Where the word lascar, and Cantonese mo lo, come from, and the case for changing a Hong Kong street name
Hongkongers may be familiar with Upper Lascar Row, a street in the city’s Sheung Wan district, and mo lo sheung gai, as it is called in Cantonese, but few today probably know the origin of these names
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”).
Upper Lascar Row in Cantonese is 摩羅上街: the 摩羅 (mō lō ) deriving from the Portuguese mouro – “Moor” (though some sources claim its etymology in 婆羅 [pòh lòh], “Brahman”). It is used in Hong Kong to refer to peoples of South Asian descent – reflecting pre-colonial Muslim South Asian trading connections with the region; Malaccan Portuguese and Macanese also refer to Indians as moro.
The epithet 摩羅差 (mō lō cha) and its abbreviation 阿差 (a cha), are widely used. Cha purportedly comes from 差人 (cha yàhn) “policemen”, as the profession was then largely dominated by South Asians; an alternative account involves the association with the commonly used Hindi word accha for agreement, acknowledgement, approval. These are considered derogatory to South Asian Hongkongers.
Historical circumstances aside, mindful consideration of nomenclature is important in terms of respect and inclusivity. Consider the Lands Department’s 2010 ruling against the request by South Asians for a street name change on the grounds of mō lō ’s derogatory meaning, as well as TVB’s use of mo lo cha to refer to an Indian character in a 2015 series.
The cost of, say, renaming streets – places such as South Africa, Namibia and Berlin have changed colonial place names deemed politically incorrect or offensive – is incomparable with the price of a community’s dignity.
