Beyond Barbed Wires: A Distant Dawn

Directed by Rafeeq Ellias

Like Japanese-Americans after Pearl Harbour, on a smaller but equally poignant scale, 3000 members of India's tiny Chinese community were incarcerated in an old POW camp for up to 4 years in the aftermath of the India-China war of 1962. Even children, expectant mothers and the elderly were not spared. Most people don't know about this tragic episode. There is no acknowledgment or apology either from the government to date. And yet, among those who suffered, the love for India and things Indian remain alongside the pain and hurt. It's a story that reminds us that history has a way of repeating itself. Again and again.