Gorkhaland rising again

Yuba Nath Lamsal

Even as India claims to be treading on a path to become a global power, it is getting internally entangled with plethora of problems and conflict that India’s position is becoming more and more vulnerable to achieve the feat in the international arena as it has been desperately trying to accomplish. Given the nature of the conflicts it is faced with currently, India appears to be unable to manage the disgruntlements and grievances of its own people. It makes New Delhi too difficult to deal with the international powers and players in a confident manner.

India, as it seems today, is sitting on a dormant volcano of revolts and protests, which are now becoming slowly active. Already in history’s worst crisis since independence from the British rule, India’s future cannot be ascertained once full blown volcano of popular unrests erupts. India is currently facing popular protests and revolts in various regions and areas. The protests and revolts are from the grassroots level with different and diverse demands, nature and characters. Some are seeking to overthrow the India’s parliamentary system and establish different kind of political modem in its place. Some are fighting to break away from the Indian union and want to create separate country. And some movements are being launched demanding the status of a separate state within the Indian union. 

Thus, India is a mosaic of all kinds of conflicts, struggles and revolts. All these three categories of protests and revolts are underway within India. In the category of struggle for an independent state are Kashmiris, Punjabis, Nagas, Mizos and several other groups. The other category is the Maoist insurgency that seeks to establish a communist state in place of the present parliamentary type of western liberal democracy in India that has been in place for more than six decades. The other types of movements are for the autonomous states within the Indian union.

The third type of the movement that had remained dormant for some years has come to the fore with more prominence in the recent days especially after the decision of the central government to create a new Telengana state dividing the Andhra Pradesh state. With this decision being floated by the Indian Congress I party, the demand of new states has been raised in several parts of India.

 India is our immediate neighbors and any kinds of developments have impact, positive or negative, in Nepal. So the rising movements and revolts in India demanding new states have definitely concerned the Nepalese people. But Nepalese people are more concerned about the issues concerning the demands for a separate Gorkhaland state in Darjeeling and its surrounding areas. This has concerns Nepalese people more than others simply because the issue of Gorkhaland has been demanded by the Nepali-speaking Indians with whom we have blood relationship.

It is the internal affairs of India whether or not to grant statehood and manage their problem. We Nepalese do not want to have their opinion on the internal affairs of India. Any kind of decision of the Indian government to deal with these issues is the business of Indian government and the people. And Nepalese people also seek similar kind of approach and reciprocity to Nepal on issues of our internal affairs. When Nepal is now in the process of managing its issues concerning federalism, India has been propping up some Madhesi people and interfering in Nepal’s internal politics. This has compelled Nepalese to extend moral support to our brethren in Darjeeling. Beyond moral support, Nepalese people neither have intention nor have capability to harm India by instigating Indians. But one thing India should realize that it should not do anything to its neighbors which it does not want its neighbor to do to India. Perhaps, the Darjeeling issue should be an eye opener and a lesson from India.

Nepalese have blood relations with the Nepali-speaking population in Darjeeling and elsewhere in India. But they have refrained to instigate them against the Indian state. Now India should learn lesson from these issues and refrain from meddling in Nepal’s affairs and allow Nepal to decide its own problem. If India applies double standard and continues to interfere in Nepal’s issues Nepali people would also be forced to extend moral and material support to Nepali-speaking population in India.

Gorkhaland is the issue that had been raised decades ago. But the leaders of the movement betrayed the agitating people and ended the movement in compromise with the central and provincial governments. When the movement was in its peak more than three decades ago under the banner of Gorkha National Liberation Front or GNLF, its leaders ended the movement agreeing to create a Gorkha Hill Council in Darjeeling areas with limited authority. The GNLF chief Subash Ghising signed an accord with the state government of West Bengal giving up the demand of a separate Gorkhaland state. Ghising agreed on the formation of a semi-autonomous Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) in 1988, which aborted the Gorkhalis' movement for self-rule and self-dignity.

The limited autonomy experiment for Darjeeling hill areas proved to be a failure as the DGHC and the West Bengal government locked in confrontation for various reasons. Many people in Darjeeling including even some of Ghising’s loyalists were dissatisfied with the accord and had vowed to continue agitation for a separate statehood. This disgruntlements within the rank and file of the GNLF gave rise to a new organization called Gorkha People’s Liberation Front (GPLF) led by Bimal Gurung that called for an agitation in 2008 for Gorkhaland statehood. But Gurung, too, finally entered into a conspiracy along with the central and West Bengal state government in the name of tripartite accord for the formation of Gorkhaland Territorial Authority (GTA), which many people in Darjeeling and elsewhere in India described as a betrayal to their movement.

With the Telengana issue coming to the fore, Gorkhalis of Darjeeling have once again been united to struggle for their own statehood within Indian union. Now different types and modes of movements have been launched to press for the central and state government to concede to their demands for statehood. Sensing the mood and sentiment of the  Gorkhalis in Darjeeling, Bimal Gurng himself has led the movement and vowed not to compromise with the government in less than the statehood. Thus, the people of Darjeeling are now expected to achieve something more this time.

Nepalis constitute more than 90 per cent population of Darjeeling, which once used to be the territory of Nepal. British colonial rulers forcibly annexed a large area of Nepal including Darjeeling, Silghudi, Almoda, Nainital and Kangada in the west and areas as far as Tista River in the east. The Sugauli Treaty had been imposed on Nepal by the British after the Anglo-Nepal war in 1816, which not only deprived Nepal of a large area of its territory but it also reduced Nepal into economically semi-colonial status although Nepal remained an independent country politically. India should have been decolonized and the territories that British had forcibly taken over should have been returned to the respective countries after independence in 1947. Although India got liberated from British rule, it continued its colonial set up, policies and mentality. As a result, New Delhi continued to deny the right to self-rule to different ethnic, lingual and regional forces including people of Nepali origin in Darjeeling. Every time, New Delhi has applied trick and treachery to suppress the voice of self-rule. But the voice for self dignity and self-rule has resonated everywhere in Darjeeling.

India has always been raising the rights and issue of Madhesis and instigated them against Nepal. But New Delhi has to first address the concerns of the Nepalis in its own territory before it pokes nose in the affairs in other countries' affairs. India, thus, needs to shun double standard and concentrate its efforts more on addressing the disgruntlements and movements for self-rule in its own land. For this, the issues and concerns raised by Nepali speaking people in India including those from Darjeeling should be addressed. Nepalis in India deserve a separate Gorkhali state for which Nepalese all over the world must extend their moral support.