Student Hunger Strikers in Kurseong – A Photo feature by Nandan Pradhan

Amar Chettri 2nd Year Kurseong College, Anil Gorkha Rai 3rd year Kurseong College, Bhawesh Pradhan Class 12 Pushparani School, Binod Bhattrai 3yr Kurseong College, Dhiraj Lama Class 11 Pushparani School, Govind thapa 3rd year Kurseong College (General Secretary Students’ Union), Janarjan Sharma 2nd year Kurseong College, Kunal Chettri 2nd year Kurseong College, Palden Sherpa 3rd year Kurseong College, Pema Ghissing 3rd year Kurseong College, Pemba Tshering Tamang Class 11 Pushparani School, Prashant Chettri Class 11 Pushparani School, Prashant Pradhan Class 11 Pushparani School, Samir rai Class 11 Pushparani School

ALL PHOTOS BY NANDAN PRADHAN

Is the involvement of Students warranted in the Gorkhaland Movement?

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Profile of the Himalayas

Greetings Mountaineers.

Please forgive this intrusion, but I need some ideas. The Himalaya
Atlas construction is progressing slowly and what I am looking for are
ideas about simple maps that will help amateurs like me orient
themselves a bit when confronting hundreds of aerial panoramas. I am
attaching a first draft of one of four such maps. Suggestions,
corrections, additions …

Open it in your web browser and stretch out the window as far as it
will go. This is best seen on a large screen.

Thanks for any assistance you may be willing to offer. – Bill

–
Dr. William A. Bowen
California Geographical Survey

drwilliambowen@gmail.com

A Letter to the Editor – The Pioneer by Varsha

The Editor
The Pioneer
B.S. Zafar Marg
New Delhi 110 002

Re: Kanchan Gupta’s article: Don’t sympathise with Gorkhaland

Mr. Gupta seems to have read all the history books available on how Darjeeling came into being and about Nepal and Sikkim Kings Queens and consorts…

Mercifully, he has also mentioned how the Gorkhas living in Darjeeling have been granted citizenship since 1950. Kind of him.

He however forgot to mention that there are Gorkhas living in all parts of India – just the way all Indians can and are allowed as “citizens” of Independent India. We Gorkhas are not just restricted to Darjeeling , Dooars or Siliguri, we are in large numbers in Himachal, Uttrakhand, Uttar Pradesh and have been living in these sates for centuries.

His theory of how Ghising’s dreams of “Gorkhaland” in the 1980s agitiation was fuelled to “re-establish Greater Nepal” by creating a bridge between Nepal and Sikkim is just that a THEORY.

By insinuating that the rightful demand of the Gorkhas for a separate state that has been pending for not one – ten or twenty years but more than one hundred years, has little do do with “local aspirations” of Gorkhas and more to do with the rise of Maoists in Nepal and the creation of Greater Nepal, Mr. Kanchan has deliberately chosen to cast aspersions on the loyalty and the integrity of the Gorkha community in India .

That the Gorkhas would even entertain such treachery would go against the common grain of all Gorkhas – it is not for nothing that members of our community have won the largest number of gallantry awards – posthumously. Yes posthumously, for protecting India ’s borders from 1947 until date, note not just protecting West Bengal ’s borders. And before that by being members of Subhash Chandra Bose’s Indian National Army. Even now the Gorkhas are proud of their association with the Indian armed forces in particular, and other profession in general, yes even tea-plucking that helps to garner India precious exports and revenues for a brand called “Darjeeling Tea”.

Mr. Kanchan should know most Gorkhas chose, yes chose to stay with the Indian Army rather than go over to the British Army.

And this is what we get even after 100 years our own countrymen call us “foreigners” our own countrymen and media label us as outsiders, and insinuate that we would side with other countries to encroach on India ’s territory. The whole point is that we Gorkhas are INDIAN and want to be seen and respected as Indians, not Chinese/Nepalese/North Easterns/Khasis/Mizos/Garos – we are Gorkhas, we are Indians. Believe it or not!

As Gorkhas we love India as much as any other Indian, it’s a pity that though we are in large numbers in India we are scattered as a community. We understand how the West Bengal government, ministers that hail from the state that have prominent positions and portfolios in the Cabinet including that of I&B, Foreign Affairs etc, the policy makers of which a large coterie is again from Bengal get more prominence than us poorly represented Gorkhas.

That is why the illegal immigrants of erstwhile East Pakistan/Bangladesh can and are infiltrating our borders at will and merging with the population of India, just because they look and speak – Bengali, therefore these immigrants are never subjected or challenged to prove their identity as Indians. We understand they are potential voter banks for political parties. These very same immigrants in North Bengal qualify for BPL ration cards and avail all facilities of the Government whereas the Adivasis – indigenous tribes of India and the Gorkhas have to fight and prove our identity to qualify for a ration card.

We are aware that many in the fourth estate too belong to Bengal and therefore to get a fair unbiased representation in the media may be a bit elusive but, as citizens of India we do expect that of the media. Sadly, the media perhaps has forgotten their role to be a mirror of society and instead is allowing their bias to show.

Darjeeling – Land Rover Nation

A Land Rover Series One Dash Board stripped to its basic frame. Land Rovers ply seemlessly to Sandakphu where the most modern of 4X4 fail.

The Camel of the Himalayas – Land Rover

The People’s Carrier

All Photos by Shikaresh

Factors of Gorkhaland Movement

By Vimal Khawas

The present movement for separate state of Gorkhaland in the Darjeeling hills and its adjacent terai area can be debated at two levels – national and regional.

At the national level Indian Nepali speakers/Gorkhas have always felt that they are treated as foreigners by the mainstream Indians. To a large extent their feeling is correct. Mainstream India repeatedly confuses with the Nepali of Nepal and Indian Nepali. As a consequence, bonafide Indian Nepali speakers suffer psychological as well as physical insecurity.

The culprit here, as often highlighted, is the Treaty of Peace and Friendship ( 1950 ) between India and Nepal. In the present context, not less than 50 per cent of the total Nepali population in India is composed of Nepalis who have crossed over from Nepal on the strength of this treaty- in search of greener pasture.

It is also that the history of Indian Gorkhas/Nepalis has been very poorly written by mainstream Indian historians. They did this possibly due to the lack of historical material available with them. As a result mainstream Indians even today believe that all the Nepali speakers on the Indian soil are Nepalese citizens and thus are foreigners. They are unaware of the fact that there are over a crore of bonafide Indian Nepalis/Gorkhas residing in India.

Moreover, as rightly highlighted by many Indian Nepali/Gorkha academicians and critiques, Indian Gorkha leaders like Dambar Singh Gurung and Ratanlal Brahmin negatively impacted the lives of Indian Nepalis in the post-independent India. There were several instances when they openly articulated their loyalty towards Nepal instead of their motherland. The speech by Dambar Singh Gurung in the Constituent Assembly ( 1948 ) immediately after the independence of India provides a prominent example in this regard.

Is Gorkhaland An Unjust Demand?

By Dhruba H. Adhikary [Editorial - Gorkhapatra, Kathmandu, Nepal]

Absolutely not. Indians of Nepali ethnicity deserve what they have been demanding since 1980s : Gorkhaland within the Indian union. All they are saying is that Darjeeling and adjoining areas be made a state so that Nepali-speakers could establish their identity on cultural and linguistic lines. Bimal Gurung and his colleagues in the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) have made it abundantly clear that theirs is not a secessionist movement of any kind. The political leadership as well as the bureaucracy in New Delhi need to understand the aspirations and concomitant pledge expressed through the GJM leadership. The Indian authorities can take timely measures so that the ongoing campaign does not assume additional, if not ugly, dimensions. It does not need elaboration, for example, that by being insensitive to a genuine claim New Delhi runs the risk of alienating the Gorkhas who are a crucial component of the India’s armed forces. Gorkhas, after all, are Gorkhas, and it does not make any difference, in a given situation like the present one, whether they live in the hills of Nepal or in areas across the Mechi river. Inexplicable New Delhi and Calcutta have remained indifferent to the voice of Gorkhas for far too long. Lack of enthusiasm in Calcutta initially looked understandable because fulfillment of Gorkhali demand would directly result in the reduction of the size of the state of West Bengal. But, the stony silence New Delhi chose to maintain on this issue remained unfathomable. As is obvious, a call for a general strike in the Darjeeling hills does not affect only the population of that area; it also disrupts the traffic on the highway linking Sikkim which borders Tibet. Security implications are there for everyone to see. Should effects on security aspect be pronounced after a prolonged spell of inaction, Calcutta would eventually be forced to take its share of the blame for making India insecure. The leftist leadership in West Bengal, therefore, has a choice to offer a timely help to the Gorkhas for a state of their own in territories currently dubbed as north Bengal or maintain a negative stand now and pay a heavy price afterwards. What Pranab Mukherjee, India’s External Affairs Minister, said in Calcutta on June 14 is reflective of the negative attitude on the Gorkhas. By assigning external affairs minister to say “no” to the Gorkhaland demand, the Indian leadership tried to show that the demand is prompted by foreign powers. This is bound make the Gorkhas angrier. If it was a separatist movement right from the start, as it is being projected now from Calcutta and New Delhi, where was the need for the Indian leadership to recognize Subhas Ghisingh and then grant a hill council status to the area under his leadership—in 1988 ? India’s omnipresent intelligence agencies must have collected necessary information on the movement.

No national mourning for Manekshaw

FROM INDIAN EXPRESS

New Delhi, June 28: Flags at most regimental centres and Army units across the country will be flying at half mast to pay homage to Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw who passed away on Friday but national flags across the country will not be lowered in honour of the five-star General.
While it is not a breach of protocol, the Government’s decision not to declare a national mourning in the wake of the Field Marshal’s demise has once again raised eyebrows after the low turnout at his funeral.

Army sources confirmed that no instructions of a national mourning period was declared and the national flag would not be flying at half mast as is customary after the death of a leader of national importance or a former head of state.

Don’t sympathise with Gorkhaland

Don’t sympathise with Gorkhaland – Kanchan Gupta (From The Daily Pioneer)

In the summer of 1966, Hope Cooke, the American socialite-turned-Gyalmo, or Queen Consort of the ill-fated 12th Chogyal of Sikkim, created a furore in New Delhi by contesting, in an article published in the Namgyal Institute of Tibetology’s bulletin, India’s possession of Darjeeling that was ‘gifted’ to East India Company by Tsugphud Namgyal. In his book, Smash and Grab: Annexation of Sikkim, Pioneer columnist and former editor of The Statesman Sunanda K Datta-Ray recounts how she argued that “no Sikkimese monarch was empowered to alienate territory”. According to Hope Cooke, Tsugphud Namgyal’s gift to the Company was “in the traditional context of a grant for usufructage only; ultimate jurisdiction, authority and the right to resume the land being implicitly retained”. She claimed Darjeeling’s cession was the “gift of a certain tract for a certain purpose and does not imply the transfer of sovereign rights”. The immediate context of the Gyalmo’s assertion of the Chogyal’s indivisible rights was the web of deceit that was being spun, with more than a little help from the Kazi and other local players, by New Delhi to bring Gangtok within the orbit of its absolute control, converting India’s suzerainty into sovereignty over Sikkim. What happened subsequently is well known: Sikkim was annexed and made a part of the Union of India; the Chogyal was stripped of all powers and died a broken man; and, Hope Cooke, after separating from the Chogyal, returned to the US where she now lives in Brooklyn Heights, New York. These details are inconsequential today. What, however, is relevant is the history of Darjeeling, which is once again in the news, this time because Gorkha settlers are asserting their right to set up a homeland in the three hill divisions — Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Kurseong — apart from Siliguri and the Dooars, which they want to re-christen Gorkhaland.

History tells us how Sikkim’s borders once stretched up to eastern Nepal; how Prithvi Narayan Shah, who welded feuding clans and warring regions into a sprawling kingdom, grabbed Darjeeling; and, how General Ochterlony’s campaign against the Gorkhas resulted in the Treaty of Sugauli (also spelt Segouli) in 1816 when Nepal ceded 10,000 sq km of territory, including Darjeeling, to the East India Company. That’s where history begins and ends for the Gokhas both in Nepal and in India who are clamouring for Gorkhaland: Darjeeling was Nepali territory ceded to the British and, therefore, must now revert back to the Gorkhas.

“We will try to convince schools, students and teachers not participating and try to understand the reason behind their reluctance” Bhaskar Rai, Gorkha Janmukti Vidyarthi Morcha

BEACON ONLINE EXCLUSIVE [THE HIMALAYAN BEACON]

BY BARUN ROY

Amrit Yonzon, Vice President Gorkha Janmukti Vidyarthi Morcha addressing the children from the tops of the District Magistrate’s office. Photo by Barun Roy

Darjeeling 29^th June: Refuting the statements circulating in the press today, Gorkha Janmukti Vidyarthi Morcha, Treasurer, Bhaskar Rai said, “Some papers have published today that we will be strictly dealing with schools, students and teachers who have not been participating in our programmes. A lot of the statements carried on the papers suggest that we are also contemplating on declaring these institutions and individuals as anti-Gorkhas or anti-Gorkhaland. This is not so. We have never meant that. So far only 10 schools predominately from the Madhyamik Board have participated in the Hunger Strike while no schools from the ICSE or CBSE Board have come forward to either participate in the processions nor the 24 hour relay hunger strikes.

Darjeeling Yesterday

Gorkha Janmukti Asthahi Karmachari Sangathan goes not fast unto death after a 24 hour relay hunger strike. People take out protest rallies and procession in different parts of the town. Photos by Himalaya Darpan

Kumudini Boys on Relay Hunger Strike in Kalimpong

Kumudini boys participate on relay hunger strike in Kalimpong

Ganga Parajuli, Sangten Lepcha, Rikjin Dukpa, Sujan Tamang, Indra Prasad Paudyal, Dhiren Chettri and Sagar Bhujel

Three houses burnt to ashes due to LPG leak in Mirik

All Photos by Himalaya Darpan

Photos by Himalaya Darpan

I believe I can fly

Photo by Bikram Sashankar (Himalaya Darpan)

Students continue with hunger strike

BEACON ONLINE EXCLUSIVE [THE HIMALAYAN BEACON]

WITH BARUN ROY AT DARJEELING AND NANDAN PRADHAN AT KURSEONG

Darjeeling/Kurseong: In spite of condemnation from the intellectuals circles of the society both in Darjeeling Hills and beyond, the students participated in 24 hour relay hunger strikes all over the Hills and Dooars Terai. Fourteen boys from Ram Krishna Siksha Parishad Boys High School sat on hunger strike at Darjeeling and Eight girls from different schools and colleges sat on the Hunger Strike in Kurseong. Reports of students on hunger strike at Kalimpong, Mirik and Dooars Terai have also reached us. The hunger strike was started on the 27th of June and will continue until the 5th of July. According to the source at the Gorkha Janmukti Vidyarthi Morcha, no decision of the continuation of the relay hunger strike has been made at the Central Committee so far. “Our leaders are pursuing fruitful dialogue both with the State Government in Kolkata and the authorities in Delhi. We are hopeful that positive results will come out of it. However, we are also prepared to continue with the agitation if the talks fail or nothing comes out of it,” an insider in the Party said.

Girls on hunger strike at Kurseong. Photos by Nandan Pradhan

The direct students involvement in the Gorkhaland Agitation has invoked mixed reactions from people in the hills and beyond. Mahesh Sharma, a prominent teacher from the Hills said, “I am absolutely against the participation of the students in Hunger Strikes, rallies and dharnas. I have no objections against the college students though. They have grown up and it is good for them to participate in the politics. Students from 12 standard and below should have nothing to do with it. We should nurture these younglings not put them into the furnace of politics and mass agitation. This will not only disturb their education but will also cause them to lose their innocence. My only request to all political parties is – please do not use the children, we are there to fight for Gorkhaland. We will need them later to carry on with everything. The school students have already lost a great deal this year. Almost 30 per cent of their schooling days have been used up by strikes, bandhs, processions and hunger strikes.” Mahesh Sharma’s view was however, starkly negated by Dalbir Thapa, another teacher, when he said, “Why are we making such a big deal about students sitting in for a 24 hour hunger strike. They are not sitting for a fast unto death, are they? They will have to learn about the movement and participate in it.” When inquired whether the students weren’t too young (15 to 16 years) to participate directly in the movement, he said, “We have all seen infants and babies waving Indian flag during the freedom movement when they could participate why not these 16-17 year olds. They have all developed into young adults.”

Sushmita Sewa 2nd year BA, Shradha Pradhan 1st year BA, Rajni Sewa 1st year BA, Pranita Moktan 1st year BA, Upashna Lama class 7 (St Joseph’s School), Pranita Moktan 1st BA, Namrata Rai 1st BA, Deepa Tamang 1st yer BA, Meghma Pradhan class 10 (Himali Boarding School) [All Photos by Nandan Pradhan]

Sun Dawn – A Kitaroh Collection

By Kitaroh

Kurseong駅にて．機関車が待避線に入り出発しようとしています．線路またぐ男性の何ともゆったりした散歩姿が良いですね．こせこせしないゆとりさえも感じられますね．右手の方向がKurseong駅です

View from Eagles’ Craig at Kurseong

Photo by S. K. Dikshit

(Copyrights held by the Photographer)

In a season of discontent, many protests sweep India

FROM INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE

By Heather Timmons

NEW DELHI: Discontent is sweeping through India in the form of widespread protests over land use, food, fuel and jobs.

Indian citizens have long embraced their constitutional right to assemble, and they have done so with fervor this month in large protests over a wide range of issues throughout the country.

Some speculate that India’s weak central government, which is run by an uneasy coalition between the Congress Party and the Left Front, could be contributing to the unrest. Others attribute the upheaval to rapid changes in Indian society.

On Saturday, the Muslim-majority state of Jammu and Kashmir in the north was roiled for a sixth consecutive day by demonstrations, the region’s largest in nearly 20 years. The protest was over what demonstrators say is a plan to build a settlement for Hindu pilgrims on forest land.

Three people have been killed and more than two dozen injured, local officials said. On Saturday, the police used tear gas and fired live ammunition into the air, trying to disperse the crowds, The Associated Press reported.

Two weeks ago, in Darjeeling, Nepali-speaking separatists went on strike, shutting businesses and schools. They also asked tens of thousands of tourists to leave the area, in West Bengal in India’s northeast. The protesters, led by a separatist movement, the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha, are demanding a new state for people of Nepalese origin.

Nuclear deal standoff exposes myopia of Indian political class (Commentary)

FROM NEW KERALA.COM

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By Amulya Ganguli: The stalemate over the India-US nuclear deal is the result of a standoff between an ideologically driven Left and an ideologically confused Congress party, whose uncertainties have been boosted by its minority status.The Congress’ dependence on the Left’s support in parliament has prevented it from moving ahead on the deal although Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has set his heart on it.

In addition to these two factors, further complications have been created by the presence on the Congress’ side of fickle non-Communist allies whose limited regional outlook and misgivings about electoral prospects have made them wary of supporting the deal to the extent of risking a general election for it.

These are not the only problems for the Congress. A sudden inflationary spiral and defeats in a number of state elections have tied the Congress party’s hands. There is also the party’s ’socialistic’ and ‘non-aligned’ past which still has its votaries in the organisation who are half in agreement with the Left’s anti-American views. Not surprisingly, one of them, Panchayati Raj Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar has raised the question of the utility of nuclear power (as the Left has done) by calling for a new energy paradigm.

While these are the constraints on the side of the parties in power, the attitude of the opposition, namely, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as well as those not with the BJP like the Samajwadi Party are also not helpful. The BJP’s attitude, for instance, has been called cussed since it is blocking the deal even though it does not share the Left’s obsessive anti-Americanism.

Unrest in India’s Hill Country

FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES

European Press photo Agency: Supporters of a separatist group demonstrating in a Darjeeling hill town. Tourists have been told to leave the area.

By SOMINI SENGUPTA

Published: June 29, 2008

A long-brewing separatist movement in the Darjeeling hills had, until recently, receded into the past so thoroughly that it became fodder for fiction, setting the backdrop for Kiran Desai’s 2006 Booker Prize-winning novel, “The Inheritance of Loss.” Earlier this month, it burst out into the open again, chasing away tourists, signaling the prospect of ugly ethnic clashes and prompting the Indian government to send in paramilitary forces.

By Indian standards, the violence has been limited, with sporadic clashes between the Nepali-speaking ethnic Gurkhas, who seek an autonomous state in the hills of West Bengal, and Bengali-speakers, who dominate the plains. In early June, the separatist group Gorkha Janamukti Morcha called for a strike in Darjeeling and told tourists to leave. An official in Siliguri, an ethnically mixed town and an important transport hub in the plains, told The Press Trust of India wire service that 10,000 tourists had done so as of mid-June.

To make matters worse, groups representing Bengalis called for a retaliatory strike, shutting down Siliguri for several days this month. The Indian government deployed the Central Reserve Police Force to try to quell the ethnic conflict, while the governor of West Bengal, Gopalkrishna Gandhi, the grandson of Mohandas K. Gandhi, called for both sides “to maintain communal harmony.” The Gurkha group, though, resumed its strike in Darjeeling, shutting businesses and schools.

(Identity politics temporarily crippled another state, the tourist mecca of Rajasthan, in western India, where a community called the Gujjars, agitating for an expansion of affirmative-action benefits, blocked roads and trains and clashed violently with police, leaving about 40 dead. In mid-June, the Gujjars said their demands had been met, and called off their protest.)