my take on this:- the sense of bravado and the need to impress are basically amongst themselves, wherever there's an indian community. seldom do you hear of them clashing with a chink or m&d gang. for them there is always a willing audience to see who is top dog and the one who emerges after a mano-te-mano fight becomes chief and leader of a group / gang and one group calls itself kosong empat (04) whilst another gang who wants to be known as having the ability to inflict twice the mayhem, calls itself 08 (4x2) and the clashes continue.
our ah nehs used to have the similar system here in sembawang etc and you can still observe the obituary column where an indian deceased has the moniker tampines bala, punggol raja, kampong bahru maran etc but it's only known amongst themselves as our bengs never did give a flying eff to them, since the ah nehs know better to keep off their turf and just stick to their drinking. our m&d gangs are a different story ....
on then other hand, our local gangs have long gone past this stage and if a clash occurs, it's over in a minute and too bad if a skull is cracked open in the process. after that, talks are held and if there's still an impasse, a dragon or intermediary is called upon to keep the peace as it's bad for business and attracts unwarranted attention from the cops - which also affects others not involved in the conflict. if settlement talks are agreeable (suak or juang), a few tables are "opened" (depending on the severity of the offence) for the slighted party to wine and dine as a form of appeasement (although an ambush can occur as I experienced long ago) and hopefully, life goes on as no one wants a sword of Damocles since making money is better than shedding blood.
the ah nehs in mudland will take a long time to get past this stage and i'm sure other bros will be able to give their inputs.
