Indian Chinese and 1962
Mar 16, 2005
I just viewed the short documentary "The Legend of Fat Mama-Stories from Calcutta's Melting 'Wok' ". Its shows the Indian Chinese at Kolkata and covers our food habbits, new year celebrations and also the India-China war of 1962. Its amazing that a small and insignificant community like ours would interest people enough to be aired on BBC World. But I must point something out, in the documentary, it talks a lot of about 1962 war with China and the ill treatment to the Indian Chinese at that time.
To set the records straight, India is amongst one of the world's best places for anybody to live in. Inspite of the communal problems, its a place where anybody could settle and prosper without any hindrances. Of course, as its a developing country, the ills of corruption and uncivilized conduct of some people will be felt occasionally but then this applies to all Indians and not just to Indian Chinese. I have never really felt any issues arising out of the war on our generation and I am positive it didn't affect anyone of the generation before me either. As a proof, one only needs to look at the general economic condition of the Indian Chinese. I am proud to be Indian and also proud of my Chinese origins. There is no conflict or problems at all.
Since June 2004, I have been to Kochi[Cochin], Chennai, Bangalore, Dubai [U.A.E] and Ghana and my travels have only reconfirmed my above statements. India is a good place to be in. If people in our community are migrating, its purely because western countries offer better life style [social security, health care, less corruption etc. etc.] and not because we have been ill treated or something. We are migrating for the same reasons as Malayalis going to the Dubai or Sadarjis to Canada.