Founded in 1927 by Dr Bhagat Ram Sahgal, the Arya Samaj's membership in Singapore was made up of a majority of North Indian Hindus. The Samaj was focused on helping members imbibe the reformist philosophy of the movement and emphasised a bicultural, Anglo-Vedic system of learning from as early as 1928.

Without its own premises in the early years, the Samaj was largely dependent on its members to host meetings and events, organised wherever there was a sizeable settlement of Hindustanis. Finally, in the 1930s, the Samaj found a home at 42 Rowell Road, a venue that was visited by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (who would later become India's first Prime Minister) during his initial visit to Singapore in 1937, pointing to the importance of this organisation amongst peer Indian associational establishments in Singapore at the time. This visit also spurred the popularity of the organisation within the community. A flurry of activities were arranged, primarily discourses and lectures to host itinerant preachers and experts travelling in the region. The increase in fellowship at the Rowell Road premises also opened up members to a greater awareness of the multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, and multi-religious ethos of their new home in Singapore.

The growing popularity of the Arya Samaj within the budding population of north Indian migrants and settlers after the Second World War, made it necessary to expand and find a new location for the organisation. A key concern was the need to provide proper facilities for the conduct of religious and cultural activities and for children to study Hindi. With donations raised from the public, land at 113 and 114 Syed Alwi Road was purchased and the organisation officially registered as a religious organisation with the Registrar of Societies. An additional sum of $150,000 was raised for the building fund, and the new premises was launched in 1963 with the support of Mr Moolamall Sachdev and other generous philanthropists. The Management Committee was in agreement that the building would be named Arya Samaj Mandir for the conduct of all Hindu rites as required by the community, and that the premises would also house the Dayanand Anglo-Vedic (DAV) Hindi School.

While Arya Samaj Singapore was officially founded in Singapore in 1927, it is important to consider the activities of its forerunner, the Young Men's Arya Samaj.

Founded in 1914, the Young Men's Arya Samaj sought to supply a want felt by members of the Hindu community, and to promote a moral, mental, and spiritual culture. The early composition of office bearers was pan-Indian including Tamils and Malayalis, with a Hindustani and Punjabi Hindu majority. In fact, the dynamic composition of the voluntary committee points to an inherent diversity in the organisation's ethno-linguistic profile. It was not uncommon to find European participation either, including patrons such as Mr. C.C. Halling.

The Young Men's Arya Samaj's activities were primarily philosophical and cultural in nature, including theatrical performances. Its activities, gleaned from early newspaper articles, point to the progressive nature of the organisation dedicated to the moral and intellectual growth of society. The Young Men's Arya Samaj appears to have become less active by the mid-1920s, perhaps due to the transience of the Indian diaspora at that time, or simply due to a lack of sustained interest, or due to the fact that it had no permanent premises and had to move from location to location within the Serangoon Road area. The arrival of the Vedic Missionary, Dr Bhagat Ram Sahgal, however soon revived the movement in Singapore, ultimately leading to the establishment of the Arya Samaj in Singapore.

The Arya Samaj Singapore undertook a wide range of initiatives from spiritual efforts to literary and educational activities. From its early years, the Samaj housed a library with a collection of spiritual books and tracts, and it subscribed to one Hindi newspaper and monthly journals in English, Hindi and Tamil to allow members to keep themselves well-informed on socio-cultural and spiritual matters. The Samaj frequently hosted Vedic missionaries and religious-cultural luminaries travelling across Southeast Asia to deliver lectures. The organisation also conducted cultural programmes inspired by Hindu epics for anniversary events. The Samaj's keen interest in education saw the development of the Dayanand Anglo-Vedic (DAV) School for bicultural education from the 1930s onwards.

The Samaj was central in the performance of Hindu rites and rituals for people across varying strata of society, including the conduct of birth, wedding, and death rituals. For instance, in the 1950s, a tragic air crash took place at the Kallang airport, in which a number of Fiji Hindu passengers perished. The Arya Samaj undertook the cremation and final rites for 8 people at the Mount Vernon Crematorium. Their ashes were collected by their families from Fiji and taken to Varanasi in north India. The Samaj also facilitated Hindu conversion ceremonies or Shudi for adults requesting it of their own free will. The conduct of the thread ceremony for both men and women was also established, showing the movement's progressive approach towards gender equality in a domain of religious life that had till then been male dominant.

Swami Dayanand Saraswati's reform and educational initiatives became popular at a time when a burgeoning number of Indian migrants were travelling to colonies in Southeast Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, Mauritius, and Fiji. In keeping with the educational goals of the Movement's founder, Arya Samaj Singapore sought to offer students an education that would help them straddle Westernised systems without losing connections to their own cultural values drawn from ancient Hindu scriptures. The organisation began offering English classes in their early days before making available Hindi and Sanskrit lessons under the banner of the DAV (which started functioning in the early 1930s but was only registered in 1957). In the initial years, no more than 8 — 10 pupils were enrolled for Hindi language education. However, the growing popularity of Hindi cinema, began attracting pupils for the Hindi classes, including a number of Malay students. Hindi classes were conducted free of charge at the time, and Hindi was offered as a third language in the Senior Cambridge/GCE 'O' conducted examination

Students and teachers at the DAV Hindi School, Singapore, 1950s-1960s.
Courtesy of Arya Samaj Singapore.

The Arya Samaj movement was concerned with issues pertinent to gender equality, and particularly in equal rights in marriage, property, and education for women, as part of its reformist efforts. The movement was also strongly against child marriage, favouring instead mutual consent of man and woman in adulthood. They also strongly supported widow remarriage initiatives. The spread of education was an article of faith embodied in the ten principles of the Samaj, and this extended to women, as they promoted the idea of education and not birth or caste as the determinant of an individual's social status.

In Singapore, in addition to its dedication to education through the establishment of the DAV Hindi School, the Arya Samaj was also focused on the reformation of certain social norms. For instance, it offered the conduct of Vedic marriages, that allowed people of all backgrounds to have a wedding without engaging in elaborate rituals and facilitated marriages regardless of caste or ethnic backgrounds. A newspaper article from as early as 5th October 1931 shows the conduct of the first Vedic Marriage in Singapore, interestingly of a Tamil couple. The newspaper article also indicated the presence of priests in the employ of the Samaj for the conduct of the community's ceremonies.

A newspaper article mentioning the conduct of the first Vedic marriage in 1931 by the Arya Samaj Singapore.
A Vedic Marriage, Malaya Tribune, 5 October 1931, Page 10.