The Resilient Women of Indian Chinese Community in Kolkata: A Historiographic Study

What the paper says

The historiography of Kolkata’s migrant Chinese community has been overwhelmingly shaped by narratives of male migration, labour and ethnicity, obscuring the complex experiences and contributions of the migrant Indian Chinese women. This article directly addresses this critical omission by centring the lived realities of Chinese women in Kolkata, arguing that such a perspective is essential to a comprehensive understanding of the community’s evolution. Although Chinese women, visible in everyday city life and integral to familial and communal structures, have had a sustained presence in Kolkata for over a century, their voices and trajectories remain marginalised within both ethnic and gender-focused scholarship. Drawing upon archival records, published research and oral histories, this study interrogates the intersectional marginalisation of Chinese women, rendered doubly invisible by prevailing academic and social frameworks collapsing migration and gender into generic, male-centred categories. Prior studies by scholars such as Oxfeld, Liang and Zhang have illuminated migration patterns and socio-economic dynamics, yet have seldom foregrounded intersectional experiences shaped simultaneously by gender, ethnicity and minority status. This lacuna is especially pronounced in the aftermath of the 1962 Sino-Indian conflict, which intensified the community’s vulnerability and imposed silences that especially affected women. By analysing migration histories, gender roles and everyday practices, this article not only recovers the agency and resilience of Chinese women but also challenges broader narratives that treat migration and minority experiences as monolithic or male-dominated. Ultimately, the study offers a more nuanced and inclusive account of the Chinese-Indian community’s past and present, highlighting women’s pivotal but underrecognised contributions to Kolkata’s cultural and social fabric.