The History of Unfortunate Events

The parliamentary elections held this year is perhaps one of the most mature political responses by the Indian public which ranks equal to the white wash of the Indian National Congress in 1977, following the [now infamous] Emergency decreed by the then Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi . The country is not divided into small regional factions as feared by most political pundits. There is a national party which is now in charge of the country, devoid of any negative influences of the petty politics as practiced by the likes of the Communists and other such factions.

However, in spite of this thumping triumph of democracy, being the cynic that I am, I wonder if democracy means anything at all in real terms, especially in terms of the democratic demand for the separate state of Gorkhaland.

The demand for a separate administrative set up for areas consisting of the Hills-Terai-Duars region of North-Bengal is now 102 years old, starting from 1907, and is perhaps the oldest such demand in the history of the world. However, for varied reasons this demand has never been entertained or even given a patience hearing by the politicians and leaders of the day.

Historically Darjeeling district was never a part of West Bengal, the Darjeeling district [which then extended from Sandakpu in Darjeeling to Sunkosh in Duars] was made part of Bengal by the British for administrative ease and no other reason. But when the British left, West Bengal took over this land and colonized it and since then we have been systematically enslaved by the West Bengal government.

When the first State Reorganization Committee [SRC] was formed, the then Congress government of West Bengal cleverly manipulated the census to show that the Gorkhalis were a “minority group”, hence our demand for a separate state was never entertained by the SRC.

This was followed by the breaking up of Gorkhali dominated Darjeeling district in such a manner that Gorkhalis would not have an absolute say in the politics of Darjeeling, Terai or Duars in 1971 by the then Congress government of West Bengal. The Gorkha dominated areas of Terai and Duars were included into Jalpaiguri district and the Bangladeshi [East Bengali immigrant] dominated areas of Islampur and Chopra were included in the Darjeeling district, thus rendering the Gorkhalis minority in their own land.

The violent phase of our demand in 1986 was quelled by creating a useless body called Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC). But even in creating this body, the West Bengal government now lead by the communists further bifurcated the Gorkhali dominated areas and confined us to mere three hills sub-divisions .

Since then we have repeatedly shown in the most democratic manner that we do not want to remain a part of West Bengal, but no one in the Indian national political scenario seems to be  listening or paying attention. All of Darjeeling and almost 10 major areas in Duars had sent back empty ballot boxes during the 1987 parliamentary elections which was practically a referendum on Gorkhaland, but as usual no one paid any attention.

In the recently concluded 2009 parliamentary elections the Gorkhali supported candidate Mr. Jaswant Singh won by over 2,50,000 votes [the highest winning margin in West Bengal by any candidate], once again giving a clear referendum on Gorkhaland. But in the usual manner the national media and national level politicians have regally ignored to entertain our democratic demand.

We are unfortunate indeed, but we are strong in our convictions and like a phoenix we will raise from the ashes to write our own destiny.

Jai Gorkhaland

By Bal Krishna Narayan