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People and Places

Is Calcutta's China Town Vanishing?

by Samir Dasgupta
CALCUTTA'S fabulous China town, with its colourful little shops dotting a maze of narrow lanes, and restaurants belching the delectable aroma of chop-suey, is fast becoming a thing of the past. The smugglers of Dr. Sun Yat Sen Street apparently have left for Hong Kong or other lucrative pastures, while the magicians at the Blackburne Lane can no longer be seen. The incense of Joss-sticks still hover on I’hcars Lane where once the world's oldest profession thrived. But the nearby dingy shops have long lost their bizarre splendour marked by wares ranging from exquisite statuettes of Confucius and carved ivory chopsticks to pickled snails and strings of piquant Chinese sausages.
Much of Calcutta's old China town has been swept away with the rubble of yesteryear, at the same time when the population of some 20,000 inhabiting the area have lately dwindled to less than 3,000. the exodus having been particularly rapid in the wake of the 1962 India-China war. Meanwhile, many of the old buildings have fallen under the hammer blows of the Calcutta Improvement Trust which has shown a greater zeal in providing a face-lift to the area than in preserving the exotic, albeit squalid, quarter. Why, one wonders. Calcuttans could not save its China town when such western cities as Sanfrancisco, Vancouver and New York still have their fairly populous China towns throbbing with activities and cultural vigour? More, a visitor to Sanfrancisco is somehow given to know that his trip to the city would be sadly Incomplete without a date with the Chinese quarter. By contrast, conducted tours through Calcutta arc not known to include a visit to the famous Sea Ip Temple, which now stands dwarfed among skyscrapers. The temple still looks glorious with Its Jade-green tiled roof, crowned by delicate porcelain fishes. And, alas, fee once famous catcry, Nanking, which served such delicacies as shark s fin soup, silkwsrm grubs and Peking Duck, has lately been forced to pull down its shutters having lost its old clientele. Al other, smaller, restaurants the usual sight is one of a few old slit-eyed men sitting In a roulette den behind swing-doors, perhaps musing over a game of dice or mah-Jong.
About the beginning of 1973 there were around 15.000 Chinese In India, some 12.500 of whom lived In Calcutta. Soon after the 1962 India-China war about 8.000 of these Chinese families were deported to Deoil Camp in Rajasthan and subsequently sent back to mainland China, the majority of the menfolk being sailors. In more recent years the Chinese tn India have been permitted to continue unhln dcred in their trades, while more than a thousand people of Chinese origin are likely to have been granted Indian na tionality The rest are required to possess certificates of identity. There may still be a handful of mainland China passport-holders. but they are not permitted to have any official link srith that country. With the gradual disappearance of an influential group (Communist sympathisers) in Calcutta's China town who used to run the Choong Kok School on Bow Bazar Street, the institution was forced to close down around the middle of 1972. In fact, even before the 1962 war broke out. skir mishes used to take place frequently in the Chinese quarter between the pro-Peking group and the pro-Taiwan group. The forn*r was then more powerful- Wit in the aftermath of the war the other group managed to gain an upper hand in the bnttje of wits. Today. K C Yap. president of the pro-Taiwan Chinese Overseas Association which claims lo represent 80 per cent of the Chinese community in India, owns a large leather business in South Tan-gra (In eastern Calcutta). The old man, who likes lo show visitors his photographs with Nehru and Indira Gandhi, says his community suffers no discrimination from the Indian Government, adding that "the State Trading Corporation of India allows us to compete on equal terms with any other Indian firm for the export market." But this may Mr. Yap's style of diplomacy. It would be wrong to Imagine that Chinese inhabitant* of Calcutta arc absolutely nt home in this place of their domicile. There are restrictions on their move ment* In that the residents of the Metropolitan District can-
not enter the adjacent 24 Par ganas without prior official
All this has given rise lo a sense of alienation tn the local Chinese mind at the same time when even many young men and women still do not wish to migrate. Bom and brought up in Calcutta, these youngsters love Rosopoflas and Phoochkas. enjoy cooking Indian food at home, throng the cinema houses showing Hindi films, and will happily queue up overnight for an IFA Shield football match ticket. The Chinese community of Calcutta contributed close to a lakh rupees to the Government of India's defence fund and helped the Bangladesh liberation movement by supplying winter clothing for the Muktlbahln! Chinese children sing the Indian National Anthem and are learning Bengali and Hindi
alongside Chinese and English. Yet, says Y S Tham, a leading member of the community, "the Government of India have asked members of my community to get passports from Communist China. We refused because wc are Indians. The Government of India now issues us quarterly permits. Besides. neither the British nor the Indian Government has said anything clearly about the nature of citizenship of those born here between 15 August.
1947 and 25 January. 1950.*
Although a large number of the Chinese of Calcutta have left for such faraway places like Caniida, the US, Hong Kong and Australia, especially after the government banned their recruitment as sailors, those who have stayed back have continued to provide the denizens with such varied services as carpentry, dentistry. hairdressing, dry-clcanlng and catering. Also, within an area of about two square miles around today's Bentinck Street there are more than 300 shoe-shops. The Chinas Journal of India, a four-page daily printed in Mandarin from Calcutta, does not enjoy the large circulation it once did. But. devoting half a page to advertisements of the latest celluloid extravaganzas from Bombay and carrying birth, death and marriage notices along with general newsitems, the dally helps to "keep the community together "
The majority of the Chinese In Calcutta are Buddhists. There are a few hundred Christians and a few dozen Muslims, while a handful professes to have no religion. Most of these people thus pursue - their religion at the nine Buddhist temples run by them. Others go to the two Catholic churches in the area and a lew small temples devoted to various Chinese gods. But. no matter what the religious denomination of a Chinese is. ancestor worship is an integral part of Chinese life. Most Chi- . nese temples have a god of* wealth. The temple on Meredith Street Is a spot where the Chinese assemble to worship Kuang Tl. a legendary hero who lived In China some 1,800 year* ago. The celling of this hundred year old temple Is festooned with antique Chinese lanterns. Marriages and other ceremonies are arranged on the Icmplcs premises. The Chinese In Calcutta have been
known to worship the Hindu goddess Kall as well — a sure proof that there had been con sidcrablc cross-cultural assimilation at some point of time. The "China Kall" used to guard the Blackburn Lane entrance to China town, but since the thirties this symbol of assimilation began to fall In disrepair. The bigger temples arc ornate and glided, often decorated with beautiful gold-leaf and camphor-wood carvings and embroidered Golden Dragon motifs hanging from the ceiling. Chinese festivals arc all connected with the moon. On these occasions lanterns arc hung outside of the houses and people visit their friends. Rice cakes arc exchanged among friends during the Dragon fest, moon cakes for the moon festival. and sugar dumplings and spring cakes for the Chinese New Year (January-February). The venue of the big New Year celebration has lately shifted to South Tangra where massive paper dragons and Hons arc carried In processions amidst the bursting of firecrackers.
The Chinese community in Calcutta Ilves a cocooned life One seldom hears of an Indian having a Chinese for a close friend: but the blame must be
hared by the majority com-munlty. Marriages between the two communities »U11 remain a very uncommon thing. A proof of the Umclcaaness of Chinese culture may be seen In the fact that even In the small Chinese world in Calcutta the Indlvldu ala engaged In the different profession* still follow the typical pattern of actlviUea carried out by the forefathers In their respective provinces in the original homeland. The progeny of those who belonged to some provinces of Shanghai are overwhelmingly engaged in the laundry business, while those belonging to families that lived originally In the Canton province* are still found engaged In the carpentry trade.
Shoe trader* in Calcutta have descended from families that once belonged lo the Hu Mei Halen district in China and consUtule about 25 per cent of Calcutta's Chinese population. But will the tradition survive? Will tradition stand up to the mighty onslaught of progress' and modernism? Will the community hold out together forever? There are Indications to the contrary. More and more Chinese in this city are adopting Western religion, clothes, tastes and ways of life.
SAMIR DASGUPTA, a reputed Indian Journalist, is a guest writer of The Daily Star and often writes on topics of Interest.