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By
the twentieth century the Armenian communities in South Asia had declined
to a few thousand. Calcutta remained the only viable Armenian community
in the region. In the 1920's, Armenians who had fled the Russian Revolution,
civil war, and the Bolsheviks, began to arrive in Harbin, in the Chinese
province of Manchuria, and in Shanghai. An Armenian Church was constructed
in Harbin and Armenian merchants and artisans opened businesses in China
and Southeast Asia. The Armenians worked closely and, at times, intermarried
with, the Europeans of China. World War Two devastated the remaining Armenian
centers in the region. The Japanese rounded up all Europeans in China,
Burma, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, and Singapore, including the
Armenians. Those who survived the ravages of the war were soon faced with
the discriminatory policies of the nationalist or socialist governments,
which followed the decolonization of South and Southeast Asia. The communist
takeover of China in 1949 resulted in the emigration of its entire Armenian
community, some of whom went to South America. Out of the once-successful
community, some 1,000 Armenians remain in South and Southeast Asia, with
a good part of them in India, especially in Calcutta, which still has
an active Armenian school, club, and church.
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| Holy
Church of Nazareth in Calcutta built in 1724 is the oldest church
in the city |
St.
Mary's Church in Madras, built in 1772 |
Such major upheavals forced the Armenians of South Asia to leave in droves
and seek refuge in Australia, where a number of them had already immigrated
during the 1920's. Political changes and economic hardship in Eastern
Europe and the Middle East brought more immigrants to Australia (and a
few to New Zealand), which in the 1990s boasts an Armenian population
of some 35,000, mostly in Melbourne and Sydney, where churches, clubs,
and newspapers have created an active community.
Source:
A History of the Armenian People by George A. Bournoutian
Images: AGBU magazine
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