My Marathi is better than my Chinese,” says Dr Liang-Shun Ma at his clinic in Vashi, Navi Mumbai. “In fact, when I go to any government office, I write my name down in Marathi on a piece of paper and give it to the officials. It’s easier to pronounce this way.” Dr Ma’s family has been in India for three generations.

Unlike most communities migrating to then Bombay, the Chinese came by land from Calcutta. They had been migrating to West Bengal since the late 1700s for trade in tea, sugar and other essentials. The East India Company was trying to get a foothold in markets to the east of India, and eagerly helped Chinese businessmen such as Tong Atchew procure land in return for tea and expertise to run plantations in the Northeast. Atchew is said to have started the first sugar mill in India, bringing 1,100 workers with him. According to urban legend, this gave sugar its Hindi word: Chini.