What used to be the livelihood of the small Chinese community in Calcutta -- leather tanning -- has turned into its death sentence.
Calcutta is the only Indian city with a Chinatown but that will now end thanks to a Supreme Court order that all 200 tanneries must move out to curb the pollution they cause.
With one stroke of the pen, Chinatown, in Tangra, will disappear. Tannery owners and workers live, work and socialize in Tangra. Once they move out to the new industrial estate of Bantala, the character of the Chinese enclave will change for ever.
The Hakka Chinese are packing up and getting ready to move out of the congested alleys of Chinatown because of protests over the air and water being contaminated by the chemicals used in the tanneries.
Paul Chung, president of the Indian Chinese Association, is reluctant to leave a place that holds so many memories. However, even before the court ruling, decline had been staring him in the face.
From a vibrant 20,000-strong community with its own schools, social clubs and newspapers just seven years ago, Chinatown now has only about 7,000 people. The younger ones, unenthused by the idea of tanning leather for a career, have flown away to Canada, the US and Australia.
Chung, a retired schoolmaster, says he is lucky that his four daughters have stayed on.
"I will never leave India. I was born here. My parents are buried here. This is my home," Chung said.
Other parents have seen their children move out.
"Chinatown is being deserted by the new generation," says S.M. Hsiung, a school principal. "The Lee Club used to be alive with all sorts of activities. Now it's deserted. All the young do is dream of settling in developed countries."
For a man who has worked hard to preserve every tradition of his community, the impending disintegration is upsetting.
"In Tangra, we speak the purest form of Hakka anywhere in the world. Even in its original home it has been diluted."
Despite being ultra-conservative, the Hakka Chinese are known for their tendency to migrate, even to the most remote parts of the world. One anecdote has it that the northernmost restaurant in the world, close to the Arctic circle, is Chinese and run by a Hakka.
The Chinese presence in India dates back to the 5th century AD when traders, Buddhist monks and imperial envoys arrived.
The first Chinese settler in Calcutta was Young Atchew around 1780. He tried to set up a sugar mill but died broken hearted. His workmen remained, though, and other Chinese migrants followed. With every fresh influx, the community renewed its cultural links with "Mother China" and maintained its distinct identity.
Over the years, the Chinese became associated with certain professions, but it was leather that became their chief trade because the Chinese were able to skirt Hindu taboos about working with the skins of the sacred cow. Only low-caste Hindus tan leather; upper-caste Hindus would rather chop off their own hands.
The tanneries added their quota of filth to a city notorious for dirt and decay. Kipling called Calcutta "the city of dreadful night" and Sir Robert Clive, the British adventurer, called it "the most wicked place in the universe."
The narrow alleyways of Chinatown do have dirty water, which contains both solvents and detergents, running through them but appearances are deceptive. Behind the high walls or in the deep recesses of factories built like miniature fortresses, live wealthy families in palatial homes.
The tanneries are the heart of Chinatown and some owners are not moving out.
"I'm too old to start again. I have neither the money nor the energy," said Patrick Chew, 53. "My sons aren't interested in this business. They're on their way to Canada and Australia."
Asian perspectives of the US have shifted from a country once perceived as a force of “moral legitimacy” to something akin to “a landlord seeking rent,” Singaporean Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen (黃永宏) said on the sidelines of an international security meeting. Ng said in a round-table discussion at the Munich Security Conference in Germany that assumptions undertaken in the years after the end of World War II have fundamentally changed. One example is that from the time of former US president John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address more than 60 years ago, the image of the US was of a country
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
BLIND COST CUTTING: A DOGE push to lay off 2,000 energy department workers resulted in hundreds of staff at a nuclear security agency being fired — then ‘unfired’ US President Donald Trump’s administration has halted the firings of hundreds of federal employees who were tasked with working on the nation’s nuclear weapons programs, in an about-face that has left workers confused and experts cautioning that the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE’s) blind cost cutting would put communities at risk. Three US officials who spoke to The Associated Press said up to 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) were abruptly laid off late on Thursday, with some losing access to e-mail before they’d learned they were fired, only to try to enter their offices on Friday morning
STEADFAST DART: The six-week exercise, which involves about 10,000 troops from nine nations, focuses on rapid deployment scenarios and multidomain operations NATO is testing its ability to rapidly deploy across eastern Europe — without direct US assistance — as Washington shifts its approach toward European defense and the war in Ukraine. The six-week Steadfast Dart 2025 exercises across Bulgaria, Romania and Greece are taking place as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine approaches the three-year mark. They involve about 10,000 troops from nine nations and represent the largest NATO operation planned this year. The US absence from the exercises comes as European nations scramble to build greater military self-sufficiency over their concerns about the commitment of US President Donald Trump’s administration to common defense and
RSS