Writer takes up cudgels on behalf of Assamese-Chinese

Durba Ghosh
Guwahati, Dec 28 (PTI) Eminent Sahitya Akademi winning Assamese writer Rita Chowdhury''s untiring effort to give voice to the Assamese Chinese community, who formed the backbone of the tea industry here, has found expression in her latest work of fiction ''Makam''.
Makam, or The Golden Horse, which became the best-selling book of the year in Assam, portrays the pain, suffering and alienation of a community who were brought by the British to work as labourers in the then fledgling tea industry.
The community by the sheer dint of their hard work and capacity to assimilate with the local community went on to carve a niche for themselves in the most prominent industry as well as in other spheres in the state.
"The book is very close to my heart and I am very possessive about it. I am overwhelmed by the enthusiastic response to my book by not only readers here, but also those in other parts of the country and abroad," Chowdhury said.
She said she was not content with the fact that the book had been received so well by the people. "I want justice for the members of this community who have suffered immensely in the land of their birth. Above all, we want the ignominy of them being branded a spy be wiped out permanently," she said.
The world of Assamese Chinese went topsy turvy in November, 1962 on the eve of the signing of the Indo-Chinese treaty after the hostilities when 1,500 of them were picked up from Upper Assam town of Makum and taken to a detention camp in Deoli, Rajasthan, Chowdhury pointed out.
The story of the Assamese Chinese is a tragic tale of how in one day they were rounded up and told that they are being taken temporarily to a place for their own safety as the war was on, put into jail, stripped of all their wealth and belongings.