“We are different from the people of West Bengal,” says Nishar
Chhetri, among a crowd of protesters who have blocked the main road from
the lowlands to the Indian hill town of Darjeeling. “The language is
different, the culture is different. The Bengali people say we come from
China.”
Loyalists of the Gorkhaland Janmukti Morcha (GJM), which wants a new Indian state
to be carved from West Bengal for the region around Darjeeling, are
enforcing an indefinite general strike in pursuit of their demands,
forcing boarding schools to send pupils home and leaving hotels bereft
of tourists.
The grievances of the Gorkhas – a Himalayan mountain people also known as Gurkhas – have been simmering in India since 1907, and erupted into violence in the 1980s with the loss of hundreds of lives.
But their struggle was reignited last week by the decision of India’s ruling Congress party to create a new state called Telangana, within what is now the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, in the hope of winning more votes in a general election.
Mangal Singh Rajput, a Gorkhaland activist reported to have set himself on fire last week in the manner of many Tibetan protesters, has become the first fatality of the latest round of agitation for a new Gorkha state. His funeral was held on Monday.
“You sacrificed yourself for Gorkhaland. We will never forget,” Sushma Rai, a GJM activist, told a rally in Chowk Bazar in the centre of Darjeeling on Monday night, addressing the crowd through a loudspeaker from the corrugated iron roof of a shop. “Day by day, this crowd is growing. Tomorrow there will be more.”
The green, white and yellow Gorkhaland flag is everywhere in the hills, imprinted with three symbols: the sun, the mountains and a pair of kukris, the traditional dagger.
Demonstrators on the winding road through the tea estates up to Darjeeling, mostly young men with the high cheekbones of the Gorkha, complain of discrimination in government appointments and a shortage of jobs, and insist their putative state would include people of all races and religions.
The area’s cool and misty environment during the monsoon seems far removed from the clamour and heat of Kolkata – formerly Calcutta, the old British capital of India – and the speeches of Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal, who rejects separation.
But their struggle was reignited last week by the decision of India’s ruling Congress party to create a new state called Telangana, within what is now the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, in the hope of winning more votes in a general election.
Mangal Singh Rajput, a Gorkhaland activist reported to have set himself on fire last week in the manner of many Tibetan protesters, has become the first fatality of the latest round of agitation for a new Gorkha state. His funeral was held on Monday.
“You sacrificed yourself for Gorkhaland. We will never forget,” Sushma Rai, a GJM activist, told a rally in Chowk Bazar in the centre of Darjeeling on Monday night, addressing the crowd through a loudspeaker from the corrugated iron roof of a shop. “Day by day, this crowd is growing. Tomorrow there will be more.”
The green, white and yellow Gorkhaland flag is everywhere in the hills, imprinted with three symbols: the sun, the mountains and a pair of kukris, the traditional dagger.
Demonstrators on the winding road through the tea estates up to Darjeeling, mostly young men with the high cheekbones of the Gorkha, complain of discrimination in government appointments and a shortage of jobs, and insist their putative state would include people of all races and religions.
The area’s cool and misty environment during the monsoon seems far removed from the clamour and heat of Kolkata – formerly Calcutta, the old British capital of India – and the speeches of Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal, who rejects separation.
This reflects a deeper cultural gulf, according to some of the protesters. “It seems that we are losing our identity,” says Prashant Thapa, a 37-year-old teacher. “We’re not focused on jobs, we’re focused on our identity. Our language is different, our culture is different. We are not like the Bengalis, so there’s no point being in the same state.”
RK Mukhia, who sells vegetable seeds in the Darjeeling market and used to work as a tour guide, resents the suggestions by some Indians that Gorkhas are in some way foreign and belong in neighbouring Nepal, where many Gorkhas also live.
“For this cause, we don’t mind business getting disrupted, or our children not going to school,” he says at the rally. “How come the working committee of Congress has given Telangana, and how come not Gorkhaland?”
However, officials in Delhi and Kolkata argue that Gorkhaland is too small to become a new state. The claimed zone’s population is only 3m, a tenth of Telangana’s numbers and one four-hundredth of India’s, and even that number includes many inhabitants of lowland rice-growing areas who want to stay in West Bengal.
Such arguments do little to curb the determination of the GJM. “We will not run away. Everybody must be ready to face bullets,” Bimal Gurung, the movement’s leader, said on Sunday in response to the deployment of security forces to Darjeeling.
RK Mukhia, who sells vegetable seeds in the Darjeeling market and used to work as a tour guide, resents the suggestions by some Indians that Gorkhas are in some way foreign and belong in neighbouring Nepal, where many Gorkhas also live.
“For this cause, we don’t mind business getting disrupted, or our children not going to school,” he says at the rally. “How come the working committee of Congress has given Telangana, and how come not Gorkhaland?”
However, officials in Delhi and Kolkata argue that Gorkhaland is too small to become a new state. The claimed zone’s population is only 3m, a tenth of Telangana’s numbers and one four-hundredth of India’s, and even that number includes many inhabitants of lowland rice-growing areas who want to stay in West Bengal.
Such arguments do little to curb the determination of the GJM. “We will not run away. Everybody must be ready to face bullets,” Bimal Gurung, the movement’s leader, said on Sunday in response to the deployment of security forces to Darjeeling.
Financial Times
Post a Comment
We love to hear from you! What's on your mind?