Two States: The Indians in Hong Kong and their unique legacy Premium

Most of the 50,000 Hong Kong residents who commute on the Star Ferry every day are likely unaware of its roots in Mumbai. But that’s not the city’s only Indian connection

Indian tycoon Hari Harilela (extreme right) and Hong Kong’s first Chief Executive, Tung Chee-hwa (extreme left), with their spouses, in Hong Kong, 1997. | Photo Credit: The Hindu Archives

On most mornings, I line up outside Hong Kong’s Star Ferry Pier on the dockside of the famous Victoria Harbour, joining daily commuters for what must be one of the most charmed morning commutes anywhere on the planet. As the siren rings to announce the lowering of the ramp, we shuffle on board the Morning Star. Those few steps aboard the wood-panelled interiors of the ferry transport us not just across the waters to Hong Kong Island, but into another era.

Remembering Indian martyrs

For most Hongkongers, Happy Valley is known for its famous racecourse, around which revolves one of the world’s largest betting industries. For the Indian community, it’s home to Hong Kong’s Hindu temple, which has for more than five decades served as a cultural hub for the community. 

The temple is more than that: it’s also a living memory of the sacrifices made by the Indians of Hong Kong. On its grounds is a cemetery where lie Indians who lost their lives in World War I as well as in the Battle of Hong Kong in 1942, fighting against the invading Japanese army. On a morning last November, their sacrifices were officially recognised by the Hong Kong government for the first time, while the Indian community, which worked together to restore the cemetery, gathered to pay tribute to the Hindu, Sikh and Gurkha soldiers.

“They hadn’t been acknowledged before, and this was a moment to recall their sacrifices. There is a sense of pride that they gave their lives and contributed to building Hong Kong,” said India’s Consul General Priyanka Chauhan. Their bravery is also recognised in the war ruins that sit right at the top of Victoria Peak, where air defences were built. A report of the battle of Hong Kong, in The Hindu’s archives, noted, “the fact that the enemy, immeasurably superior in numbers, needed some three weeks to subdue an area of that small size,” was “eloquent testimony of the gallant if unavailing resistance of the defenders of Hong Kong — a defence in which it almost goes without saying Indians played a major part”.

The Morning Star first set sail in 1880, the brainchild of Dorabjee Naorojee Mithaiwala, a cook from Mumbai who launched Hong Kong’s first ferry service. Mithaiwala landed in Hong Kong in 1852, coming, according to one account, as a stowaway. The captain of his ship allowed him to stay as a cook. Putting his quickly learned culinary skills to good use, he then launched a successful bakery, one of many profitable ventures. The serial entrepreneur’s greatest legacy, however, was the Kowloon Ferry Company, which he later sold, and was renamed Star Ferry.

Most of the 50,000 Hongkongers who every day take the ferry, which has over the years been revamped and upgraded, are probably unaware of its roots in Mumbai. But what’s remarkable is that Star Ferry is by no means the only enduring Hong Kong institution with an Indian connection.

A short walk from one of the ferry’s piers on Hong Kong Island in the bustling Wan Chai district is Ruttonjee Hospital, first founded in the early 20th century by Jehangir Ruttonjee as a sanatorium to help fight tuberculosis, and subsequently expanded into a world-class hospital by the Ruttonjee-Shroff family, who are still deeply involved in health and social welfare activities in Hong Kong. 

A bust of Hormusjee Mody at the University of Hong Kong pays tribute to the pivotal role played by him in the founding of the institution. | Photo Credit: Ananth Krishnan

Even The University of Hong Kong, the city’s leading educational institution, wouldn’t be here today without the pivotal role played by Hormusjee Mody in its founding. A bust of Mody, who also has the famous Mody Road in Kowloon keeping his name alive, still honours his legacy at the entrance of the university, which this year marks its 111^th anniversary.

Purviz Shroff carries on the Ruttonjee-Shroff family legacy as a philanthropist and supporter of the arts in Hong Kong. | Photo Credit: www.motherschoice.org

“Indian merchants, many of them Parsi, made invaluable contributions in shaping today’s Hong Kong,” says Purviz Shroff, who carries on the Ruttonjee-Shroff family legacy as a philanthropist and supporter of the arts in Hong Kong. “There are many other Indians who have made Hong Kong their home in the last century… They and their descendants became part of Hong Kong.”

25th anniversary

From two world wars to two pandemics, the Indian community in Hong Kong has borne witness to tumultuous changes. The city’s handover to China in 1997 was, perhaps, the biggest change of them all. But through it all, the community has persevered. On July 1, Hong Kong marks the 25th anniversary of its return to China. 

In the lead-up to the handover, some were worried about what Chinese rule might mean for Hong Kong’s Indians, who had, after all, come here during the days of the Empire. Those concerns were misplaced, insisted the late Hari Harilela, one of Hong Kong’s most well-known Indian tycoons, in an interview with The Hindu on the eve of the 1997 handover. Asked back then if Chinese rule would mean the end of the Indian story in Hong Kong, he said that certainly wouldn’t be the case. When asked how many Indian business families were leaving Hong Kong ahead of Chinese Communist rule, as many British expatriates did, he replied, “Not one”.

The sprawling Harilela Mansion in Hong Kong’s Kowloon area is a tourist landmark. | Photo Credit: Getty Images

His prediction was broadly accurate. In what seemed to be a message to the Indian community, Harilela was invited to join the selection committee that chose Tung Chee-hwa as Hong Kong’s first Chief Executive in 1997. Today, the Harilelas remain one of Hong Kong’s most well-known Indian business groups, owning some of the city’s most prime real estate, so much so that their sprawling mansion in the densely populated Kowloon area, where the extended family still lives, is something of a tourist landmark.

Chungking Mansions has for many Hongkongers become synonymous with India with its maze of phone shops and eateries. | Photo Credit: Getty Images

Kowloon mosque, which was built in 1896 for the Muslim troops in the British Indian Army. | Photo Credit: Getty Images

If the Harilela mansion represents one side of the spectrum of what is a diverse Indian community, whose strength has grown from a little over 25,000 at the time of the handover to close to 40,000 today, including many second and third generation Indian Hongkongers, Chungking Mansions in Kowloon is emblematic of the other side. Many Indians who arrived in the city as traders or even asylum seekers can be seen dominating professions such as food delivery, or manning small electronics stores in the shopping plaza. Chungking Mansions has for many Hongkongers become synonymous with India with its maze of phone shops and cheap eateries. 

However, less well-known is the broader history of the Indian presence in Kowloon, which goes back to the 19^th century. A stone’s throw from Chungking Mansions, which also provided the inspiration for Wong Kar-wai’s classic film Chungking Express, is the Kowloon mosque, which was built in 1896 for the Muslim troops in the British Indian Army. The army barracks still stands today as the police headquarters in Kowloon.

Vivek Mahbubani, Hong Kong-born Indian stand-up comedian. | Photo Credit: Getty Images

The next generation of Indian Hongkongers, as the popular young stand-up comic Vivek Mahbubani tells me, inhabits two worlds: they are fluent in Cantonese, as he is, but also proud of their Indian roots. Language, he says, has been key in reducing Hong Kong’s ethnic divide as well as the racism that many minorities, from South and Southeast Asia, endure. “I joke,” he says, “there are two ways to break the barrier in Hong Kong. One, speak the language. Two, help people make money!”

A theatre performance by the Indian community in Hong Kong about the last king of Oudh. | Photo Credit: Teacup Productions

While they straddle both worlds, there is a yearning to preserve their Indian identity, says Shroff, who has been involved in cultural projects in Hong Kong. On one recent evening this spring, Shroff brought the community together in Kowloon’s gleaming new culture district for a theatre performance about the last king of Oudh. The idea, she says, is to “arouse the cultural awareness” of young Indian Hongkongers, many of whom are not aware of the community’s long history in Hong Kong, as well as the unique legacy they inherit.

ananth.krishnan@thehindu.co.in