http://www.indianexpress.com/news/51-years-after-war-it-is-diwali-for-seven-people-deported-to-china-from-assam/1190511/0
Indian Express, November 3rd. 2013 Samudra Gupta Kashyap : Makum, Sun Nov 03 2013, 06:15 hrs 51 years after war, it is Diwali for seven people deported to China from Assam It's Diwali that she missed the most, says Chang Yuet Ho. She was around 12, Chang estimates, when she last saw her friends lighting hundreds of earthern lamps and bursting crackers. Fifty-one years later, last month, Chang found herself back in the midst of the festival preparations. She went home to Hong Kong just before Diwali day, but not without meeting at least some of the people she had lost touch with all those years ago. Chang was among the estimated 1,500 people of Chinese origin — brought to Assam by British planters as tea was discovered here in the first half of the 19th century — who were arrested in the wake of the Chinese aggression of 1962, and packed off to different prisons. Many of them, including Chang, were later deported to China. Some of the Chinese families managed to stay behind as the deportation process was called off mid-way after the war came to an end. Others who were not deported made their way back after two years or more in prisons. Chang and six others who now live in Hong Kong returned to their birthplace, Makum township in Upper Assam, about 7 km from the commercial hub of Tinsukia, for the first time in 51 years last month. Of the six, five were women. Makum incidentally got its name from Makam, meaning a golden horse in Cantonese. The Chinese settlers though know it by its Mandarin name, Machin. "I remember going to the Chinese school located by the main road. I remember so many of my classmates, as also Liu Mei Fang, a teacher who came from Kolkata," said Chang, a retired factory worker. That school, attended by most of the children of Chinese descent, is now a Hindi high school. Everything has changed, Chang noted, the railway track was bigger and more shops had sprung up. "My Assamese friends would sing and dance during Bihu and organise a very colourful Durga Puja near the railway station. But what I liked most was Diwali," she added. "One night, police came, huddled us into a large cattle-shed, and then took us away, first to Dibrugarh, and then by train to a prison in Rajasthan. I still remember the journey to Rajasthan, packed like pigs in a train that had no light, no water. After over a year or so in the prison, we were shifted to Madras. We were put on a ship there and sent off to Hong Kong," Chang said. Several children died during that journey to Rajasthan, she claimed. Ho Choi Fung, 63, also clearly remembers the day her family — she, her parents, two little sisters and a brother — were huddled into a bus and taken away from Chinapatti in Makum. Named after the Chinese settlers who lived there, Chinapatti now barely has any Chinese families. Ho Yuet Ming, who was among the seven, introduced herself to locals as 'Anjali Goala', the name her mother, who was of Assamese origin, gave her. Tears rolled down the 60-year-old's face as she was cheered by a crowd of 300 at a gathering in the township. A woman said the name had rung a bell. "Yes, I can recognise her now," said Kaushalya Barua, a retired principal of Gangabisan Higher Secondary School at Makum. Later Ho Yuet, sister Ho Hung Owai, brother Ho Man Heng and his wife Ho Yuk Mui drove around Makum trying to recognise the houses and landmarks they had left behind. "Our father Ho Kong Wa died a few years after we landed in Hong Kong, and mother Rasmoni Goala a few years later," said Ho Yuet. Ho Yuet, who is now retired from an insurance job, named her only son Goala Rahul Wa, and he is currently doing graduation in Australia. "You never know where fate takes you," she said, wondering what happened to the many others rounded up along with her family. Ho Man Heng, who was in Class III when his family was deported, said he wanted to visit the places with which his childhood memories are intertwined. "I looked around Makum, but I could find nothing except for the two huge trees in the (former Chinese) school compound, and a couple of old houses," he said. He recalled that the headmaster of the school was a Ling Lao Su. "A gross injustice was meted out to these innocent people whose grandparents had come to Assam over 150 years ago. As a resident of Makum I am ashamed," said Haren Borthakur, a well-known playwright who lives in Makum. The property of most of the families who were deported was confiscated by the government. There were allegations of some influential people usurping the properties. Among those whose families returned to Makum later was Wang Shing Tung. "My mother can describe vividly how the people of our community suddenly become the enemy," said Wang, 49, whose Hong Kong Restaurant in Tinsukia town has been the area's most popular joint for chowmein and momos for over four decades. Wang's mother Lee Su Chen, 86, does not want to discuss those "dark" days. "I will only describe it as a bad dream, but it is difficult to wipe from memory," said Lee, who lost her two-year-old daughter in a detention camp at Deoli in Rajasthan, where they were kept for nearly three years. Her husband Wang Chuchin, who owned a large saw mill in Makum, could not find it on return. "He had bought a share worth Rs 2 lakh in the sugar mill in 1958. Our family had to re-start from scratch," said Wang Shing. Chuchin died in 2009. Michael Liong (51), who works as a driver, was born in a detention camp at Nagaon. Achiong Kwan (40), who runs Tai Lum, a Chinese restaurant in Doomdooma, the town next to Makum, is also among those born to families which managed to stay back. He believes the seven who visited last month should come back permanently. "After all they belong to this place." Deepak Tham, who works in Gauhati Medical College, came to Makum to meet the delegation. "They told me the people of Assam origin meet once a year in Hong Kong to remember this place. I wish to attend one such gathering one day," said Tham. His Assamese mother Milon was pregnant when the family was picked up in 1962, and he was born in the Deoli prison in Rajasthan. Local NGO Suryodaya, which organised a public reception for the visitors, displayed several pre-1962 photographs featuring the Chinese of Makum. The seven crowded around the photographs trying to pick people they knew. "There I am standing in that group photo," exclaimed Ho Fung Owai, 64. Straining to recognise the other children, she said: "Oh that is Rana, and that is Mumu. My goodness, you also have a photograph of the Kaw Chai family!" "I was only about two when the war broke out," said Ho Yuk Mui. "I don't remember anything, but have grown up hearing stories. My mother always mentioned Makum, sometimes 20-30 times a day. My parents are no more, but I am glad I could finally make it to my birthplace." As the gathering in Makum drew to a close, Ho Yuet broke into an Assamese song she had learnt as a child in Makum. "Gosse-bonne seujiya, Sabatokoi dhuniya, Aamar eikhoni gaon," she sang, meaning greenery all around, this is my village, the most beautiful on Earth!. "Believe me, I have been carrying this beautiful song about Makum in my heart for more than 50 years now," Ho Yuet said. "I am so relieved I am pouring it to you now." _______________________________________________ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
