Internment of Chinese-Indians

Last updated

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]

Contents

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

Chinese community in India

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, North 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

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

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

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, 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

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 looted 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

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]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sino-Indian War</span> 1962 war between China and India

The Sino-Indian War also known as Indo-China War, Indo-China War of 1962 or Sino-Indian War of 1962, took place between China and India from October to November 1962. It was a military escalation of the Sino-Indian border dispute. Fighting occurred along India's border with China, in India's North-East Frontier Agency east of Bhutan, and in Aksai Chin west of Nepal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aksai Chin</span> Region in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Kashmir administered by China

Aksai Chin is an arid region divided between India and China, mostly controlled by China as part of Hotan County, Hotan Prefecture, Xinjiang and partly in Rutog County, Ngari Prefecture, Tibet and constituting the easternmost portion of the larger Kashmir region that has been the subject of a dispute between India and China since 1959. It is claimed by India as part of its Leh District, Ladakh Union Territory.

The following lists events that happened during 1962 in the Republic of India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">China National Highway 219</span> Road in China along the western and southern border

China National Highway 219 is a highway which runs along the entire western and southern border of the People's Republic of China, from Kom-Kanas Mongolian ethnic township in Xinjiang to Dongxing in Guangxi. At over 10,000 kilometres (6,214 mi) long, it is part of the China National Highway Network Planning (2013–2030), and once completed it will be the longest National Highway.

<i>Himalayan Blunder</i>

Himalayan Blunder was a controversial war memoir penned by Brigadier John Dalvi. It dealt with the causes, consequences and aftermath of the Sino-Indian War of 1962, that ended in Chinese People's Liberation Army inflicting a defeat on India.

Chinese people in India are communities of Han Chinese and Tibetan origin and settlement. There are permanent communities descended from immigrants and refugees from China as well as an expatriate community in India on a temporary basis.

A long series of events triggered the Sino-Indian War in 1962. According to John W. Garver, Chinese perceptions about the Indian designs for Tibet, and the failure to demarcate a common border between China and India were important in China's decision to fight a war with India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sino-Indian border dispute</span> Border dispute between China and India

The Sino-Indian border dispute is an ongoing territorial dispute over the sovereignty of two relatively large, and several smaller, separated pieces of territory between China and India. The first of the territories, Aksai Chin, is administered by China as part of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and Tibet Autonomous Region and claimed by India as part of the union territory of Ladakh; it is mostly uninhabited high-altitude wasteland in the larger regions of Kashmir and Tibet and is crossed by the Xinjiang-Tibet Highway, but with some significant pasture lands at the margins. The other disputed territory is south of the McMahon Line, in the area formerly known as the North-East Frontier Agency and now called Arunachal Pradesh which is administered by India. The McMahon Line was part of the 1914 Simla Convention signed between British India and Tibet, without China's agreement. China disowns the agreement, stating that Tibet was never independent when it signed the Simla Convention.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stanley Internment Camp</span> Civilian internment camp in Hong Kong

Stanley Internment Camp was a civilian internment camp in Hong Kong during the Second World War. Located in Stanley, on the southern end of Hong Kong Island, it was used by the Japanese imperial forces to hold non-Chinese enemy nationals after their victory in the Battle of Hong Kong in December 1941. About 2,800 men, women, and children were held at the non-segregated camp for 44 months from early January 1942 to August 1945 when Japanese forces surrendered. The camp area consisted of St Stephen's College and the grounds of Stanley Prison, excluding the prison itself.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daulat Beg Oldi</span> Military Base in Ladakh, India

Daulat Beg Oldi is a traditional campsite and current military base located in the midst of the Karakoram Range in northern Ladakh, India. It is on the historic trade route between Ladakh and the Tarim Basin, and is the last campsite before the Karakoram Pass. It is said to be named after Sultan Said Khan, who died here on his return journey from an invasion of Ladakh and Kashmir. Chip Chap River, the main headwater of the Shyok River, flows just to the south. The Line of Actual Control with Chinese-controlled Aksai Chin is five miles to the east.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crystal City Internment Camp</span> United States historic place

Crystal City Internment Camp, located near Crystal City, Texas, was a place of confinement for people of Japanese, German, and Italian descent during World War II, and has been variously described as a detention facility or a concentration camp. The camp, which was originally designed to hold 3,500 people, opened in December 1943 and was officially closed on February 11, 1948.

The Depsang Plains, a high-altitude gravelly plain in the northwest portion of the disputed Aksai Chin region of Kashmir, divided into Indian and Chinese administered portions by a Line of Actual Control. India controls the western portion of the plains as part of Ladakh, while the eastern portion is controlled by China and claimed by India. The Line of Control with Pakistan-administered Gilgit-Baltistan is 80 kilometres (50 mi) west of the Depsang Plains with the Siachen Glacier in-between. Ladakh's traditional trade route to Central Asia passed through the Depsang Plains, with the Karakoram Pass lying directly to its north.

The Kongka Pass or Kongka La is a low mountain pass on the Line of Actual Control between India and China in eastern Ladakh. It lies on a spur of the Karakoram range that intrudes into the Chang Chenmo Valley adjacent to the disputed Aksai Chin region. China claimed the location as its border in a 1956 map, and attacked an Indian patrol party in 1959 killing ten policemen and apprehending ten others. Known as the Kongka Pass incident, the event was a milestone in the escalation of the border dispute between the two countries.

The Galwan River flows from the disputed Aksai Chin area administered by China to the Union Territory of Ladakh, India. It originates near the caravan campsite Samzungling on the eastern side of the Karakoram range and flows west to join the Shyok River. The point of confluence is 102 km south of Daulat Beg Oldi. Shyok River itself is a tributary of the Indus River, making Galwan a part of the Indus River system.

The Chip Chap River is a tributary of the Shyok River that flows from the disputed Aksai Chin region administered by China to Ladakh in India. It originates at the eastern edge of the Depsang Plains and flows west, skirting around the Depsang Plains in the north. It discharges into the Shyok River, forming one of the upstream tributaries of the Indus River.

The Defence of India act and Defence of India rules, 1962 were a set of emergency war-time legislations for preventive detention enacted in October 1962 India during the Sino-Indian War of 1962. It was initially promulgated as a Presidential ordinance, the Defence of India Ordinance, 1962 on 28 October that year under the authority of which the Defence of India Rules were enacted. In December 1962, the Indian Parliament enacted the Defence of India act, 1962 which consolidated the continued application of the ordinance as law. The act consisted of 156 rules that "regulated virtually all aspects of life" including travel, finance, trade, communication, publication etc. and were essentially identical to the Defence of India act, 1939 enacted during World War II. The act suspended the Fundamental rights of any person held under the act, and specifically Rule 30 of the act allowed the government to hold any person in detention without explanation suspending the right under the article 22 of Constitution of India, without the right to representation, and without the provisions of Habeas corpus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ardagh–Johnson Line</span> Boundary line in Aksai Chin

The Ardagh–Johnson Line is the northeastern boundary of Kashmir drawn by surveyor William Johnson and recommended by John Charles Ardagh as the official boundary of India. It abuts China's Xinjiang and Tibet autonomous regions.

Longju or Longzu is a disputed area in the eastern sector of the China–India border, controlled by China but claimed by India. The village of Longju is located in the Tsari Chu valley 2.5 kilometres (1.6 mi) south of the town of Migyitun, considered the historical border of Tibet. The area of Longju southwards is populated by the Tagin tribe of Arunachal Pradesh.

The Depsang Bulge or Burtsa Bulge is a 900-square-kilometre area of mountain terrain in the disputed Aksai Chin region, which was conceded to India by China in 1960, but has remained under Chinese occupation since the 1962 Sino-Indian War. The area is immediately to the south of the Depsang Plains and encloses the basin of the Burtsa Nala, a stream originating in the Aksai Chin region and flowing west to merge with the Depsang Nala near the village of Burtsa in Ladakh, eventually draining into the Shyok River. The area is perceived to be of strategic importance to both the countries, sandwiched by strategic roads linking border outposts. Since 2013, China has made attempts to push the Line of Actual Control further west into Indian territory, threatening India's strategic road.

References

  1. ↑ Tariq Engineer. "Every country does well by confronting its history". Mumbai Mirror. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
  2. ↑ "THE DEFENCE OF INDIA ACT, 1962" . Retrieved 16 April 2020.
  3. ↑ 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.
  4. ↑ Gupta, Amit R. Das; Lüthi, Lorenz M. (3 November 2016). The Sino-Indian War of 1962: New Perspectives. Taylor & Francis. p. 220. ISBN   978-1-315-38893-9.
  5. ↑ Bhattacharya, Jayati; Kripalani, Coonoor (1 March 2015). Indian and Chinese Immigrant Communities: Comparative Perspectives. Anthem Press. p. 282. ISBN   978-1-78308-447-0.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Jaideep Mazumdar (20 November 2010). "The 1962 jailing of Chinese Indians". OPEN . Retrieved 17 November 2013.
  7. ↑ Rita Chowdhury (25 November 2012). "The Assamese Chinese story". The Hindu.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 S.N.M. ABDI (22 October 2012). "Without Apologies". Outlook . Retrieved 17 November 2013.
  9. 1 2 3 Calvin, James Barnard (April 1984). "The China-India Border War". Marine Corps Command and Staff College. Retrieved 18 November 2013.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 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. SAGE Publications. 4 (43): 437–463. doi:10.1177/000944550704300404. S2CID   144452102 . Retrieved 18 November 2013.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 Matt Schiavenza (9 August 2013). "India's Forgotten Chinese Internment Camp". The Atlantic . Retrieved 17 November 2013.
  12. 1 2 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.
  13. ↑ "52nd National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals . Retrieved 5 December 2013.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.