The Indians had known about the Malay Peninsula for thousands of years. They thoroughly explored the entire region in search of gold, spices and other valuable commodities. The main bulk of Indian immigration to Singapore came in the middle of the 19th Century when the British began to seek a large amount of labourers to work in a number of industries in the area. Most of these Indians settled in Malaysia to work in the plantation industry, but a good number of them migrated to Singapore.

The Indian population is made up of people from different areas of India. 60% come from Tamil, 20% from Malayali and the rest from all over India.

Tamil is one of the four official languages used in Singapore along with the English, Mandarin and Malay, even though today, many Indians understand Malay better than Tamil.

In modern Singapore, many from Southern Tamils live on Chulia Street and find employment mainly as fishermen and labourers. Their counterparts from Northern India tend to live on the High Street and work as tailors, policemen or businessmen.

A large problem for the community has been the depletion of many of the best-educated Indians out of Singapore. This is due in large part to the number of rich Chinese who arrived in Singapore when Hong Kong was handed back to Mainland China in 1997. In many eyes, these new immigrants have received unfair advantages from the government, leading to much resentment.