Chinese Indians

Most of remember or have heard about the nineteen sixty-two war of India with China. But most of us have not heard about the way Indian Government of that time treated the Chinese Indians.We have seventeen eighty as the recorded arrival year of Chinese workers in India. They were lured by the British to work on tea plantations. India was defeated by China in the war. And India passed the defence of India Act in nineteen sixty-two. Under this harsh law ten thousand people of Chinese origin were detained all over India. At the beginning of November nineteen sixty-two many of these Chinese were asked to leave India. Many complied but many could not because they were simply not able to raise travel expenses and many did not want to leave the country they loved. The Indian authorities held most of them in local prisons. And many were transported to the desert prison camp in Deoli, Rajasthan. This prison was built by the British for use as POW camp during world war two. Here many Chinese inmates died as they were not accustomed to the intense heat. In nineteen sixty four, the prison authorities took a barbaric decision of deporting the Chinese to China. The arbitrary deportations resulted in break up of families. Many never heard from their loved ones again. Those few who were not deported were put again in local prisons when they returned to their respective cities. After a stay of around one year they were released only to find that their homes and shops have either been looted or sold off by the local populace. The Government of India has not issued an apology till date.