Balaghat (Madhya Pradesh): Two Chinese soldiers treated as "spies" by India share a common tragic course of life, which saw them incarcerated in various Indian jails after being captured on the border in the aftermath of 1962 Indo-China war, and then detained in a remote tribal hamlet in Madhya Pradesh.
The Chinese duo was treated as spies, but never accorded the status of prisoners of war (POWs) status in India.
Having led an anonymous life in a foreign country for over 50 years, Wang Chi and Div Shu Nag Jung's turbulent years in "exile" culminated in a pleasant homecoming for one of them and a tragic death for the other.
For Wang Chi, 79, a native of Xianyang under Shaanxi province in China, it was a thrilling end to his 54-year-long battle to return to his motherland when he landed in Beijing on February 10 last year to a tumultuous reception by his family members and friends.
“His family members who came to the Beijing airport to receive him were crying their hearts out as they hugged him,” Vishnu Wang, who along with his wife and daughter accompanied his father to Xianyang, recounted the moving scene.
Vishnu, 32, who returned to his native village of Tirodi in Madhya Pradesh's Balaghat district after spending nearly a month with his father' relatives in Xianyang in March last year, recalled Chi's “painful exile period” in India.
Chi, then a mechanical survey engineer in China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) was captured in Arunachal Pradesh on January 3, 1963 and shifted from one prison to another across the country, including Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh before being dumped in Tirod in 1969.
His misery had compounded after he was “set free” in Tirodi, but allegedly being kept under surveillance by Indian security agencies.
He constantly yearned for his family members, particularly his parents, badly. He used to cry throughout the nights wanting to reunite with his family. He ran from pillar to post in the past 50 years pleading with the authorities concerned to facilitate his return to his homeland.
Mr Wang had started his family in his adopted village of Tirodi by marrying a local girl, Sushila Mohite, at the age of 34, in 1974 and assumed a new identity as Raj Bahadur Wang.
A file photo of Div Shu Nag Jung, Mr Wang's compatriot who died on August 31 last year, with his Indian wife Sewan Bai Janbandhu.
The couple had three sons, including Vishnu, and two daughters. To run his family, Mr Wang did some odd jobs before starting a small grocery shop in Tirodi.
“The police used to harass him. He was often called to the police station under one pretext or another and used to be subjected to mental and physical torture,” Vishnu alleged.
But, he never gave up his efforts to return to his homeland. Post 1962 war, Chang's family members as well as the Chinese government presumed that he was dead. Finally in 1985, by posting a letter, he contacted his family members in China. His perseverance had yielded results when he was issued passport in 2013. It took him four more years to get visa. His parents had passed away by the time.
Mr Wang visited his family in Tirodi in November last year when his wife passed away and later went back to China to renew his visa, which expired on February 9.
The saying, “Every end has a nice beginning”, has come true for Mr Wang, but not for his compatriot Div, who too was a PLA infantryman. After being captured near the border soon after the 1962 war, Div was set free in Tirodi after being incarcerated in several jails in the country. He too, married a local girl, Sewan Bai Janbandhu, in 1973. The couple ran a tea stall and have two sons and two daughters — all married. “My husband was not sure if he had any family member/s back in his hometown in China, which was devastated by a severe earthquake in early 1970s. Hence, he accepted Tirodi as his homeland and used to be happy with our family,” said Ms Janbandu. He had developed a strong desire to visit his homeland when he saw Mr Wang return home to China. My husband’s dream remained unfulfilled and never materialised as he died on August 31 last year, said Div’s widow.
