HISTORY | Unofficial bankers: The Sikh moneylenders

HISTORY: TOLD AS IT IS | It is a little-known fact, as reported in The Straits Times (March 26, 1889), that since the 1880s, men of the First Battalion Perak Sikhs, through the employment of agents, were lending money at heavy interest to the Chinese without official sanction.

By the early decades of the 20th century, thousands of Sikhs, particularly from the class of watchmen and ex-policemen, were involved in moneylending. Any account of Sikh moneylenders in Malaysia cannot but include Jagat Singh of Perlis, who was reputed to be the wealthiest Sikh businessman of his time in Malaya, owning rubber estates, tin mines and landed property.

Writing about Sikh watchmen and moneylending, The Straits Times (June 30, 1935) stated: “It is well-known that many a Sikh jaga (watchman), employed to guard buildings and property, is much more concerned with his little moneylending ‘sideline’ which produced a profitable income from the interest on debts alone.”

Their place of work functioned as the “office”. Interesting and amusing as it may seem, it was not uncommon for the manager of the very bank that a Sikh watchman was hired to guard, to be a client of his watchman-moneylender! One instance was a Chinese bank manager of OCBC Segamat in Johor who borrowed money from Pall Singh, the bank’s watchman...