Sailors and Settlers: The Migratory Trends and Social and Cultural Institutions of the Indian-Chinese Community of Calcutta

Abstract

This paper explores trends in Chinese migratory history in Asia within the larger framework of inter-Asia Studies and connected histories, focusing specifically on the Indian-Chinese community of Calcutta in both its historical and contemporary contexts. It draws from ethnography conducted in Calcutta’s two Chinatowns in 2024 as well as on archival documents obtained from the Directorate of State Archives, West Bengal. First, I explore the history of Chinese migration to India through the archive, focussing on the poignant story of a Chinese trader named Lu Chi Ming, whose journey from China to Calcutta underscores the role of empires, war and trade in shaping maritime connections in 20^th century Asia while also highlighting the role of colonial port cities in shaping these transnational linkages. Next, I look the cultural and religious institutions of the Indian-Chinese in Calcutta today, focussing on the ways in which the community continues to invoke the ancestral homeland in their everyday lives, leading to the emergence of syncretic and hybrid practises that helps us rethink South Asian national and Bengali regional identities beyond cartographic or territorial imaginings. This research thus aligns with the scholarly push in recent years to centre maritime connections and transnational communities in Asia Studies research which in turn helps us see South Asia, and Calcutta and the larger Bay of Bengal region, as an incredibly mobile and historically connected space.