Voting today, 400 ‘Assamese Chinese’

The small community lives in Tinsukia district in Upper Assam, their roots in 19th century China, and whose ancestors were brought to Assam by British planters after tea had been discovered growing wild about 60 km east of here.

“My mother can describe vividly how the people of our community had suddenly become an enemy of India following the Chinese aggression,” says Tung, whose Hong Kong Restaurant in Tinsukia town, 10 km from here, has been the area's most popular chow mein and momo joint for four decades.

But mother Lee Su Chen, 83, does not want to discuss those “dark” days. “All I can say is that we went through unbelievable difficulty. Today, I will describe that as a bad dream,” says Chen, who lost her two-year-old daughter in a detention camp at Deoli in Rajasthan, where they were kept for three years.

Lee Su Chen proudly displays the voter slip she was given last week, proof that she is an Indian. She is Voter No 412 in Polling Station No 30. “I voted in 1957 and 1962, and then again since 1971,” she said proudly. They are voting on Monday.

Over 400 Chinese-origin residents of Makum,

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