Upper Lascar Row, also known as Cat Street. Picture: Ren Publishing
Upper Lascar Row, also known as Cat Street. Picture: Ren Publishing
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”).
Lascars, Indian sailors and servants engaged by British military officers.