On August of 2017, members of AIDCI (Association of India Deoli Camp Internees) in Toronto, Canada had a mission. Our mission was to take a road trip from Toronto to Ottawa and demonstrate in front of the India High Commission to make public awareness of what happened to Chinese Indians in the aftermath of the 1962 Border War between India and China. We especially chose this time given the new escalation of border tension, and we did not want history to repeat itself.

 

Yes, it took a long time for us to finally get up the courage to do so.

There were nine people in our group. Rafeeq Ellias, a photojournalist, who has been a loyal supporter of the Chinese Indian community in India, and also of those outside India who want to have their stories heard. We wouldn’t have been able to make this happen without Rafeeq’s help. Four survivors of the Deoli Internment Camp, Michael, Joy, Steven and me. My sister, Pu-Chin, joined us because she wanted to be with me on this historic trip. Dilip, a writer and journalist based in Mumbai was introduced to us by Rafeeq.

The day has finally arrived! After the concept was born two and a half years ago, of returning to India on Gandhi's birthday to give public awareness of what happened to the Chinese Indians, and after a year of working to make it happen, four of us, are making this historic trip leaving today!

We are calling ourselves "The Deoliwallahs" — survivors of the Deoli Internment Camp, Rajasthan, India, 1962-1967.

We will be giving talks at several venues soon after we arrive New Delhi and we will do our best to keep you all updated.

Our group of Deoliwallahs leave for India at the end of the month to give a series of talks in Delhi and Kolkata, to share our stories and make public awareness of what happened to us in the aftermath of the 1962 Border War between India and China. We invite you to go on our journey, if not physically, at least in spirit.

We had hoped to launch our fund-raising campaign on July 1 but got delayed and missed the deadline. We finally launched it on July 31 which on the BLUE MOON!! Yes, really! an auspicious day. I'm happy to announce that we are at 28% of our goal and have 32 days left to go. We hope all of you who read this will join us and help us reach our goal. :-)    http://igg.me/at/voicesofdeoli

A small group of the "Deoliwallahs" — the survivors of the Deoli Internment Camp of India, will arrive India on October 2, Gandhi's birthday, another auspicious day, returning together to the country of our birth for the first time!