Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c14.s3.t3: Indian Residents Association, Tianjin
Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c14.s3.t3
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Indian Residents Association, Tianjin
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Tianjin was one of the treaty port cities in northern China that had a small community of Indian residents in the late 19ᵗʰ and early 20ᵗʰ centuries. At the beginning of the 20ᵗʰ century, they were numbered about 70 altogether. About one half of these were merchants, mostly from Sindh province (now in Pakistan). Some of them had strong business links with Japan as well. The rest of the Indian residents were mainly policemen and watchmen.
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One of these merchants was a Bengali Muslim named Abdul Bari who had been settled in China for a long time and had a Chinese wife. He had acquired
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*A historical building of Tianjin, originally known as the Taylor Hotel built in 1929 by an Indian British subject Talati and a British Laidlow*
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considerable wealth and was a prominent member of the community. After the Japanese occupation of north China during World War II, Abdul Bari had formed the Indian Residents’ Association in Tianjin. He became a controversial figure in the Indian community after the War as it was alleged that he had gone out of his way to build connections with the Japanese occupation authorities to further his own business interests, using funds belonging to the Association. This was denied by him. After the formation of the China Territorial Committee of the Indian Independence League (IIL) in 1942, Bari was persuaded by its General Secretary, Om Prakash Seth, to open the Tianjin chapter of the League. He did set up the branch of the IIL in Tianjin, but apparently did not dissolve the Indian Residents Association, which continued to exist until the end of the War in 1945.