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.

At the regional level several factors can be attributed for the development of a need to carve out a separate state for the Indian Gorkhas. First and the most important factor in this respect has been the discrimination and step motherly treatment meted out towards the Gorkhas by West Bengal Government for many years. Such act of West Bengal can be recorded in every sector of development.

Basic infrastructure facilities like adequate educational institutions, health centres, communication, drinking water etc can be taken as important indicators in this respect. It is surprising that over 45 per cent of the villages in the region still do not have electricity facility while over 40 per cent of the villagers still have to walk to their nearest town. The spatial distribution of health centres and primary schools is extremely poor. With regard to the institutions of higher and technical learning, Darjeeling occupies the last position among the districts of West Bengal. The only University of Darjeeling district, University of North Bengal, is always flooded by the Bengalis. Rampant unemployment of Gorkha youths is another critical phenomenon that has contributed to the movement. Government offices in Darjeeling are swamped by Bengalis not to talk in other parts of Bengal.

Further, the superiority complex on the part of Bengalis and vice-versa in case of the Gorkhas has been an outstanding factor contributing to Gorkhaland movement. T. B. Subba ( 1992 ), a noted anthropologist remarks in this connection:

“Long years of interaction between the hill communities and the plainsmen (mainly the Bengalis) had more to do with Gorkhaland demand than anything else. On the one hand these communities had already developed various sorts of interdependence, agrarian and trade being two most important in this regard. Then there was the Nepali language to express themselves with each other and lay the foundation of hill ethnicity. On the other hand, they suffered from certain politico-economic disadvantages vis-a vis the plainsmen. Besides whatever little communication that took place between the hill men and the plainsmen being through the English or Hindi language such an interaction was limited to the educated class and businessmen”.

Subba further asserts

” the argument that the Bengalis in particular often behaved as masters in Darjeeling hills cannot be easily brushed aside…Had their attitude towards the hill people been healthy the latter would probably have no strong reason to seek a separation from the former”

Mainstream Bengalis customarily consider themselves as superior to the Gorkhas intellectually. They have systematically discriminated and controlled the Gorkhas of Darjeeling academically over the years. Bengalis traditionally assume that Nepali speakers/Gorkhas of Darjeeling could never score first division marks in the board exams of the state. To cite an example, a dedicated Bengali teacher of Darjeeling Government College was shocked to witness discrimination of hill colleges of Darjeeling and Sikkim in the late 1990s by Bengali teachers of North Bengal University. As a part of the external examiners at NBU he observed that no students of the hill colleges would score first division marks if students of the plain colleges, particularly Siliguri College, did not score first division marks. His only advice to his honours students of which this writer was also a part was -”You guys have no options other than studying with sincerity and dedication. You have to win your battle through sincerity. The people down below do not want you guys to come up. They want to keep you at the bottom.”

The movement for separate state of Gorkhaland is the product of these factors. It has to do with identity of Indian Nepalis/Gorkhas at national level and development of Darjeeling and its surrounding milieu, both physically and psychologically, at regional level.