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Chinese community in Kolkata

The Chinese of Kolkata in West Bengal, India are a community of immigrants and their descendants that emigrated from China starting in the late 1700s. Unofficial estimates put the number of Chinese in Kolkata anywhere from 5,000 to 200,000, most of whom live in or near Chinatown in Tangra.[1][2]

The ethnic Chinese have contributed to many areas of the social and economic life of India, and Kolkata in particular, in a manner arguably disproportionate to their numbers. Today a majority are engaged in business with a major segment involved in the manufacturing and trade of leather products. A sizeable number are also owners and workers in Chinese restaurants. [1] Kolkata is the only city in India to have a Chinatown

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An opium den in Chinatown, Kolkata, 1945

The first record of travel from China is provided in the travelogue of Fa-Hien who visited Tampralipta, in what is now Tamluk in the Fifth Century A.D. Records of immigration for the next sixteen centuries are not reliable although many words in Bengali can be attributed to Chinese influences. [1] For example chini, the Bengali word for “sugar” comes from the word for China, and words like Chinamati for porcelain china hint at Chinese influences.[4]

Kolkata, then known as Calcutta, was the capital of British India from 1772 to 1911. It was also geographically the easiest accessible metropolitan area from China by land. The first person of Chinese origin to arrive in Calcutta was Yang Tai Chow who arrived in 1778. He worked in a sugar mill with the eventual goal of saving enough to start a tea trade.[2] Many of the earliest immigrants worked on the Khidderpore docks. A police report in 1788 mentions a sizeable Chinese population settled in the vicinity of Bow Bazaar Street. [1]

During the time of Warren Hastings, the first governor-general of British India, a businessman by the name of Tong Achi established a steel mill at Achipur, 33 km from Calcutta, on the bank of the Hooghly River near Budge Budge.[5] A temple and the grave of Tong Achi still remain and are visited by many Chinese who come from the city during the Chinese New Year.[5]

A certain C. Alabaster mentions in 1849 that Cantonese carpenters congregated in the Bow Bazar Street area. [1]. As late as 2006, Bow Bazar is still noted for carpentry, but few of the workers or owners are now Chinese.

According to Alabaster there were lard manufacturers and shoemakers in addition to carpenters. Running tanneries and working with leather was traditionally not considered a respectable profession among upper-caste Hindus, and work was relegated to lower caste muchis and chamars. There was a high demand, however, for high quality leather goods in colonial India, one that the Chinese were able to fulfill. Alabaster also mentions licensed opium dens run by native Chinese and a Cheena Bazaar where contraband was readily available. Opium, however, was not illegal until after India’s Independence from Great Britain in 1947. Immigration continued unabated through the turn of the century and during World War I partly due to the fact that China was undergoing political upheavals such as the Opium Wars, First Sino-Japanese War and the Boxer Rebellion. Around the time of the First World War, the first Chinese-owned tanneries sprung up

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 India’s Independence from Britain did not hinder the influx of Chinese into Kolkata. In 1961, there were close to 7,000. [1] The Sino-Indian War of 1962 ended further immigration from communist China. An unknown number left (most for Australia, Canada, and the United States). Further, those that remained were often branded enemies,detained and sent to an internment camp set up for the ethnic Chinese in Deoli, Rajasthan between 1962 to 1968. The Chinese population in Calcutta dwindled from about 20,000 to 10,000. Those who remained were perceived as enemies, deprived of rights to free movement and dismissed from their jobs in private and government enterprises. The only occupations that remained open for the Chinese in Calcutta were the restaurant business, tanning and shoemaking. The appalling treatment of Chinese residents and their isolation after the war are movingly recounted in Rafeeq Ellias’s recent documentary, The Legend of Fat Mama. [6] The situation was alleviated when India and China resumed diplomatic relations in 1976. However, it was not until 1998 that ethnic Chinese were allowed naturalized Indian citizenship.[6] In 2005, the first road sign in Chinese characters was put up in Chinatown, Tangra

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 The Chinese today work as tannery-owners, shoeshop owners, and restaurateurs. A number of them run beauty parlours in the city. Among services, dentistry is a traditional occupation that is being welcomed by the new generation. [2] Many of the shoe shops lining Bentick Street, near Dharmatolla, are owned and operated by Chinese. A number of restaurants dotting the city are also owned by the Chinese. Fusions of Chinese (especially Hakka) and Indian culinary traditions have given rise to a widely available form, Indian Chinese cuisine. There is one Chinese newspaper published in the city, The Overseas Chinese Commerce in India but figures from 2005 show that sales have dwindled from 500 to 300 copies sold.[7] At one time, 90% of the students of the Grace Ling Liang English School were ethnic Chinese. In 2003, they comprised only about 15% of the 1500 students.[8]

Most of the older generation Chinese of Calcutta are Buddhists, some are Christians (Protestants and Roman Catholics) and they do observe the Chinese New Year. A large number of the younger generations are Christians due to the influence of missionary schools they studied in.

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