The colonial city in motion: managing ethnic diversity through public processions in Singapore and Batavia, 1840-1870

ABSTRACT This paper examines attempts by colonial authorities in nineteenth-century Singapore and Batavia (now Jakarta) to employ ceremonial processions to manage the ethnic diversity of these two major colonial capitals. Public spectacles formed a key forum for the reinforcement of ethnic categories and the negotiation of inter-community relations in the context of the colonial city. The paper looks at two case studies: the procession on the occasion of the arrival of governor-general Jan Jacob Rochussen in Batavia in 1845, and a second one celebrating the Duke of Edinburgh’s visit in Singapore in 1869. The analysis shows how these events attempted to fix ethnic categories spatially on the maps of the respective cities. Comparing the two events to a Malay account of the 1864 Muharram celebrations, the article also analyses the different ways that official and community-led processions employed mobility, visuality and sound to represent ethnicity and inter-community relations or hierarchies.