Editing Devan Nair (section)

===Anti-imperialism beliefs===
Nair was initially a member of the Communist Anti-British League before joining [[Lee Kuan Yew]]'s [[People's Action Party]] (PAP) in 1954. Nair had been detained in 1951 by the British for anti-colonial activities. In 1955, Nair contested the [[1955 Singaporean general election]] but lost – becoming the only PAP candidate who did not get elected.<ref name="TST2017">{{Cite news|url=http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19561028-1.2.5|title=Who's Who - The Top 15 Names|date=28 October 1956|work=The Straits Times|access-date=19 August 2017}}</ref>

In 1956, he was detained again under the [[Internal Security Act (Singapore)|Preservation of Public Security Ordinance Act]] together with trade unionists [[Lim Chin Siong]] and James Puthucheary as suspected communist subversives after the [[Chinese middle schools riots]].<ref name="TST2017"/> Nair was released in 1959 when the PAP won the [[1959 Singaporean general election]] in a landslide victory. He was subsequently appointed political secretary to the [[Minister for Education (Singapore)|Minister for Education]]. He returned to teaching after a year. In 1960, he became Chairman of the Prisons Inquiry Commission and launched the Adult Education Board.<ref name="IstanaSG" />