Chapters (53)
- Cover
- Title page
- Prologue
- Part One
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Part Two
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-one
- Twenty-two
- Twenty-three
- Twenty-four
- Part Three
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Author’s Note and Acknowledgements
The internees shook their heads. There was no place for them in this country! What would they do after returning home? Where were their homes? The blaze of the war had burnt down everything to ashes. It had destroyed the altar of love, trust and friendship. It had uprooted their identity, planted deep in the soil of this land. What was the point of returning?
On what vestige of faith would they live? A country that could smash all relations and the past under its foot and order them to leave, a country that could put them behind bars, suspecting them to be spies just because their forefathers were Chinese, a country that could lump together citizens and non-citizens into one, just because they were of Chinese origin – what was the meaning of citizenship in such a country? What security would there be?
‘The Indian government was never going to allow us to stay in India. When we are freed even the public will not spare us. If there is a problem again, they will put us in jail. We are not going to stay here. We will go.’
People nodded.
‘Who do we have in China? That place is totally unknown to us. From the time we were born we have only seen Assam. Maa is from Assam. Wife is from Assam. Even grandma is from Assam. I don’t even know the Chinese language. What will we do in China? How will we live there?’
People were nodding.
‘The Indian government has imprisoned us as enemies. Indian people pelted us with stones and abused us. After all this, you still want to stay in India? Don’t you have any shame? I will go, if the Chinese government sends ships for us. I am not going to stay here anymore.’
‘Want to go to China! What will you do there, tell me? Do you remember why we came away from China? Can you live under a Communist government?’
‘Who came looking for us, when we were fed nothing but khichdi with tomatoes? Only the Chinese Red Cross. If they hadn’t come, half the people here would have been dead by now.’
‘It was not only the Chinese Red Cross that came. Others also came. There is no point thinking about all this. Will you be able to live as comfortably in China as we have been living here? If you don’t know what is going on in China, you’d better ask someone who knows.’