During the colonial period, the Straits Settlements government formalised through law the declaration of public holidays marking religious festivals for the different communities. This practice was continued by the post-colonial state, apportioning public holidays “equally” amongst its citizenry. Adopting a historical perspective, this paper theorises the Singapore state’s allocation of public holidays for its citizens with a specific focus on the Singaporean Hindu community. The paper traces the journey of Tai Pucam as a declared public holiday in colonial Singapore to the 1950s when the Hindu community had two gazetted public holidays to 1968 when Tai Pucam was removed from the list of public holidays, a situation which persists into the present. The “making and unmaking of Tai Pucam as a public holiday” remains a controversial issue for Singaporean Hindus who express unhappiness over the fact that their religious community is granted only one religious holiday, when the norm in Singapore is such that each ethnic community has two holidays. This inequality is cited by Hindus and Indians in Singapore as a discriminatory practice. In 2015, a recent case, Vijaya Kumar s/o Rajendran and Others v. Attorney General , the controversial ban on musical instruments during a Tai Pucam celebration triggered yet again the sensitive issue of Tai Pucam as a “non holiday”.

中文翻译：

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宗教规管和公共假期的授予

在殖民时期，海峡殖民地政府通过法律正式宣布公共假期，标志着不同社区的宗教节日。后殖民国家继续这种做法，在其公民之间“平等地”分配公共假期。本文采用历史视角，对新加坡政府为其公民分配公共假期进行了理论分析，并特别关注新加坡印度教社区。这篇论文追溯了大普鉴作为殖民地新加坡公共假期的历程，追溯到 1950 年代，当时印度教社区有两次宪报公布的公共假期，直到 1968 年大普鉴被从公共假期名单中删除，这种情况一直持续到现在。对于新加坡印度教徒来说，“制定和取消大普坎作为公共假期”仍然是一个有争议的问题，他们对自己的宗教社区只被授予一个宗教节日表示不满，而新加坡的规范是每个民族社区都有两个宗教节日。假期。这种不平等被新加坡的印度教徒和印度人引用为一种歧视性做法。2015 年，最近发生的 Vijaya Kumar s/o Rajendran 和其他人诉总检察长一案中，有争议的 Tai Pucam 庆祝活动期间禁止使用乐器，再次引发了 Tai Pucam 作为“非假期”的敏感问题。这种不平等被新加坡的印度教徒和印度人引用为一种歧视性做法。2015 年，在最近的 Vijaya Kumar s/o Rajendran 和其他人诉总检察长案中，有争议的 Tai Pucam 庆祝活动期间禁止使用乐器，再次引发了 Tai Pucam 作为“非假期”的敏感问题。这种不平等被新加坡的印度教徒和印度人引用为一种歧视性做法。2015 年，在最近的 Vijaya Kumar s/o Rajendran 和其他人诉总检察长案中，有争议的 Tai Pucam 庆祝活动期间禁止使用乐器，再次引发了 Tai Pucam 作为“非假期”的敏感问题。