Where the word lascar, and Cantonese mo lo, come from, and the case for changing a Hong Kong street name

In the former crown colonies of Singapore, Penang and Hong Kong, street names such as Sepoy Lines and Lascar Row recall the tents of Indian infantrymen and barracks of Indian ship crews who served with the British in the region – among the first Indians to arrive, and settle, in these territories.

Its usage documented from the early 1600s, lascar, adopted from the Portuguese lascarim, refers to a seaman from any area east of South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope. The word derives from the Hindi lashkari (“soldier, native sailor”), Persian lashkar, Arabic al-’askar (“the army”).