Nowadays all the forms of media have got a recurring item on Gorkhaland.We staying away from the ground reality know nothing about it. Nor do the people staying in the newsroom creating the report know much more than the person who is creating the actual report for them. Because what ever they create doesn’t come to us in full its deciphered and then produced.
I am from West Bengal [WB], spent almost two decades on the land of Bengal. I have my loyalty to it so as others who have loyalty to their native state. But when you see some bad news about WB like a strike or some ugly agitation like that of Gorkhaland I really feel bad. Not because of me being from the state but because the TRUTH not being shown.
Let’s try to ponder of some points before we come to a decision of whether the Gorkhaland be given?
I asked a simple question to a couple of friends and I was not surprised by their response, as it was a common response any Indian would give.
Question: what is meant by a GORKHA?
Answers: a caste… no idea … Nepali … !
I think the same would have come if some one asked me instantaneously, but I was surprised when I did some research on this issue.
The fact -- there are two groups of Gorkhas in India,
- The Indian Gorkhas
Indian Gorkhas have been residents of India for centuries. Under the Treaty of Sugauli in 1815, Nepal ceded an area of 18,000 sq km to the British.This territory constitutes what are today parts of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Darjeeling district. A treaty with Bhutan in 1860 brought the current Dooars areas in Bengal and Assam into British possession.
The Gorkha population resident in these territories became part of British India then. The Gorkhas participated in the Freedom Movement with Gandhiji and also joined the Azad Hind Fauj in big numbers. The tune of India’s national anthem Jana Gana Mana was taken from an original composition by Captain Ram Singh Thakur, a Gorkha in the INA. Two Gorkhas, Damber Singh Gurung and Ari Bahadur Gurung were members of the Constituent Assembly. Ari Bahadur Gurung was a member of the drafting committee. He is a signatory to the first Constitution of India.
- And those who have come to India under the provisions of the 1950 India-Nepal Treaty of Friendship that allows Nepalese citizens to come and work, buy property and settle in India without permits. Their presence in India has led to confusion about the nationality of Indian Gorkhas and they are often misidentified as Nepalese citizens.
Huh……. That’s a huge blow…..!!! lot more to come…..
We are hearing about the GORKHALAND now, I think , they feel, will help seal their identity as Indians.
But before going to the main question lets see the background of these leaders and the issue they are raising.
The Political Scene:
The GJM, formed late in 2007, has revived the demand for Gorkhaland and has been holding protests and rallies in support of a state that is to be carved out of West Bengal.GJM was formed by Bimal Gurung, earlier a councillor of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council. He was a close associate of Subhas Ghising, president of the Gorkha National Liberation Force (GNLF).
The two fell out in 2007 over the attempt to extend 6th Schedule status to Darjeeling. Under the 6th Schedule of the Indian Constitution, certain tribal-majority areas are given autonomy in administration. While the GNLF wanted the 6th Schedule status with enhanced powers for the Hill Council, the GJM desired full statehood. The Centre introduced the 6th Schedule to the Constitution Amendment Bills in Parliament in December 2007 but it was shelved.
While the GNLF exists as a political organisation, almost its entire support base has moved to the GJM. After a visit to Kolkata in March this year, Ghising was barred from entering Darjeeling by the GJM until he resigned as caretaker administrator of the Hill Council. The term of the last Hill Council expired in 2004, and no elections were held thereafter. The West Bengal Government appointed Ghising as caretaker administrator, extending his term every six months until his resignation in March. Thereafter, Ghising has remained confined to his home in Darjeeling.
The Topic: What is behind the demand for Gorkhaland
o The demand for a separate administrative set-up for Gorkhas of India was first voiced in 1907,
o when the premier civil-society body of the Gorkhas, the Hillmen’s Association, asked the British for an administrative set-up separate from Bengal.
o In 1946, the then undivided Communist Party of India demanded that the Darjeeling areas be constituted in an entity called Gorkhastan.
o The GNLF took up the issue in a big way from 1986.
The current demand the current demand
o The map for the current Gorkhaland envisages not only the three hills subdivisions of Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong, but also Siliguri and parts of the Dooars that fall in Cooch Behar and Jalpaiguri districts in North Bengal, extending up to the River Sunkosh on the border with Bhutan.
o While the GNLF had included Dooars in its programme, it did not push for their inclusion in their map of Gorkhaland, a result of which was that when the DGHC formed only the hill subdivisions were included in it, leaving out chunks of the plains where large populations of Gorkhas reside.
o The GJM has managed not only to garner the support of Gorkhas in the plains, but also of the Adivasis, who form a substantial percentage of the population of the Dooars. This has created tensions between the Bengalis of Siliguri and the Gorkhas.
o A separate state of Gorkhas would be securing of their identity as Indians. Indian Gorkhas have long been misidentified as being citizens of Nepal and they feel that a state of their own will root them to India. The Gorkhaland of their imagination, therefore, does not only secure the economic development of the Darjeeling area but also the political identity of the over one crore Indian Gorkhas across the country.
All these demands considered
- The ethnic, cultural and linguistic distinctions between the populations of Darjeeling and the rest of West Bengal.
- Under the West Bengal administration, feel the Gorkhas, Darjeeling has not developed despite being a world-renowned centre for tea, tourism and education.
- Identity as Indians.
I think the protesters have forgotten that India was dreamt as a country, which would be above the ethnic, cultural and linguistic distinctions between the populations. Independence was fought a ONE.
I have visited the North-East many a times, and I believe that the region has been neglected by the Center a lot but again the constitution has made provisions [Hill Councils, Legislative Assemblies and MPs] where in the states can raise their voice.
Creation of a new state ? haa haa… in paper it looks good but there should be some basic foundation to have this demand. Eg: Jharkhand, it was the resource well for the erstwhile Bihar state.It was the bread earner for Bihar. So It could think of better future if it could control the revenue generation models present in the state.They demanded and they got it. There was a political angle to it also.
But Gorkhaland , whats their revenue… its majorly TOURISM… TOURISM… TOURISM…followed by Tea plantations and nothing else. Just imagine the revenue of a state dependent on two things and both being seasonal.Will the state survive alone to take up the expenses incurred . If you can answer this question its a BINGO !
When it comes to development I think since it’s a renowned Tourist destination the required development has happened.But the development activities are at the discretion of the GHC [ Gorkha Hill Council ] , if they don’t do it or take initiatives of doing it the Center or the State can’t be blamed for.People in the council need to be optimistic , futuristic and moreover less corrupt [ you can survive in Hills if you are Clean--- I think so !!].
Indian identity..hmmm…well in INDIA all are INDIANs if you can speak the native language or HINDI !! Jokes apart I think this issue can be dealt better by a campaign by the central government like the one Bengal government has done… it telecasts Nepali language program every evening..thus showing that Darjeeling and other neighbouring regions are a part of WB. It can create more job opportunities and create more facilities in these regions like better technical institutes, seats of learning so that the feeling of being INDIAN stays in the native.
Gorkhaland shouldn’t be allowed to be created because if done so, India would open the gates for our enemies to enter.As the control will move to less experienced people who would be more bent to be corrupt than save the nation.
So my request to the people in Darjeeling and other regions to think logically and then go ahead and not blindly follow people who want to ruin their fortune and make theirs. People like Gurung and others have ever thought of them nor will they ever do so.Their children will go abroad and outside the state to study while their supporters and the people staying there in the region will have to send their children within the state.
So think before you act…!
Reference: http://www.indianexpress.com
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