BIG PICTURE - FOR A HOME AND IDENTITY

From Indian Express

By Subrata Nagchoudhury

The Gorkhas’ demand for a separate state is fuelled by a desire to establish their political identity as Indians. As the over two-decade long struggle acquires a never before seen urgency, many in Darjeeling believe the time has to come realise their goal. Subrata Nagchoudhury reports from the battlezone

Even as dusk descended on a riot-hit Siliguri town on Thursday under the marching boots of security forces and with army units standing by, Darjeeling witnessed a different spectacle. Thousands of Gorkha men and women, youth and the elderly, marched in silence along the streets of Darjeeling to converge at the Mall, enveloped in mist under a moist monsoon sky. They all held candles close to them and each held a wish that has been long cherished and buried in the Gorkha consciousness: a separate state of Gorkhaland. Their aspirations spoke through the silence.

Occasionally, a microphone burst into life with a vibrant, pulsating tune: “Hamro mang, Gorkhaland/ Gorkhaland, Gorkhaland/Sabko Mang Gorkhaland/Gorkhaland (We all want Gorkhaland)”.

This is a tune the Gorkhas of Darjeeling have been chanting for decades now. But this time, somehow, somewhere there appears a lurking hope and a silent determination that the time has come to realise their goal.

Ashish Tamang, a student of Class VIII of the Municipal Boys’ School, and Adith Chhetri of the Arya Morning High School were among the crowd. Tamang and Chhetri do not know exactly what Gorkhaland would get them. The two were not even born during the turbulent days of the 1980s when Subhas Ghising led the earlier agitation for a separate state, but both realise that it is a passion that binds them all and that Gorkhaland is something that has to happen.

P.T. Sherpa, a leader of the Darjeeling Hills Planters’ Labour Union, however, has a clear vision and practical reasons for a “just” struggle for Gorkhaland. “People within India often ask me if I am from Nepal. We are always taken as Nepalese from Nepal. It immediately gives us a feeling of alienation. Once we have a state of our own we will hopefully be spared this humiliation,” says Sherpa.

And the man who has set a specific timeframe to achieving this goal—Bimal Gurung—is the winner of a million hearts in the hills now. 2010 is the year by which the Gorkhas would have their dream realised, says Gurung.

OUR people have been attacked in Siliguri. Their houses have been torched, stoned and many beaten up,” says Gurung. “It is not in the Gorkha blood to keep silent in the face of such brutality but we will not step into the trap laid by the West Bengal Government. It will only take our goal away from us by branding us communal.”

But this is precisely one aspect that separates the GNLF agitation of the ’80s under Ghising and the present one under the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha under Gurung. The current movement for a separate state has already assumed a communal, racial dimension in the plains, the Terai and the Dooars region that had not been witnessed before. One of the primary reasons for this is that the GJM has redrawn the map of proposed Gorkhaland state to include areas of the Dooars and Terai within its territory. This, in one way has been the strength as well as the weakness of the present movement of Bimal Gurung.Strength, because this is one region where thousands of Gorkhas had felt betrayed by Ghising after the GNLF accord, culminating in the formation of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council in 1988. They did not achieve anything in tangible terms though they had been a part and parcel of that movement.

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The Siliguri and the Dooars region where the GJM is canvassing support has a population of about 750,000, of which about 35 per cent are said to be Nepali-speaking people. For Gurung, this region should act as a buffer, say senior government officials as well as GJM sources. Buffer in the sense that Gurung cannot afford to make the hundreds of hoteliers, traders, businessmen, planters, tea garden workers, transporters in the hills angry by calling frequent bandhs. The foothills, and the Dooars with whatever following he has, can always be a sustaining source to keep alive the movement. One has witnessed the growing engagement in Siliguri area by GJM in recent times.

Besides, when the first GJM delegation went to Kolkata to hold talks with West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee a month ago, leaders confided why they want to redraw the map of Gorkhaland. In the words of a senior GJM leader, “When we have our own state, we must think of having an airhead (Bagdogra) and a railhead (New Jalpaiguri) with it for us.”

But equally, an array of adverse factors are set against such a plan. Prime among these is the communal tinderbox and one is already witness to its dangerous outbursts. Even as the GJM increased its engagement in Siliguri and adjacent areas, pro-Bengali organisations like the Jana Chetna Manch and Jana Jagran Manch have suddenly sprouted. Hand in hand with the ultra right Amra Bangali, branches are mushrooming. Most of these are believed to be propped up by the CPI(M), capitalising on sentiments along racial and linguistic lines.

Says Arun Ghosh and Dilip Deb, members and leaders of the Jana Chetna in Bagdogra: “How does one distinguish between the Nepalese from Nepal and those from Darjeeling? We have seen thousands of Gorkhas from Bhutan coming here and settling down over the years. How can they decide our destiny now? We have resolved not to allow any activity here that will disrupt our livelihood. All communities have been living here for generations in peace and harmony. This is at stake now.”

THERE are other factors that differentiate this agitation from that of the ‘80s. Santosh Rai, the security guard of the Makaibari tea estate, still remembers how their house was torched during the GNLF movement in Soom tea estate close to Darjeeling. Rai’s father was a hardcore supporter of Ghising. “But there was terror during those days, now it is Gandhibad,” says Rai, saying too many strikes and bandhs will harm the tea industry. The 80-odd tea gardens in the three hills subdivisions provide the maximum number of employment to about 75,000 people.

Even for Urmila Rumba, one of the chief convenors of the Gorkha Janmukti Nari Morcha, the proactive frontal women’s organisation, it is the different flavour of the GJM leadership that has drawn her to the cause. For the social activist-cum-Loreto College teacher for 26 years, the GJM banner is a double driving force. One, she felt that till now, instead of treating the demands of the Gorkhas with justice, the authorities have only considered them out of a sense of pity. There is a need to correct that. At the same time the engagement with the movement takes her social commitment forward.

GJM insiders say that from the time the party was set up on October 7, 2007 the number of central committee members have grown from just about nine to 46 now. Major decisions are taken through deliberations in the central committee. This is where Gurung distinguishes himself from Ghising for whom not only the agitation but the running of the DGHC was a one-man show.

But that does not insulate Gurung from internal bickering. Party insiders say that he is often haunted by the fear of Ghising’s “plants” within the GJM, even though the rout of the former strongman is more than complete. Just this week GJM men climbed atop his house, pulled down the GNLF flag and replaced it with a GJM one—all without a murmur of protest.

At times Gurung betrays his fears by referring to “police agents” within the central committee members. His options are also narrowing down regarding the strikes. Increasingly “bandh’ is becoming a dirty word in the hills and resistance rising in the plains. Amidst such odds, Gurung has to harp more and more on Gorkha nationalism to take the agitation to a climax and realisation of a political destiny for the community.