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The Deoliwallahs have been carrying the feeling of betrayal for over half a century without any respite. The cold and apathetic manner in which our government performed back in 1962, ultimately drove away thousands of Chinese-Indians from our country. Their only fault was the way they looked and perhaps for having ancestral ties with China. But these Chinese-Indians were as Indian as their neighbours next door, conversing in Hindi rather than in Chinese. Their simple lives were uprooted in an instant, leaving them broken for years and affecting the next generations in ways that couldn't have been imagined.
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After the Sino-Indian war in 1962, Indians breathed a sigh of relief but little did they know that this would later affect an entire community. Written by Dilip D'souza and Joy Ma, The Deoliwallahs is a detailed analysis of what pushed the government to put thousands of innocents in a camp for years and the toll it took on the detainees. It is said that the first Chinese to land in India was back in 1778 who went by the name Tong Atchew. He was given a plot by Hastings in Calcutta and this marked the beginning of Chinese life in India. A detailed history of their businesses and expertise have been listed down in the book, giving a clear background about their lives before they were interned. After the War, the Indian government found all the Chinese-Indians suspicious in spite of them living in the country for decades, speaking native languages and carrying decent work ethics. Around mid November 1962, just few weeks after the War ended, thousands of them were taken into custody.
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They were transported by train to Deoli in Rajasthan, where the camps which were previously used by the Japanese prisoners stood grimly. It is important to know how worried they were throughout their journey as all their questions went unanswered. Many of the detainees recall how other villagers used to rush to the platform, calling them enemies and telling them to go back to China. The food was hard and barely edible and many of them weren't able to buy their own food because they weren't permitted to carry money. Their hopes further sunk when they arrived at the camp. A depleted building was to be their home for the next few years. The food that they were given was uncooked, filled with worms and devoid of any plates or cutlery. Many managed to eat using their rusted tins. The children were refused formal education, old people died without proper medical facilities and babies were born in the camp. One of the detainee recalls how his father's dead body was mutilated, with eyes being taken out and multiple lacerations on his body. When Lal Bahadur Shastri visited the camp, he made promises to look into their imprisonment but ultimately did nothing. When they were released, the government had siezed their property, they were forced to pay income tax and their old jobs were taken away. With nothing to support their families and due to unbearable hostility from their neighbours, they were forced to emigrate.
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This book contains interviews of many detainees who recall their horrible times back in the camp and the feeling of displacement that follows them even today. It's heartbreaking to think how their own government and people turned their back against them. This is in no way an easy read and I say this because of how furious I felt while reading about their unfortunate lives forced onto them by the government. We know about the countless Japanese-Americans who were detained and about the Nazi concentration camps; it's shameful that we aren't aware of our own country's concentration camp, as the detainees call it. I highly recommend this.
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Rating : 4.5/5.