hong kong was taken by the british in 1842.
when was hong kong taken by the british?
1842
indian traders and the british east india company had already commenced commercial activities in macau (1654) and canton (1771) long before hong kong became a british colony in 1841. at the time when the union jack flag was hoisted in january 1841 there were around 2,700 soldiers and 4 merchants from the indian subcontinent. indian troops and traders played an important role in the early development of hong kong. in the early years of british hong kong, the indian gold mohur and the rupee were legal tender. hong kong and shanghai banking corporation (hsbc) was created in 1864 with 2 parsees and 1 indian jew among the 13 founding committee members. in 1877, 43.24% of goods imported into hong kong were from india and 17.62% of exports from hong kong went to india. by 1913, trade with india had effectively collapsed with hong kong importing just 13.78% from india while exports from hong kong were reduced to 2.30%. indian businessmen were engaged in society building in hong kong through significant philanthropic contributions: hormusjee nowrojee mody figured prominently in the founding of university of hong kong (hku). star ferry was founded by abdoolally ebrahim in 1842 and developed by dorabjee naorojee from 1888. staff for the engineering services of the kowloon-canton railway were recruited from india. prior to world war ii, 60% of the police force were sikhs from punjab. in 1949, jehangir hormusjee ruttonjee founded ruttonjee sanatorium. large number of indians served in the military, police and prison services of british hong kong till india gained independence from britain on 15 august 1947. in 1952 business leaders of the indian community founded the indian chamber of commerce hong kong (icchk). it aims to promote and improve the image of indian trade in hong kong and southern china. as early as 1955, india was asked by governor alexander grantham to weigh-in on china as to the well-being of hong kong residents when the colony would revert to china.
south asians in hong kong
following the hong kong handover ceremony, when the union jack and the hong kong blue ensign were lowered to symbolise the end of british rule in hong kong, the blue ensign lost its official status and was replaced by the current flag of hong kong. in the 2010s, the former flag of hong kong was used by protesters to represent the cultural differences between hong kong and china; the flag was also used to protest against chinese interference in hong kong, as well as perceived chinese breaches of hong kong's universal suffrage (granted by the sino-british joint declaration). the first high-profile use of the old flag in protests came in 2011 during pro-democracy protests. protesters often stated that they did not use the blue ensign to endorse hong kong independence or the return of hong kong to british control, but rather because they felt that hong kong had greater freedom under british rule. the protesters also said that they used the flag to express the contrasting values of china and hong kong. advocates of the hong kong independence movement and the hong kong autonomy movement use a derivative of the blue ensign, without the british union jack and with the chinese characters for hong kong (香港) in the centre of the arms rather than the standard english "hong kong". the right to display the old flag is protected under the hong kong bill of rights ordinance and the hong kong basic law as an expression of free speech. despite this, when the old flag began appearing in protests, pro-beijing newspapers called for it to be banned. the pro-beijing camp views the flag as a symbol of colonialism and a reminder of china's losses during the era of new imperialism.
flag of hong kong (1959–1997)