How long have you kept a secret?
Over 60 years ago, about 3,000 Chinese-Indians were imprisoned in Deoli Internment Camp in Rajasthan, India. The Indian government justified that this was a national security measure as a result of the Sino-Indian border conflict, which lasted 32 days.
Children and families, many of them Indian-born citizens, were interned from anywhere between several months to over four years. Upon release from the camp, they continued to be reminded of their otherness by travel restrictions, check-ins, and local imprisonment.
The Indian government has not apologized or recognized this history.
“Voices of Deoli” tells the survivors’ stories, their lives now in the United States and Canada, their journey as immigrants, both haunting and illuminating memories of the camp, and their efforts at finding justice and healing throughout the years.
“I am the way I look, but I’m also not the way I look.”
Voices of Deoli is a feature-length documentary that uncovers the untold story of Chinese Indians who were imprisoned without charges in a desert internment camp following the 1962 Sino-Indian War.
Through the voices of survivors now living in North America, the film explores the long shadow of state-sanctioned xenophobia, the trauma of displacement, and the fight for justice over 60 years later.
Voices of Deoli reveals how fear and state power are repeatedly used to marginalize immigrant communities, showing that history does, in fact, repeat itself.
Watch Voices of Deoli
Voices of Deoli is available to stream on Tubi and for educational licensing on New Day Films.
