Forty-eight years after China declared a unilateral ceasefire to end the 1962 Sino-Indian border conflict, an extraordinary event took place this month in India's northeastern state of Assam.
A group of ethnic Chinese were felicitated as 'fellow Indians' by the people of Makum, a small town nestling amid Assam's famed tea gardens, and much regret was expressed for their inhuman treatment by the government after the border war.
In 1962, Assam was part of a larger administrative zone that lay at the intersection of three countries - India, China and Myanmar. Befitting its geographical location, Makum was a unique town - it had a large and thriving Chinese community.
The community dated back to the 1830s, when the British smuggled some workers along with tea saplings out of China to establish Assam's premier plantation business.
Over the next century, the booming tea industry became a magnet for migrants from China, and many eventually started successful businesses of their own. 'My grandfather set up a timber sawmill and our family became very prosperous manufacturing railway sleepers,' Wang Shing Tung, 52, recalls.
'We owned cars, trucks and even elephants, and top district officials would salute my father, addressing him as 'Cheena Sahib' [Chinese boss].'
