Guwahati, Nov 9 : Assam Chief Minister has rolled out the red carpet for Chinese -origin Assamese forcibly deported to China after the Chinese aggression in 1962. The displaced people can visit their birthplace if they wanted to.
A recent novel Makam’ (golden horse in Chinese) by Sahitya Akademi winner Rita Chouwdhury brought to fore stage the agony of Chinese-origin Assamese community.
Mentioning the untold difficulties the community when through since the Chinese aggression of 1962, the writer urged the Indian government to accept the wrong it did to these people and publicly display the country’s concern for their wellbeing and express its solidarity.
”These people do not want to return here permanently, but want to visit their birthplace once. They are hurt, but do not blame anyone,” Ms Chouwdhury, who had interacted extensively with the community for research of her book, said.
The Chinese origin people who were brought to India by the British for the tea plantation. They married to different communities and settled down in Assam.
But the Chinese aggression of 1962 changed India’s view of these settlers and around 1,500 Indian Chinese were picked up from Makum, a small town of upper Assam, and some other parts of the state, and sent to a detention camp in Deoli, Rajasthan. From the camp, several were deported to China in batches, while a handful were allowed to return to Assam after about three years, only to find their belongings confiscated as ‘enemy property’ and auctioned off
”There are just nine families in Makum now and they lead a closed life, fearing more trouble,” Chouwdhury says.
”News reports of tension along Chinese border still worry them,” she adds.
Most of those deported were sent to work in farms and industries of China and their future generations are spread across the globe, from Hong Kong to Canada to Australia.
”We cannot return what they lost, but we can at least stand up with them and express our solidarity,” Chouwdury urged.
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