‘They are hardworking people. Will anyone leave his own country if he has enough to eat and if he can live peacefully there? It is meaningless to blame them for the Chinese attack.’

‘He is right, Baruah. You must control your unreasonable anger. And now that you have a Chinese daughter-in-law, you must be careful about what you say. She will be hurt if she hears you!’

‘We can’t afford to keep our eyes and ears closed,’ Baruah continued. ‘There may be spies among the Chinese here. The chief minister has asked people to report anything suspicious to the police. The police are keeping an eye on them. After all, they are Chinese. They might want to help the enemy.’

Hearing Pulok’s cycle bell near the front door, Baruah fell silent.

After taking over Tawang, the Chinese troops were advancing on the small motorable road towards Bomdila. In between Tawang and Tezpur, at a place called Jang, a fierce battle was going on. In the easternmost sector of the Burma border, fifteen miles south of the McMahon Line, Chinese troops had almost reached Walong, on the bank of the Lohit River in the Lohit Frontier Division. They simultaneously attacked the Indian troops from two sides.

Those who were listening to the radio were astounded when this unexpected news broke out:

The President of India, Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, has declared a national emergency. An ordinance that is being called ‘The Defence of India Ordinance’ has been issued.

Twelve

Twelve

A bamboo-and-cloth gate had been erected across the Makum–Doom Dooma Road with ‘Welcome’ written on it. A group of students led by Ananta were removing pebbles and filling up the potholes in the road with earth. Army trucks carrying soldiers to the NEFA border were passing through the town. A crowd had gathered on both sides of the road. They were waving Indian flags and throwing flowers to the soldiers and shouting ‘Jai Hind!’

The military convoys had increased as more and more soldiers were brought into the region. Army and civil hospitals were full of injured soldiers rescued from the war front. Newspapers were full of reports related to the war. But how far those reports were true and how many of them were rumours was hard to tell. The more the news of failure of the Indian defence came in, the more the people became emotional. They had offered generous donations to the National Defence Fund. At the same time, frustration, insecurity and fear had slowly started eating into the nation’s morale.