discovered for almost a year. In mid-October, Murphy and several associates kidnapped a Catholic man who was then tortured and beaten to death in Murphy's own house (temporarily vacated due to renovations). Murphy, who had left the house strewn with the victim's blood and teeth, was arrested for questioning the next morning but later released. The sadism of the widely publicised killing led to loyalism receiving a great deal of bad publicity and leading UVF figures concluded that Murphy's horrific methods had made him too much of a liability.

Death
On 16 November 1982, Murphy had just pulled up outside the rear of his girlfriend's house on the Forthriver Road area of Glencairn, a part of the Greater Shankill Area, when two Provisional IRA gunmen – one of them Gerard "Hucker" Moyna – emerged from a black van nearby and opened fire with a sub-machine gun and a 9mm pistol. Murphy was hit by more than twenty rounds and died instantly. He was gunned down just around the corner from where the bodies of many of the Butchers' victims had been dumped. A few days after his death the IRA claimed responsibility. According to RUC reports, the UVF had provided the IRA hit team with the details of Murphy's habits and movements, which allowed them to assassinate him at that particular location. Another line of inquiry ends at UDA leader James Craig, who saw Murphy as a serious threat to his widespread racketeering and provided the IRA with key information on Murphy's movements. Craig was known to meet republican paramilitary commanders to discuss racketeering activities: he was later killed by his comrades for "treason". Top UDA member, Samuel McCrory, alleged that the weapon used to kill Murphy, which he stated was a Sterling submachine gun, had been supplied by Craig.

Murphy was given a large paramilitary funeral by the UVF with a guard of honour wearing the UVF uniform and balaclavas. A volley of three shots was fired over his coffin as it was brought out of his house and a piper played "Abide With Me". He was buried in Carnmoney Cemetery; on his tombstone the following words were inscribed: "Here Lies a Soldier". May Blood, Baroness Blood, a Shankill Road community representative, said: "My father was a soldier. My father fought in two World Wars. They were real heroes. Lenny Murphy wasn't a hero; he was a murdering thug." The tombstone was smashed in 1989. His photograph was displayed inside "The Eagle", the UVF Brigade Staff's headquarters over a chip shop in the Shankill Road. According to investigative journalist Paul Larkin, it graced the walls as a "fallen officer" up until the late 1990s.

title: Lenny Murphy


text: Talk:Peter McGill

title: Talk:Peter McGill