Not just Darjeeling, West Bengal will come under 6th Schedule

SECURITY AND SOCIOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS
By Dr Kunal Ghosh

The stock in trade response of the Left Front leaders is that they wish to ‘meet the situation politically’, which usually means giving in to Ghising’s unconstitutional and undemocratic blackmail, while he tramples on the fundamental right of worship. [Inset: A Rajbonshi woman]

The West Bengal government has recommended and the Cabinet of the Central government has decided, in the last week of September 2007, to include the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) in the 6th Schedule of the Constitution. The related Bill will be brought before the Parliament in the winter session of 2007-08 (Ananda Bazar Patrika 2007a). DGHC chairman Subash Ghising has not allowed Council elections to be held on some pretext or the other, although the term of the old Council has expired several years ago. Thus he has created a constitutional impasse by sheer intransigence and finally extracted the promise of the 6th Schedule from the State Government. It seems his ‘unconstitutional’ and ‘undemocratic’ behaviour is about to earn a reward rather than a punishment, such is the state of governance in West Bengal.

The Constitution
It is pertinent here to quote the exact provisions of the Indian Constitution:

Article 244 titled ‘Administration of Scheduled and Tribal Areas’ says:

1. The provisions of 5th Schedule shall apply to the administration and control of the scheduled areas and Scheduled Tribes in any state other than the states of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram.

2. The provisions of the 6th Schedule shall apply to the administration of the tribal areas in the States of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram.

Article 244A deals with formation of an autonomous State comprising certain Vanvasi areas of Assam. I repeat Article 244A applies only to Assam, and no other State, that is, not even to Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram.

It is clear from the part (2) of Article 244 that it is a State that has to be brought under the 6th Schedule and not a Hill Council. So the Cabinet decision of the Central Government amounts to an intention of bringing the whole State of West Bengal under the 6th Schedule. It is clear from part (1) and (2) given above that a State can either be under 5th Schedule or 6th Schedule. It cannot be under both. So a State cannot have a mix of 5th and 6th Schedule in dealing with its Vanvasi population. Hence, once West Bengal comes under the 6th Schedule, all its Vanvasis will be governed by it. And that would include the Koch and Rajbongshi Vanvasis of North Bengal also. It is notable that there is an armed movement among these Vanvasis in demand of a separate Kamtapuri State, comprising Jalpaiguri, Kochbihar and parts of Dinajpur and Malda districts.

Soon after the aforesaid Cabinet decision Subash Ghising said that he has not abandoned his long term goal of a separate State of Gorkhaland. This implies that once Darjeeling achieves the 6th Schedule status, it would demand inclusion of West Bengal in Article 244A, in the company of Assam. He is likely to stall elections once again on that pretext. What would West Bengal Government do then? Capitulate and pave the way for disintegration of Bengal?

Making Gorkha out of non-Gorkha
The original people of Darjeeling district are the Bhutias and Lepchas. For some mysterious reasons their number has been declining over last two generations. The Darjeeling hills were very thinly populated in the 1950s. Burgeoning population of Nepal spilled over across the open border in the last century and Darjeeling’s population became overwhelmingly Nepali Hindus and Buddhists. The same demographic change took place in Sikkim also. The populace there has the same exact mix of Nepalese castes. A vast majority of these people are not Gorkhas, but different castes such as Sherpa, Limbu, Rai, Tamang, Norbu, etc. Gorkhas are a martial Kshatriya caste who came from a place of the same name, located far west of the Kathmandu valley and very far from Darjeeling hills. The Gorkhas were the backbone of the army that brought the present royal dynasty of Nepal to power in Kathmandu in the late 18th century.

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Personality of the Month – Dr. Mani Kumar Chettri

Dr. Mani Kumar Chettri

MD (Cal), FRCP (Lon), FRCP (U.S.A), D.Sc (NBU), FAMS (India)

Managing Director, Advance Medical Research Institute (AMRI)  Kolkata.

Some wit once said this “if the God of death (Yamaraj) himself ever suffered heart ailment, the first person that he would think of going to would be Dr. Mani Kumar Chettri”.

Place of Birth:   Teesta Valley T.E

Father’s name: Late. P.L. Singh Chettri

Mother’s name: Smt. H.M. Chettri.

Educational Background:

Schools: Municipal Primary School (up to class four),

   Turnbull High School (Mid-English).

Matriculation: Govt. High School, 1936. District topper.

ISC: St. Paul’s College (Kolkata) (Rs 10/month scholarship provided by The Govt).

MBBS: Govt Medical College (Kolkata).

FRCP: London (1956).

Designations held:

1960, Professor and Director, Institute of Post-Graduate Medical Education Research.

1960, Director, Dept. of Medicine (PGMER).

1976, Director, West Bengal Health Services.

1976, Ex-officio Secretary, (WBHS).

1997, Managing Director, AMRI.

Any person would be proud to have a profile like Dr. Chettri’s, however, he is one of the most unassuming and humble persons. He attributes his success to his hard work and sincerity towards his vocation. He has never taken any sort of coaching/ assistance from any one and strongly feels that the youths of today are less focused due to numerous distractions available to them. Dr. Chettri never had to pay any sort of tuition fees after topping the district in Matriculation, as he would always top whatever class he was studying in. So much so that the Govt of India provided him with full scholarship to study FRCP in London, and he completed the course in mere nine months, where as the usual time taken to complete the course by others varies between two to three years. Dr. Chettri is still the advisor to the Post-Graduate Dept. of Cardiology (PGMER). He provides every assistance and help to people from the Hills and more often than not, he treats his patient (those from hills) at rates much lower than those charged to other patients. Even during his vacation he treats patients free of cost at his residence in Kalimpong.

He strongly feels that students should not indulge in politics and need to focus and be sincere towards their studies. When asked about the Central University, he said that it will definitely help the students and the hills. However, he further stated “whether it will enhance their acumen is a question of doubt”.

As a word of advice towards the students and youths today he said, “you should respect your guru (teachers) and follow them whole heartedly, (you should) respect teachers as you respect your parents. Work hard and be sincere in whatever you do”.

The Govt. of India in recognition of his achievements in the medical field and his dedication towards society conferred him with Padmashree in the year 1974.

The DT team along with the people of Darjeeling salutes this simple hearted yet great personality, whom we are sure our coming generations will take inspiration from and try to emulate.

by Shailendra Mani Pradhan,

Alexander Csoma de Koros

By Barun Roy

Alexander Csoma was born in Transylvanian village of Koros in April, 1784 in a poor but noble military family known as Sekler. He passed the examene rigorosum and went to the University of Gottingen to study English and Arabic. During his studentship he promised to himself to dedicate his life to visit Central Asia in search of the origin of the Hungarians. Hence, he started his journey towards the East in November, 1819. [Inset: The Tomb of Alexander Csoma de Koros. Photo: Samjhana Subba]

There was no Government to support his undertaking. In fact he left without a passport, he only had a permit to go to Bucharest on some business with an insufficient amount of money. But he had certain qualities which were to be of more use; he knew languages such as Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Russian and English. Other assets were his ability to walk long distance, to sleep without a bed or a blanket, to survive on almost any kind and quantity of food and to value the company of poor and simple people.

His journey was not especially lucky. He tried to enter Central Asia by the Karakorum road, he was stopped at Leh, the Capital of Ladakh.

It was not the worst place for a philologist to be stopped there. All around were ancient monasteries full of books unknown and inaccessible till then. Their language had not yet been deciphered by European learning. When the English traveller W. Moorcraft offered Korosi Csoma some assistance, he happily agreed to stay and prepare a grammar and dictionary of the Tibetan language in the hope that in the books preserved in the monasteries he would find some records about those legendary heroes he had set out to learn about.

In 1831 Csoma walked to Calcutta and presented all the papers he had compiled in the hills to the Asiatic Society of Bengal, which had sponsored his researches since 1824 by giving him a monthly stipend of fifty rupees.

His two most famous books, a dictionary and grammar of Tibetan language were printed in 1834.

His other two great works were though less known of similar significance for Buddhist and Sanskrit Buddhist Studies. The first is an edition and English rendering of the Sanskrit and Tibetan Buddhist terminological dictionary called “Mahavyutpatti” which originates from the 3^rd – 4^th centuries A. D. The other work is a catalogue and survey of the Buddhist Tripitaka in Tibetan. This work, published in the “Asiatic Researches” in 1834 and translated into French in 1881, has first given an idea of the various branches of Buddhist Sanskrit literature, which has been lost to a great extent in India.

The Asiatic Society of Bengal elected him an honorary member and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences a member. But these “successes” did not change his life-style, which was formed in the Himalayas. His food was confined to tea, of which he was very fond, and plain boiled rice, of which he ate very little. On a mat on the floor, with boxes of books on all four sides, he sat, ate, slept, and studied, never undressed at night and rarely went out during the day. He never drank wine or spirits or used tobacco or other stimulants.” In 1831 Lord William Bentick having received him warmly arranged for him a room in the building of the Asiatic Society Calcutta, and agreed to meet all the expenses for the publication of his work.

With a view to materializing his initial ambition Alexander Csoma de Koros decided to begin his journey once more to Central Asia. In a touching farewell letter he acknowleged his indebtedness to the Asiatic Society and left all his books, papers and savings at its disposal. Having travelled on foot he reached Darjeeling with fever on March 24 and passed away inspite of best medical treatment available thereon April 11, 1842.

Thus, ended the life of a noble scholar who visited India from a far off country and who dedicated his life for the cause of Indology in general and Tibetology in particular.