Politics India

8/3/2019 Politics India

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Introduction:

Indian national movement finally reached destiny in the midnight of 15th August, 1947.It leads in a

new era wherein the belief that everyone is born free and has a right to fulfill one-self in human

dignity was no longer a myth.

The framers of the Indian Constitution in their collective wisdom drafted Article 3 enshrined in which

is the recognition of the fact that every community with different cultural and linguistic background

has the inherent right to self determination, and to develop itself according to its own ethos thereby

enriching the cultural heritage of the community and enhancing its integration in the national

mainstream. But little did they realize that for the Gorkhas living in the Darjeeling, Dooars and the

Terai region of North Bengal, the dawn of freedom was just a dream too far. It was only a change in

the Colonial masters from the British to the Bengal Raj where exploitation and subjugation was

many-fold worse than before. Which result the series of demand varies from time to time. Protest

of different forms and dimension has been witnessed throughout the 20th century to separate from

West Bengal as to form new State called Gorkhaland.

The demand for Gorkhaland as a constituent state within the Union of India has been the oldestdemands in the history of modern India , till now its gain nothing rather remains as history creator of

Indian Gorkha even after more than hundred years.

Over the year this demand took various political turns and twist, it particularly and actually acquired

the shape of mass movement only towards the beginning of 1980s when Subash Ghising call to

Gorkhas in India to come under one banner and demanded a separate state for Gorkhas in India as

Gorkhaland. This was for the first in the history ofDarjeeling to success to mobilize the mass as

congress did after the Gandhis arrival in INC. Soon after, the Gorkha National Liberation Front

(GNLF) was formed as a political party under the leadership of Subash Ghising, which for the first

time comprehensively raised the ever burning issue of the identity of the Indian Gorkha at the

national level. The main cause was ideology which was partly influenced by historical legacy and

partly on account of the prevailing condition of Indian speaking Nepalese in India generally and

particularly in Darjeeling District.

GNLF was much organized party as compared with others parties exist in that area. Under this party,

for the first time movement turns violent during mid 1980s which results a hundred lives were

wasted and half of the population was on the run for safety, the numbers of death counted 1200

people officially, many of them remains uncounted. After such a turmoil environment, GNLF, State

and Central came with Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) as a solution which signed in August

1988 but soon it started fading because many people in Darjeeling reported that DGHC was not the

people choice but it was the choice of Ghising.

However GNLF sustain for almost two decades as a single political party winning the majority vote of

DGHC region though many political exist but none of them success to overtake the position until

2007 .

Once again the state hood demand in this region has revive with the Prasant Tamang winning

reality show called Indian Idol contest, led a new political formation called Gorkha Janamukti

Morcha (GJM) under the leadership of Bimal Gurung, who was once believed as main person of

Ghising and Councilor of GNLF, emerged to be increasingly predominant and popular.

Like Ghising, once again Bimal Gurung gave a clarion call to the Gorkhas in India to come under one

banner and demand a separate State within Indian Union. So far he and his party success to

complete six round of tripartite talk till date but lacking to come out with specific result.By registering the names in the State legislative assemble 2011for the three seat of kalimpong,


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Darjeeling and Kuersong GJM also fulfill the criteria of political party but in the course of next few

months it will be decide who will legitimate to demand after winning assembly election. As counter

rival GNLF already announce the candidates for assembly election and others political parties.

The demand for Gorkhaland according to many political leaders such as Subash Ghising or by any

political leader who is involve with demand issue and even scholar like Mahindra P Lama ,TB Subbha

etc argue that the core cause for Gorkhaland demand is for Identity and focus on development has

not given that much importance. But if go to the Amarten Sens writing, according to him neither

Identity nor the development alone can bring violence/conflict. Though identity and development is

the indicator of violence/conflict but political engineering and political mobilization is necessary,

without which thinking of Violence/conflict is as dream. By seeing this, we can say that the political

parties play important roles in politics in contemporary period.

So to understand the Gorkhaland movement, the role of political parties becomes importance to get

the clear picture of movement.

Concept of political parties:

Political parties occupy an ambiguous position in modern democracies, which is in part a product ofthe tension between the centrality of political parties as key institutions of modern democracy and

their increasing inability to perform many of the functions seen as essential to a healthy

performance of democracy

Democracy is unthinkable without the political parties or it cannot be exist without the well

organized party system. A political party may be defined as a group of people who unite for

promoting the interest of the nation upon certain policies and principles and who try to control the

machinery of government. Political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence

government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political

office

A political party is a group of people who come together to contest elections and hold power in the

government. They agree on some policies and programmes for the society with a view to promote

the collective good. Since there can be different views on what is good for all, parties try to persuade

people why their policies are better than others. They seek to implement these policies by winning

popular support through elections. Thus, parties reflect fundamental political divisions in a society.

Parties are about a part of the society and thus involve Partisanship. Thus a party is known by which

part it stands for, which policies it supports and whose interests it upholds. A political party has

three components: the leaders, the active members and the followers.

Origin:

Before political parties emerged, political legitimacy in most of the world derived either from God

(the divine right of kings), from hereditary right(for example, automatic succession by the rulers

first-born son), or from the will of a small elite (as in some city-states).

The emergence of political parties can trace back to eighteen century England. After the revolution

of 1688, English middle class began to organize them self into groups led by prominent members of

their class in order to control the state and promote their ideological aims as they form the

parliamentary rule after the election.

Nonetheless, the founding pillars of any democratic political system, whether considered fragile or

established, remain undoubtedly elections which can simply be taken as the most critical and visible

means through which all citizens can peacefully choose or remove their leaders, and which areevidently costly affairs


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While each successive approach seeks to embed political parties in progressively more inclusive

theories of social science and political change, they all acknowledge a common determining factor in

the appearance of parties: social mobilization, or the entry of the masses onto the political stage.

Once politics could no longer be confined to a small circle of aristocratic elites, parties emerged as

the instruments to link the centre of political power with the masses. In this parties proved

consistently indispensable, whether the transformation of politics was induced by competition

among elites or by mass pressures from below.

On the whole the development of parties seems bound up with that of democracy that is to say with

the extension of popular suffrage and parliamentary prerogative . The more political assemblies see

their functions and independence grow, the more their members feel the need to group themselves

according to what they have in common, so as to act in concert. The more the right to vote is

extended and multiplied, the more necessary it becomes to organize the electors by means of

committees capable of making the candidates known and of canalizing the votes in their direction.

The rise of parties is thus bound up with the rise of parliamentary groups and electoral committees.

Functions:Basically, political parties fill political offices and exercise political power. Parties do so by performing

a series of function:

Election:

In most democracies, elections are fought mainly among the candidates put up by political parties.

Parties select their candidates in different ways. Like in USA, members and supporters of a party

choose its candidate where as in India top party leader choose the candidates.

Policies and programmers:

Parties put forward different policies and programmes and the voters choose from them. Each of us

may have different opinions and views on what policies are suitable for the society. But no

government can handle such a large variety of views. In a democracy, a large number of similar

opinions have to be grouped together to provide a direction in which policies can be formulated by

the governments. This is what the parties do. A party reduces a vast multitude of opinions in to a

few basic positions which it supports. A government is expected to base its policies on the line taken

by the ruling party.

Laws

Parties play a decisive role in making laws for a country. Formally, laws are debated and passed in

the legislature. But since most of the members belong to a party, they go by the direction of the

party leadership, irrespective of their personal opinions.

Governments

Parties form and run governments. As we noted last year, the big policy decisions are taken by

political executive that comes from the political parties. Parties recruit leaders, trains them and then

make them ministers to run the government in the way they want.

Oppositions Role

Those parties that lose in the elections play the role of opposition to the parties in power, by voicing


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different views and criticizing government for its failures or wrong policies. Opposition parties also

mobilize opposition to the government.

Public opinion

Parties shape public opinion. They raise and highlight issues. Parties have thousands of members

and activists spread all over the country. Many of the pressure groups are the extensions of political

parties among different sections of society. Parties sometimes also launch movements for the

resolution of problems faced by people. Often opinions in the society crystallize on the lines parties

take.

Government machinery and welfare schemes

Parties provide people access to government machinery and welfare schemes implemented by

governments. For an ordinary citizen it is easy to approach a local party leader than a governmentofficer. That is why they feel close to parties even when they do not fully trust them. Parties have to

be responsive to peoples needs and demands. Otherwise people can reject those parties in the next

elections.

Political parties in India:

The beginning of the Indian Party System can be traced to the formation of the Indian National

Congress (INC) as a political platform in 1885. The development of Indian party system is unique

from the development in Great Britain and the European countries. The struggle for parliamentary

institution in India was not against an indigenous wealthy, aristocratic ruling class but rather against

alien rulers, thus permitting Indian by business, intelligentsia, the urban shopkeepers and the

peasants to join together against the single enemy (party politics in India)

The formation of opposition parties emerged after Independence in 1947 were existed even before

independence, but they were largely political groups within INC operating in common cause as a

national movement. The cause for formation of opposition was the British policy of divide and rule

and partly concerned with anxiety about the status communities and regions there also came up

communal and caste based parties such as Hindu Mehasabha, Muslim League, Akali dal, Dravid

Kanjahajan etc.

The Indian national movement took three phases of development in the politics. First it was pressure

group, then a National movement and finally the Political party.

INC which was formed in 1885, in the initial stage it was largely a pressure groups which sought to

influence rather than control the government on behalf of special interest of its members. During

this period, its members were largely from three backround, namely Layers, Teachers and Journalists

and attended of the Congress from urban areas which had no real connection with peasants, labors

or traders etc.

After the World War 1, Indian National movement entered its final phase which occupies a very

important place not only in Indian but for contemporary world history. Mahatama Gandhi entered

the Indian political scene with weapons like Satyagraha, non-cooperation and civil disobedience

based on truth and non-violence.

During this period Congress success to brought together a wide mixture of group from business,labors, and peasantry and so on. Movement became nationwide in 1920s and only communal


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consideration was able to largely divide the National movement with Muslims, Sikhs, Anglo-Indians,

and Parsees maintaining their own organization to act on behalf of their communities.

Since the Gandhi dominated the Indian politics from 1919 to 1947 which is popularly known as

Gandhian Era during this period in one hand National Movement became mass movement

whereas in other hand it was the period of forming the opposition parties, the Socialist, The Hindu

Communalist, the Marxist Lefties and the Communist. Many of who were against parliamentary

institution, but they participated in the National Movement without favoring the adoption of

Western democratic Political Intuition.

When India got independence in 1947, Indian political setting underwent drastically change. The

Indian National congress change into political party, the socialist, Communists, and others shifted

their attack from the ruling British to the ruling Congress Party. A Constitution having been put into

effect in 1950, the political parties began preparing themselves for the first national elections.

After the independence, political parties represent different sections among the Indian society and

regions, and their core values play a major role in the politics of India. Both the executive branch and

the legislative branch of the government are run by the representatives of the political parties whohave been elected through the elections. Through the electoral process, the people of India choose

which majority in the lower house; a government can be formed by that party or the coalition.

India has a multi-party system, where there are a number of national as well as regional parties. A

regional party may gain a majority and rule a particular state. If a party represents more than 4

states then such parties are considered as national parties. In the 61 years since India's

independence, India has been ruled by the Indian National Congress (INC) for 48 of those years.

The party enjoyed a parliamentary majority barring two brief periods during the 1970s and late

1980s. This rule was interrupted between 1977 to 1980, when the Janata Party coalition won the

election owing to public discontent with the controversial state of emergency declared by the then

Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The Janata Dal won elections in 1989, but its government managed to

hold on to power for only two years.

Between 1996 and 1998, there was a period of political flux with the government being formed first

by the right-wing nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) followed by a left-leaning United Front

coalition. In 1998, the BJP formed the National Democratic Alliance with smaller regional parties,

and became the first non-INC and coalition government to complete a full five-year term. The 2004

Indian elections saw the INC winning the largest number of seats to form a government leading the

United Progressive Alliance, and supported by left-parties and those opposed to the BJP.

On 22 May 2004, Manmohan Singh was appointed the Prime Minister of India following the victory

of the INC & the left front in the 2004 Lok Sabha election. The UPA now rules India without the

support of the left front. Previously, Atal Bihari Vajpayee had taken office in October 1999 after a

general election in which a BJP-led coalition of 13 parties called the National Democratic Alliance

emerged with a majority.

Formation of coalition governments reflects the transition in Indian politics away from the national

parties toward smaller, more narrowly-based regional parties. Some regional parties, especially in

South India, are deeply aligned to the ideologies of the region unlike the national parties and thus

the relationship between the central government and the state government in various states has not

always been free of rancor. Disparity between the ideologies of the political parties ruling the centre

and the state leads to severely skewed allocation of resources between the states.

The party system in India has undergone major transformation in the last five decades. As a legacy ofthe national movement, the party system in 1947 was characterized by an overwhelming dominance


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of the congress party. As the central political Institution of India, the congress completely controlled

the power politics for the first two decades after Independence. The strength of the congress lay in

its organizational structure and in its ability to accommodate diverse political interests. This

peculiarity of the congress was linked with the homogeneous nature of the political elite whether

belonging to the congress.

The party system changed substantially after 1967 with the change in the nature of the socio-

economic profile of the Indian polity. With the politicization of the masses as well with the assertion

of the new socio-economic groups, mainly the middle peasantry, the backward castes and the Dalits,

the party system also changed. The inability of the congress to accommodate conflicting interest and

the erosion of its organizational structure led to its decline. By the end of the 1980s, congress has

lost its centrality. A multi party system replaced the congress system.

The contemporary party system is defined by its multiplicity. A number of national and regional

parties have filled in the vacuum created by the withdrawal of congress from its central position. The

regional parties have become more assertive as they have joined the national politics as the allies of

the national parties. This also has strengthened the federal structure of India.National political parties in India

Democracies that follow a federal system all over the world tend to have two kinds of political

parties: parties that are present in only one of the federal units and parties that are present in

several or all units of the federation. This is the case in India as well. There are some countrywide

parties, which are called national parties. These parties have their units in various states. But by

and large all these units follow the same policies, programmes and strategy that is decided at the

national level.

Every party in the country has to register with the Election Commission. While the Commission

treats all parties equally, it offers some special facilities to large and established parties. These

parties are given a unique symbol only the official candidates of that party can use that election

symbol. Parties that get this privilege and some other special facilities are recognised by the

Election Commission for this purpose. That is why these parties are called, recognised political

parties. The Election Commission has laid down detailed criteria of the proportion of votes and

seats that a party must get in order to be a recognised party. A party that secures at least 6 per cent

of the total votes in an election to the Legislative Assembly of a State and wins at least two seats is

recognised as a State party. A party that secures at least six per cent of total votes in Lok Sabha

elections or Assembly elections in four States and wins at least four seats in the Lok Sabha is

recognized as a national party.

According to this classification, there were six national recognised parties in the country in 2006,

namely Indian National Congress (INC), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP),

Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), Communist Party of India (CPI) and National congress

Party (NCP)

State parties

Other than these six parties, most of the major parties of the country are classified by the Election

Commission as State parties. These are commonly referred to as regional parties. Yet these partiesneed not be regional in their ideology or outlook. Some of these parties are all India parties that


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happen to have succeeded only in some states. Parties like the Samajwadi Party, Samata Party and

Rashtriya Janata Dal have national level political organisation with units in several states. Some of

these parties like Biju Janata Dal, Sikkim Democratic Front and Mizo National Front are conscious

about their State identity.

Over the last three decades, the number and strength of these parties has expanded. This made the

Parliament of India politically more and more diverse. No one national party is able to secure on its

own a majority in Lok Sabha. As a result, the national parties are compelled to form alliances with

State parties. Since 1996, nearly every one of the State parties has got an opportunity to be a part of

one or the other national level coalition government. This has contributed to the strengthening of

federalism and democracy in our country. (See the map on the next page for details of these

parties).

Purpose and Objectives:

The purpose of this Dissertation is to describe and explain the influence of political party on the

Gorkhaland Demand and its role in the Darjeeling District. This is done by studying the political

parties exist in Darjeeling District.

The main objectives of this paper are:

Briefly describe the evolution of political parties in Darjeeling and the demand for Statehood since

Indias independence.

The role of political parties exists in Darjeeling District towards the Demand.

The study also seeks to explore the various cause of Movement, leadership patterns, ideological

orientation and their overall impact on political system.

The study will also look into the future prospect for state hood demand and the subsequent problem

that arise against the Demand.

Methodology:

The study would be managed mainly by drawing knowledge, experiences and practices of various

formal and informal institutions. Further, both published and unpublished reports, papers and

articles available with various governments and private agencies will be extensively utilized in the

study besides the secondary published material. Interviews will also be conducted to different

political parties those who have actively participate in the Gorkhaland movement to understand the

current development of the region and the role of regional political parties.

Chapterization:

This Dissertation is divided into five chapters. Chapter1, which is the introduction part, provides the

concept, function, role and origin of the political party. It also briefly highlights the political parties

background in India and outlines the objectives. Chapter 2 presents the history of Gorkhaland

movement and the regional political parties. Chapter 3 highlights the role of political parties for the

Demand of Gorkhaland since 1980s. Chapter 4 describes why there is differences and disunity within

the regional political parties. And chapter 5 is conclusion part, which presents and analysis the result

and the major finding.


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History of demands:

The Gorkhaland movement grew from the demand of Nepalese living in Darjeeling District of West

Bengal for a separate state for themselves. The Gorkhaland National Liberation Front led the

movement, which disrupted the district with massive violence between 1986 and 1988. The issue

was resolved, at least temporarily, in 1988 with the establishment of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill

Council within West Bengal.

Historically, Darjeeling belonged to the kingdom of Sikkim, which had lost it several times since the

eighteenth century. The ethnic identity "Gorkha" comes from the kingdom with that name that

united Nepal in the late eighteenth century and was the focal point of Nepalese in the British army.

Immigration from Nepal expanded with British rule in India, and some 34 percent of the population

of Darjeeling in 1876 was of Gorkha ethnicity. By the start of the twentieth century, Nepalese

immigrants made a modest socioeconomic advance through government service, and smallanglicized elite developed among them. In 1907 the Hillmans Association came into being and

petitioned for the administrative separation of Darjeeling and again in 1917, 1930 and 1934. In 1928

the Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League (All India Gorkha League) was formed. It gained additional

support after World War II with the influx of ex-soldiers from the Gorkha regiments who had been

exposed to nationalist movements in Southeast Asia during service there.

During the 1940s, the CPI organized Gorkha tea workers. In presentations to the States

Reorganization Commission in 1954, the CPI favored regional autonomy for Darjeeling within West

Bengal, with recognition of Nepali as a Scheduled Language. The All India Gorkha League preferred

making the area a union territory under the national government.

The state of West Bengal nominally has been supportive of the use of the Nepali language. The West

Bengal Official Language Act of 1961 made Nepali the official language of the hill subdivisions of

Darjeeling, Kalimpong, and Kuersong, where Nepalese are a majority. The state legislative assembly

passed a resolution in 1977 that led Parliament to amend the national constitution to include Nepali

as a Scheduled Language. However, the Gorkhaland National Liberation Front has accused the state

government of failure to actually implement use of the language.

The Gorkhaland movement distinguished Darjeeling Gorkhas from nationals of Nepal legally resident

in India, from Nepali-speaking Indian citizens from other parts of the country, and even from the

majority in neighboring Sikkim, where Nepali is the official language. The movement was emphatic

that it had no desire to separate from India, only from the state of West Bengal. Gorkhaland

supporters therefore preferred to call the Gorkhas' language Gorkhali rather than Nepali, although

they did not attempt to claim there is any linguistic difference from what other people call Nepali.

The 1981 census of India, whether in deference to this sentiment or for some other reason, called

the language Gorkhali/Nepali. However, when the Eighth Schedule of the constitution was amended

in 1992 to make it a Scheduled Language, the term Nepali alone was used.

In 1986 the Gorkhaland National Liberation Front, having failed to obtain a separate regional

administrative identity from Parliament, again demanded a separate state of Gorkhaland. The

party's leader, Subash Ghising, headed a demonstration that turned violent and was severely

repressed by the state government. The disturbances almost totally shut down the districts'

economic mainstays of tea, tourism, and timber. The Left Front government of West Bengal whichearlier approached the centre for the approval for some sort of regional autonomy for Nepali


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speaking population of Darjeeling (within west Bengal) now denouncing the demand for separate

state of Gorkhaland as Secessionists and anti-national. The state government claimed that

Darjeeling was no worse off than the state in general and was richer than many districts. Ghising

made lavish promises to his followers, including the recruitment of 40,000 Indian Gorkhas into the

army and paying Rs100, 000 for every Gorkha writer. After two years of fighting and the loss of at

least 1200 lives, GNLF, the government of West Bengal and the central government finally agreed on

an autonomous hill district. In July 1988, the Gorkhaland National Liberation Front gave up the

demand for a separate state, and in August the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council came into being with

Ghising as chairman. The council had authority over economic development programs, education,

and culture.

However, difficulties soon arose over the Panchayat elections. Ghising wanted the hill council

excluded from the national law on Panchayat elections. Rajiv Gandhi's government was initially

favorable to his request and introduced a constitutional amendment in 1989 to exclude the

Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council, along with several other northeast hill states and regions (Nagaland,

Meghalaya, Mizoram, and the hill regions of Manipur), but it did not pass. However, in 1992Parliament passed the Seventy-third Amendment, which seemed to show a newly serious

commitment to the idea of local self-government by Panchayat. The amendment excluded all the hill

areas just mentioned except Darjeeling. Ghising insisted this omission was a machination of West

Bengal and threatened to revive militant agitation for a Gorkhaland state. He also said the

Gorkhaland National Liberation Front would boycott the village panchayat elections mandated by

the amendment. A large portion of his party, however, refused to accept the boycott and split off

under the leadership of Tsetan Sherpa to form the All India Gorkha League, which won a sizable

number of Panchayat seats.

In 1995 it was unclear whether the region would remain content with autonomy rather than

statehood. In August 1995, Sherpa complained to the state government that Ghising's government

had misused hill council funds, and West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu promised to investigate.

Both Gorkha parties showed willingness to use general shutdowns to forward their ends. The fact

that so many people were willing to follow Sherpa instead of the hitherto unchallenged Ghising may

indicate that they will be satisfied with regional autonomy.

History of Demands:

The history of separation and isolation from the rest of India in the colonial period created a

problem for the national formation and integration of independent India. In the North East, a sense

of incompatibility grew when the State re-organization Commission in 1956 recommended creation

of 14 states on linguistic lines, and an anti-India response emerged amongst the regions people,

especially when the Indian government cold shouldered local aspirations. Given the regions

historical background, antagonism could be easily instigated.

The most urgent task for the Indian government after independence was the consolidation of a new

nation state. As national integration was the most pressing of the issues confronting the new

sovereign state, any movement that might disrupt the process of integration had to be dealt with

stringently, and in some cases oppressively . Moreover, after the India-China border conflicts in

1962, the North East became a strategic region as regards the national security of India. Any

indigenous ethnic movement was considered as anti-national and became a security trouble. As

such, it had to be suppressed. Suppression invited resistance and resistance was countered withmore oppressive measures from the government, creating an antipathy among the people, and


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providing the groundwork for armed confrontation.

Same happened in the Gorkhaland movement, which comprise of Darjeeling District and the

adjoining Dooars area under Jalpaiguri District. This region is situated in the northern most district of

West Bengal State in Eastern India. It is strategic important as it is located in so called famous

Chicken Neck which is only corridor to North-Eastern states of India. It is bounded in the north by

Sikkim in the south-west by Bihar, Bangladesh in East, Bhutan in the East and west by Nepal.

As I mentioned in first chapter, this is oldest demand in the history of contemporary India which go

backs to 1907. It took various political turns and twisted over the years through protest of different

forms and dimension that witnessed throughout the 20th century and still exist. What is most

notable of their long history is that they were absolutely non-violent until mid 1980s. Violence was

probably unavoidable when the state refuses to understand the language of memorandum, plays,

poetry and songs.

Till the independence and even after independence numerous demand were put forward to the

concerned authorities demanding separate administrative unit, regional autonomy, separate state

even separate nation outside the territory of India depending on the nature and the ideology of thelocal political organization.

Demand for separate Administrative set-up

The division of Bengal in 1905, the Darjeeling district was put under Bhagalpur Division in Bihar. The

very act of shunting the district from one division to another became a proof that the British did not

quite know where to place the district. This must have stirred into an awakening amongst the

educated people in the district on the feeling that their hills were doomed to exist as a minority

through attachment to a bigger state in the plains. Whether Darjeeling was thrown into Bihar or

Bengal, the hill men would be an ineffective minority amongst the teeming millions of plainsmen.

Furthermore, educationally or financially the hill men were no match against the plainsmen

(Bengalis) and they often act as Masters over hill people.

Thus in 1907, the leader of hill people i.e. Nepali, Bhutia and Lepcha known as hill men submitted a

memorial to the British government demanding separate administrative set-up for the district of

Darjeeling. Nothing of course came of it because the hill people were too insignificant a community

in the overall scheme of things to make a dent in British policy in India. After this series of demand

has (have) been put forward by different organization and the political parties which is alive till

today.

Creation of separate unit:

After a gap of ten years, towards the end of the 2nd World War, on 8th November 1917, The

Hillmans Association petitioned Edwin Montague, the Secretary of State for India that Darjeelings

inclusion in Bengal was comparatively recent and only because the British were rulers common to

both places. Historically, culturally, ethnically, socially, religiously, linguistically there was no affinity

whatsoever between Bengal and Darjeeling. The petition further stated that, In laying down the

plans for the future, the Government should aim at the creation of a separate unit comprising of the

present Darjeeling District with the portion of Jalpaiguri District which was annexed from Bhutan in

1865. It is of no surprise that the Gorkha league, Gorkha National Liberation Front and the Gorkha

Jana Mukti Morcha sought or seek nothing more than that. The petition also proposed the formation

of North East Frontier Province which would include Darjeeling District, Dooars, Assam and NEFA

(Arunachal Pradesh). Signatories were Bhutia-S.W. Laden La, lepcha-Dr. Yensingh Sitling, Nepali-

Khadga Bahadur Chhettri, Prem Kumar Kumai, Meghbir Singh, Lachman Singh, Nar Prasad Kumai,Deonidhi Upadhyaya, and others. Other than Hill mans the European association, the planters


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association, they held on to the notion that the real welfare of the district rested on its exclusion

from Bengal and forms the reform.

It is clear from the memorandum that its signatories were inspired by the movement for home

rule in India, which the British had accepted as a goal towards which India should move gradually.

Again in 1929, the demand of 1917 was reinterred when Simon commission visited in India. Further

In 1930, a joint petition was submitted by Hillmans association, Gorkha Officers association and the

Kuersong Gorkha Library to the secretary of State of India, Sir Samuel Hoare for separation from the

Province of Bengal.

Till the 1930 the memorandum was sent by the name of Hillmans association representing the three

hill community but after 1930 it represent only Gorkha though it represent the all community of hill

but due origin of Gorkha from Nepal many people have notion that represent only Nepalese

community which is still believed by the people of this region but we hardly find any written

documents. This time the Lepcha and the Bhutia started dilute from the movement, the

memorandum sent in 25th October, 1930 is the clear evidence in which representatives were only

from Nepali community namely H.P Pradhan, Goberdhan Gurung, P.M Sundar, N.B. Gurung, and P.P.Pradhan. More over it loss concern with Dooars area of Jalpaiguri where strong numbers of Nepali

were reside. Similar kind of demand was made except certain changes in 1934 and 1941.

The deteriorating fraternity of the Hillmans Association may be because of two reasons. First

demand by Nepalese to introduced Nepali as medium of instruction in Schools in 1920 and

secondly the death of Ladenla, soul of Hillmans association.

Formation of Gorkha League:

In 1943, the All India Gorkha League (AIGL) was formed by Dambarsingh Gurung in Darjeeling before

that it was formed in Dehradun in 1923. The Darjeeling unit of the Communist Party of India was

also formed in the same year and surprisingly these communists also became members of the AIGL.

Formally AIGL started in May 15th in District Darjeeling, 1943 but preparation for it was two months

ago when Hillmans Association was defunct and new association was formed as All India Lepcha,

Bhutia and Gorkha Association in March 7, 1943 at George Mahbert Subbhas school in Siliguri. As

days passed its first Secretary Rupnarayan Sinha could not give much attention to this association

because of his own busy life and more over Bhutia has also withdrew from this association as they

have not much role to play in it.

Thus in 15th May 1943 it has renamed as AIGL in a formal meeting held at Ring Hall, Darjeeling. The

renamed was proposed by Shiva Kumar Rai who declared its objective to fight against the pathetic

condition of Gorkhas Spread all over the India, uncertainty of their political Status, and their Perilous

Future and Jhan Tsering Lepcha was only non Gorkha member of the League with it first President

Dambar Singh Gurung.

Soon it spread far places and the Bulletin of league which was named Gorkha reached where

leaders could not. The Gandhis Quit India movement of 1942 and the Gorkhas in British Army, many

of them who settled in India after retirement may be the reason to grow consciousness among

Gorkha at that particular time.

Demand for Inclusion in Assam Province:

In 1943, AIGL demanded that District of Darjeeling together with Dooars section of Jalpaiguri be

separated from Bengal and included in Assam province under its call Assam Chalo means lets go

to Assam. This demand was made through memorials submitted to Pt Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar B.Patel, the congress High command, the Cabinet Mission and the Constituent Assembly through


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subcommittee.

Further, in the same year AIGL submitted to Honble Dr. B.V. Kesar, Deputy Foreign Minister, India,

suggested as an alternative to their Demand for the inclusion of Darjeeling and Dooars in Assam, the

creation of a separate province comprising of the district of Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri and the States

of Sikkim and Cooch Bihar, which would form a viable unit within the Indian union.

Gorkhastan:

1947, April 6 - Ganeshlal Subba and Ratanlal Brahmin (members of the undivided CPI) submit a

memorandum to the Vice President of the Interim Government for the creation of Gorkhastan- an

independent nation comprising of the present day Nepal, Darjeeling District and Sikkim, leaving out

the North District in the line of Pakistan;(present Bangladesh) while comprising of the Gorkha and

other hill people who constitute a distinct nationality.

This memorandum was put forward by two leaders on behalf of the Darjeeling district committee of

the CPI and with the full agreements with the leaders in Calcutta (Kolkata), a memorandum to

Jawaharlal Nehru, the then Vice president of the interim Government and Liaquat Ali khan, the then

finance Member of this Government and leaders of Muslim League Assembly party.Uttarkhand movement:

This movement is not for Indian 27th State, which became Uttarkhand from Uttaranchal. After the

sudden death of D.S. Gurung on 7th April 1948, AIGL came under the leadership of Randhir Subbha

who was unhappy with the inadequate demand made earlier by D.S. Guruing. Subbha raises the

Demand for the Separate State, within the frame work of Indian Constitution, called Uttarkhand,

which composed either of the following:

Darjeeling District and Sikkim only or

Darjeeling District only or

Darjeeling District, Jalpaiguri and Coochbihar or

Darjeeling District, Jalpaiguri, Coochbihar, Dooars and Sikkim.

Actually this demand was made by Uttarkhand Sangh Committee formed in 29th October, 1949 with

the channeled by AIGL. This committee compares of Rupnarnyan Singh as president, Randhir Subbha

as Secretary and the representative from Darjeeling, Sikkim, Jalpaiguri and from Coochbihar. A

memorandum to this was submitted to the Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel.

This movement lost it soul when most of leaders including Randhir Subbha left for Nepal to join

others in the job of overthrowing the Ranas and establish a responsible government there.

Regional Autonomy:

It was in april 1954 that the CPI firat spoke about regional autonomy for the hill areas of

Darjeeling. On May 15, 1955 the Darjeeling District congress Committee (DDCC) has also made a

similar demand but term precisely as Statutory District Council. But in 1957 regional autonomy

demand was jointly placed by the congrees, the CPI and the AIGL before Jawaharlal Nehru when he

visited Darjeeling.

It is further learnt that in 1967 when the United Front came to power in West Bengal, a resolution

was passed on this demand by the state assembly.Yet another resolution was passed on September

23rd,1981 for creating a Statutory Autonomous Authority subject to the overall authority and the

control of the state Government and legistature.

The DDCC, in its meeting held on august 25th, 1968 at Kalimpong also passed a unanimous

resolution demanding an Autonomous Administrative Setup for the hill areas of district. N.B.Gurung, T. Manaen, I.B Rai , K.B Chhetri and Govind Chatterjee were suppose to work out the details


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of the setup which they did later.

In response to this, a meeting of WBPCC was held on September 21st, 1968 at the congress bhawan,

Calcutta in which above resolution of DDCC was discussed. But that meeting held under the

presidentship of P.C Chunder simply noted that positive measures will have to be taken to resolve

these problems.

In significant deviation from the earlier stand of the congress and the CPI, the CPI (M) Member of

Parliament, Anada Pathak, moved the constitution (amendment) bill, 1985 on august 9th, suggest

that:

Notwithstanding anything in this Constitution, Parliament may, by law, from within the State of West

Bengal, an autonomous region comprising such areas, as may be specified of the district of

Darjeeling and neighboring district where the Nepali speaking people are in majority and create for

the administration of such region a District Council.

This bill was rejected by the Parliament as expected. But there was no reaction from any quarters,

not even from the District Committee of the CPI (M) in Darjeeling. Nor was any observer surprised

about that.Gorkhaland movement:

The Gorkhaland movement can be classified into two tentative phases. The first phase beginning in

the early 1980s under the banner of GNLF and the second phase started with GJM which is still in

process to carve a Separate State from West Bengal within the India.

First phase: After the Pranta Sangh (which later became Pranta morcha) Subash Ghising formed a

Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) to demand a Separate State named as Gorkhaland during

the April, 1980. Before he was a member of Tarun Sangh, (youth organization of AIGL) in 1964, in

1968 he formed Nepali Party but it died in the height of Emergency during 1970s.

This demand started with the letter to the Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in early 1980s. As

compared to other demand, this demand was systematic to create statehood for the District of

Darjeeling and the adjoining Dooars areas of Jalpaiguri where majority of Nepali speaking population

resides in the West Bengal. This Movement was also supported by Swantantra Manch established in

May 1985.

The statehood demand was raised in 1949 also but it was for the first time in 1980 the Article 3 of

Indian Constitution was evoked. Subash Ghising success to mobilize the mass as Congress did

during Gandhis period. The peasants, teachers, businessmen, student, lawyer, the people from all

section were participating in this movement.

And by 1985, all heart and homes in Darjeeling and Dooars that lived on oil lamps and thatched

houses, placid mountains, rocks and valleys; serene rivulets and streams and calm and quite jungles

and religion shrines had started reverberating with the demand of Gorkhaland. As Ghising spread his

tentacles, he soon became a household name in India. For the first, time entire Nation realized the

existence of the Gorkhas as a distinct Indian ethnic entity on the laps of the Eastern Himalayas. As

we stepped into the last decade of the 20th century, Ghising was declared as tiger of hills. The

historic accord was signed on August 22, 1988 which finally led to getting up of the Darjeeling

Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC).

The DGHC has not been created under the statute of the parliament. It has been created under the

state Legislature possibly to prevent the uncontrolled agitation and violence which took the lives of

more than 1200 people. It is there for a political creation rather than a constitutional one. No part of

the Indian constitution was amended in this regard and hence the Indian Constitution does not talkof the existence of DGHC in any part within the territory of india.


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Second phase: The disaffection with the functioning of the DGHC crystallized into the re-emergence

of the Gorkhaland demand under the leadership of Bimal Gurung and the Gorkha Jan Muktimorcha

(GJM). Gurung had been Ghisings lieutenant during the earlier phase of the movement. He had led

the Gorkha National Volunteer Force under Ghising. Later when the DGHC was formed he became

an elected Council member. However, as differences with Ghising surfaced he kept himself apart and

took up residence in Kuersong.

It was the short message service (SMS) campaign in 2007 for Prasant Tamang, a promising young

Gorkha singer from Darjeeling competing for the Indian Idol crown that once again brought Gurung

into the limelight. Unlike Ghising who was disdainful of the young lads efforts, Gurung actively

campaigned for Tamang who eventually won. It was this electronic campaign which again brought

Gurung into the forefront of Gorkha solidarity. The GJM was formed soon after in October 2007 and

took up the cause of a separate Gorkhaland state again. Its first move was to scuttle the inclusion

of the Hill Council under the Sixth Schedule. Secondly it united the veteran Gorkha army personnel

and led them to express their solidarity for Gorkhaland.

The GJMM called for a number of bands during May-June 2008 thereby halting traffic on Hill CartRoad, the main thoroughfare to the hills of Darjeeling and Sikkim. For Sikkim the stalling of traffic

meant a disruption of its principal lifeline. It led to the Sikkim government filing a suit against GJMM.

When a GJMM supporter was allegedly shot at by a GNLF supporter in the hills during a procession,

popular anger was directed at the GNLF chief, Ghising who was unceremoniously driven out of

Darjeeling in July 2008 and ultimately had to take shelter in Siliguri town. Secure in the knowledge of

peoples support in the hills Gurung now turned his attention to the plains, mainly Siliguri town. In

order to extend their influence in Siliguri and the adjoining duars area, protest actions in the form of

bandhs, meetings and demonstrations were initiated by GJMM. While the protests were by and

large peaceful, there were some incidents of ethnic confrontation between GJM supporters and

members of Amra Bangali and Jan Jagaran Manch. These revivalist and ethnically chauvinist

organizations of erstwhile refugee Bengali youth and adivasi workers from the tea-gardens, are

alleged to have sprung to life through the covert ministrations of some Left leaders. This has added

an ethnic edge to Left politics in the state.

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