The
Internment of Chinese-Indians
was the forced relocation and incarceration of 3000 Chinese-Indians in an
internment
camp in
Deoli
,
Rajasthan
during
Sino-Indian War
in 1962.
[1]
They were detained without trial as per
Defence of India Act, 1962
.
[2]
The internees were released in a phase by phase manner until the last internee was released in 1967. After the internment, many Chinese-Indians (Indians with Chinese ancestry) were resettled with equal rights, and some were deported or coerced to leave India.
[3]
Nearly all internees had their properties sold off or looted.
[4]
[5]
Indian officials openly compare the internment of Chinese-Indians with the
internment of Japanese-Americans
during
World War II
[
citation needed
]
. However, unlike the
United States
, the Indian government has not apologised or offered compensation to the internees.
Background
[
edit
]
The earliest recorded Chinese settlers in
British India
arrived in
Calcutta
in 1780.
[6]
Because of the long history of
tea cultivation in China
, the British colonial authorities attempted to lure experienced workers from China to work on the newly established tea plantations in
Assam
, starting in 1838.
[7]
Other Chinese migrants were refugees from poverty, famine, and disasters in China. By the late 19th century, the people of Chinese origin had gained a reputation as craftsmen and traders in eastern India. During World War II and the
Chinese Communist Revolution
, a large wave of Chinese war refugees settled in Calcutta, Northern
Bengal
, and
Northeast India
.
[6]
Estimates of the ethnic Chinese population in 1962 varied from 20,000 to 60,000.
[8]
1962 Sino-Indian War
[
edit
]
Following the independence of the
Republic of India
in 1947 and the founding of the
People's Republic of China
in 1949, the two countries enjoyed a period of friendly relationship, despite having unresolved border disputes in the areas of
NEFA
and
Aksai Chin
. The relationship deteriorated, however, after the construction of a Chinese highway in Aksai Chin in 1957, and India's support of the failed
1959 Tibetan uprising
against Chinese rule.
[9]
The hostilities culminated in the brief 1962
Sino-Indian War
, resulting in a Chinese victory but no change in the effective boundary between the two countries. The fighting lasted from 10 October to 20 November 1962.
[9]
On 21 November, China declared ceasefire and withdrew from NEFA, the larger of the two disputed territories, but kept the smaller Aksai Chin.
[9]
Anti-Chinese sentiment
[
edit
]
After the outbreak of the war, the Indian government and some members of academia systematically portrayed the Chinese minority as untrustworthy and deceitful.
[10]
: 443
The rising nationalism in India entailed assaults on the ethnic Chinese, including Indian citizens and residents who had lived in India for generations.
[10]
: 447
Many Chinese schools and media were shut down, and people of Chinese descent were assaulted by mainstream Indians; their property, restaurants, and shops damaged.
[10]
: 447
The civil liberties of the ethnic Chinese were curtailed. People of Chinese descent were required to report to the authorities for "registration and classification", and it became harder for non-citizens to meet the residency requirements. The legal definition of foreigners was extended to include Indian citizens of Chinese descent.
[10]
: 446
Faced with widespread hostility, many Chinese-Indians expressed their support and loyalty for the Indian cause, condemned the Chinese government, and donated to India's defence funds. However, their expressions of support were met with suspicion and contempt.
[10]
: 447
Internment and deportation
[
edit
]
After its defeat in the war, India passed the Defence of India Act in December 1962,
[6]
permitting the "apprehension and detention in custody of any person [suspected] of being of hostile origin." The broad language of the act allowed for the arrest of any person simply for having a Chinese surname or a Chinese spouse.
[11]
Under this law, 10,000 people of Chinese origin were estimated to have been detained from all over India, including Calcutta,
Bombay
,
Darjeeling
,
Kalimpong
,
Jamshedpur
, and the Northeast. All of them were accused of being spies, but not a single charge has ever been proven.
[6]
The internment of Chinese-Indians violated both the
Constitution of India
and the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
, to which India was an original signatory.
[11]
Starting in November 1962, many ethnic Chinese were given the order to leave India within a month.
[10]
: 447
About 7,500 people complied and left for various countries including China,
Republic of China (Taiwan)
,
Hong Kong
, Pakistan, Japan, Australia, Britain, the United States, and Canada.
[10]
: 448
People who could not raise travel expenses or were unwilling to leave were imprisoned.
[10]
: 447
While some were held in local prisons, thousands more were transported across India to the desert prison camp in
Deoli
,
Rajasthan
,
[11]
built by the colonial authorities in 1942 as a
POW camp
for Japanese, German, and Italian
prisoners of war
during the Second World War.
[8]
The camp housed 7,000 inmates,
[6]
60% of whom were children or elderly people.
[8]
Many POWs, unaccustomed to the hot desert climate, died of
heat stroke
and related diseases.
[6]
In 1964, the Deoli prison authorities announced that all internees would be deported to China. The forcible deportations were arbitrary, resulting in the breakup of many families. In many cases parents were separated from their children and never heard from them again.
[6]
The deportations stopped after a few months, and the government offered the remaining inmates the option to migrate to China. Some took the offer, but about 2,500 chose to stay and wait for the chance to return home.
[6]
In 1965, the Indian government began to release the internees. They were allowed to leave the camp in small batches. The last internees were released from Deoli in mid-1967, after four and half years of captivity.
[6]
However, when the internees were transported to their old neighbourhoods, the local governments often did not know what to do with them and kept them in local prisons, in some cases for more than a year.
[11]
Aftermath
[
edit
]
After the internees were freed after years of incarceration, many discovered that their properties had been sold off in their absence, but were only offered tiny sums for compensation. Almost all internees had their homes, shops, and factories plundered or taken over by locals.
[6]
The Chinese population in Calcutta decreased by half, from 20,000 to 10,000. Those who remained were seen as enemies, and most could not hold any job except in the restaurant, tanning, and shoemaking businesses.
[12]
Moreover, their movements were restricted. Until the mid-1980s, the Chinese-Indians were required to report to designated police stations once a month; until the mid-1990s, they had to apply for special permits to travel more than a few kilometres from their homes.
[6]
Reactions
[
edit
]
Indian officials openly compare the internment of Chinese-Indians with the
internment of Japanese-Americans
during World War II. However, unlike the United States, the Indian government has refused to apologise or offer compensation to the internees for their incarceration.
[8]
When asked about his opinion on the issue in 2008,
Mao Siwei
, China's Consul General in Calcutta, replied that China would rather "look forward and not argue too much about the past".
[8]
The Indian Chinese Association has been pressuring the Indian government to issue an apology, without success.
[8]
The Association of India Deoli Camp Internees, a Canadian non-profit group, wrote two open letters to former
Indian Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh
, but did not receive a reply.
[11]
In 2004, Rafeeq Ellias recounted the appalling treatment of the Chinese residents in Calcutta in the documentary film
The Legend of Fat Mama
.
[12]
The documentary won the
Silver Lotus Award
for best anthropological/ethnographic film at the
52nd National Film Awards
.
[13]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Tariq Engineer.
"Every country does well by confronting its history"
. Mumbai Mirror
. Retrieved
16 April
2020
.
- ^
"THE DEFENCE OF INDIA ACT, 1962"
. Retrieved
16 April
2020
.
- ^
Chatterjee, Nilanjana; Chatterjee, Anindita (7 October 2020).
Re-theorising the Indian Subcontinental Diaspora: Old and New Directions
. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 53.
ISBN
978-1-5275-6054-3
.
- ^
Gupta, Amit R. Das; Luthi, Lorenz M. (3 November 2016).
The Sino-Indian War of 1962: New Perspectives
. Taylor & Francis. p. 220.
ISBN
978-1-315-38893-9
.
- ^
Bhattacharya, Jayati; Kripalani, Coonoor (1 March 2015).
Indian and Chinese Immigrant Communities: Comparative Perspectives
. Anthem Press. p. 282.
ISBN
978-1-78308-447-0
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
Jaideep Mazumdar (20 November 2010).
"The 1962 jailing of Chinese Indians"
.
OPEN
. Retrieved
17 November
2013
.
- ^
Rita Chowdhury (25 November 2012).
"The Assamese Chinese story"
.
The Hindu
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
S.N.M. ABDI (22 October 2012).
"Without Apologies"
.
Outlook
. Retrieved
17 November
2013
.
- ^
a
b
c
Calvin, James Barnard (April 1984).
"The China-India Border War"
. Marine Corps Command and Staff College
. Retrieved
18 November
2013
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
Banerjee, Payal (2007).
"Chinese Indians in Fire: Refractions of Ethnicity, Gender, Sexuality and Citizenship in Post-Colonial India's Memories of the Sino-Indian War"
(PDF)
.
China Report
.
4
(43). SAGE Publications: 437?463.
doi
:
10.1177/000944550704300404
.
S2CID
144452102
. Retrieved
18 November
2013
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Matt Schiavenza (9 August 2013).
"India's Forgotten Chinese Internment Camp"
.
The Atlantic
. Retrieved
17 November
2013
.
- ^
a
b
Tansen Sen (13 April 2005).
"Go for a Slight Change of Route"
.
The Telegraph
. Archived from
the original
on 30 September 2007
. Retrieved
5 December
2013
.
- ^
"52nd National Film Awards"
(PDF)
.
Directorate of Film Festivals
. Retrieved
5 December
2013
.
External links
[
edit
]
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