Guwahati: Like many of her ilk, a Chinese-origin Assamese woman, Leong Linchi alias Pramila Das (59), a resident of Kehung Tea Estate at Makum in eastern Assam, is desperate to meet her aged parents who are now in China. She was born to a Chinese -origin father, Leong Kok Hoi and a Lushai tribe mother, Chanu Leong.
She was only six years old when she was separated from her parents in 1962, thanks to the fall out of the ‘ Chinese Aggression ”.
Hundreds of families of Chinese origin people who were living as a part of the greater Assamese society in eastern Assam Tinsukia district especially in Makum where broken and devastated in the aftermath Chinese aggression as the then government of India resorted to mass detention and subsequent deportation of them after raising question about their loyalty to the country. “I am now desperate to meet my aged parents in China. I hope the Government of India will facilitate me to meet my aged parents before they leave this abode.
The day my parents were herded into a train at Makum railway station for deportation, I was at my grandmother’s place at Borjan Chariali in Tinsukia district,” Pramila Das said here on Tuesday. Before the 1962 war, her Chinese-origin father used to work as a carpenter at Rangagora Tea Estate in Tinsukia district. Her mother, Chanu Leong was a tribal Lushai woman from Lushai hills (now Mizoram), part of them undivided Assam.
“British tea planter had brought a large number of Chinese workers to Assam in early 19th century to engage them in tea gardens in eastern Assam. After that there were voluntary migrations of more Chinese people to Assam. Those people got married to local woman and settled down to become part of greater Assamese society.
They were mostly illiterate people and were unaware of the political situations.
They adopted Assamese language. But the war in 1962 changed their life for good,” said Rita Chowdhury, author of ‘Makam’, a novel in Assamese on Chinese-origin people in Assam and their plight during and after the 1962 war.
Many of these Chinese-origin people and their family members, their children and their Assamese wives were detained after the 1962 war by Indian authorities and later deported to China. Some of them were later released also and came back to Assam only to find their property auctioned and looted.
These people are still suffering from a sort of identity crisis. Chowdhury has also launched a campaign to mobilize fund to facilitate Pramila Das to visit her parents in China with the help of government of India and also requested the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to help out. She calls upon the greater society and the government to take care of the upliftment of these Chinese-origin Assamese people who are silently suffering from an identity crisis due to neglect on the part of the concerned people.
