Ananya SINHA
Class of 2027Singapore, Singapore
About
Hi! I’m Ananya, a high school student with a deep interest in global history and the lasting impacts of colonialism. For my Polygence project, I’m writing a research paper exploring colonialism in Singapore in comparison to other Southeast Asian countries. I was inspired to pursue this topic because I’m fascinated by Singapore’s approach to preserving its colonial history and want to better understand the social, cultural, and political reasons behind that choice.Projects
- "Continuity Without Rupture: The Colonial Foundations of Singapore’s Postcolonial State" with mentor Jonathan (Working project)
Project Portfolio
Continuity Without Rupture: The Colonial Foundations of Singapore’s Postcolonial State
Started Apr. 21, 2025
Abstract or project description
This paper investigates how Singapore’s postcolonial governance has preserved, adapted, and even exported key elements of British colonial rule — particularly in the areas of state surveillance, social control, and centralized authority. It asks: How has Singapore’s postcolonial state retained colonial structures of governance? And has Singapore’s development model — rooted in these colonial foundations — been repackaged as a model for other postcolonial nations? Drawing on a range of secondary sources including academic studies from JSTOR (e.g., Nasir on secret societies, Do Young Oh on colonial universities, and White on economic transitions), as well as primary materials from Singapore’s National Archives and NewspaperSG, this paper examines both the continuities in state practices and the symbolic reinvention of colonial governance as pragmatic modernity. Using a comparative-historical method, the paper analyzes how colonial-era policies — such as permissive control of underground societies, selective archival preservation, and meritocratic elitism — were not dismantled after independence but rebranded as efficient tools of nation-building. These strategies, once used to control colonial subjects, have been reframed by the postcolonial Singaporean state as hallmarks of good governance and stability. The argument advanced is that Singapore’s so-called postcolonial success is not a break from its colonial past but a strategic refinement of it — one that now circulates globally as a development model for authoritarian-capitalist regimes. This matters because it challenges conventional narratives of decolonization as rupture and suggests that colonial governance may persist under new labels, reshaping how postcolonial states define legitimacy and modernity.