Dr. Sonam Wangyal’s essay about Tharchin Babu titled “Kalimpong’s Lonely Warrior” had a wonderful description of the editor of the Tibet Mirror Press and Kalimpong personality.

However, Tharchin, a Ladakh-born Tibetan who made Kalimpong his home is remembered not for the way he dressed or looked but for a journal he wrote. … Tharchin Babu is and will forever be reminisced for Tibet Mirror which was the only Tibetan language journal ‘in the whole world’. It was read from the grand monasteries of Lhasa to the Oriental departments of esteemed European universities, and it was eagerly awaited upon by the foreign offices of Washington, Peking (Beijing), London, Moscow and New Delhi. When the Chinese presence in Lhasa intensified Tibet Mirror responded with salvos of anti Chinese, anti communist and anti Mao Tse Tung articles.

The photograph from the previous post then put a face to the description. We also see the elegant and proud sign of Tibet Mirror Press back then in 1957.

Then we have yet another photograph that I had taken in Dec 2008 of the present state of the poor press:

It is a pity that Kalimpong’s rich and colorful history has been reduced to this.

Here’s an important and informative discourse on the demographic politics played in the Dooars since partition. The essay is a little heavy with the numbers, but the numbers are important so please do not be intimidated by the figures and the statistics. This is a very relevant article, and has important information for the inclusion of the Dooars in the state of Gorkhaland.

The article is a little long, but I decided to put the whole thing up without breaking it up into parts. Do take the time to read it all. Book mark the page if necessary.
-Admin

PRE-INDEPENDENCE The ethnic people, the autochthones, were the Rajbansis,[1] or the Koches,[2] the Totos and the Mechis[3] Dukpas and the Garos. I will not claim that the Gorkhas are indigenous to the Dooars, a claim the Bengalis too cannot assert, but one can claim that the Gorkhas are one of the oldest non-autochthones. This report will also attempt to show that over the passage of time the natives and the ancient settlers got swamped by the continuous flood of Bengali immigration to the extent of making the area a Bengali subdivision.

The Gorkhas in the Dooars is not a recent phenomenon and the Gazetteer of West Bengal Government itself admits: “They began to immigrate and settle down in the district (i.e. Jalpaiguri) especially in the western parts of the district, as agriculturalists, from the beginning of the eighteenth century.”[4] This would mean that the history of the Gorkhas in the Dooras stretches to a minimum of 300 years. The recorded accounts of the Gorkhas inhabiting the area in the days of yore are also to be found outside the official gazetteers. The official history of Cooch Behar mentions of a gang of Sanyasis that used to raid Cooch Behar in the 1770s. The group seems to be so large and strong that the State police and the armed forces of the Maharajah could not stop the raids and the Government of Cooch Behar had to seek assistance from the East India Company. Even the Company’s representative seems to have been frustrated and he eventually appealed to the Nepal king to intercede[5] since the Sanyasis were almost entirely Gorkhas. This book Cooch Beharer Itihas (in Bengali) documents that Nepalis (Gorkhas), Bhutanese and Bengal Moslems would often combine and attack Cooch Behar with deadly effect.[6] The same source enlightens us that prior to Sino-Gorkha War, Nepal used to send tribute to the Chinese Emperor through the Raja of Baikunthapur.[7] This would have been impossible if the Gorkha king did not have substantial influence over the ruler of the place. The Sanyais were active even as late as the 1770s and many of them were employed by the Bhutanese “as means of enforcing collection of tribute from recalcitrant payers.”[8] The second phase of Gorkhas settling in the Dooars, according to the Gazetteer, was “in the mid-nineteenth century” with the opening of the tea gardens[9] and even in this case the Gorkha history in the Dooars is 150 years old.

Now let us see what the population position of the Bengalis were at the relevant time. At the time of the amalgamation of the Duars, the Bengali population was negligible. The celebrated accounts of Samuel Turner (1800 An Account of an Embassy to the Court of Teshoo Lama in BHOOTAN and TIBET), Capt. Pemberton (1838 Report on Bootan), Dr. D.F. Rennie (1866Bhotan and the Story of the Doar War) and George Bogle (1876 Narrative of George Bogle) do not mention any Bengali settlement in the Dooars, simply because they were not there. The possibility of Bengali residents in Jalpaiguri subdivision seems promising but its augmentation and immigration to it and to Alipurdaur/Dooars is a post Anglo-Bhutan War feature. The Jalpaiguri Gazetteer is clear about this fact and it reads that “After the formation of Jalpaiguri district, with its headquarters at Jalpaiguri town and subdivisional headquarters at Alipur Duar, the district began to attract educated Hindu gentry from East Bengal districts. The administration needed clerks and lawyers. Once the clerks and lawyers came and settled down there, their needs attracted doctors and teachers. …Thus a process of urbanization set in.”[10] One would think that these Bengali settlers came as a trickle but in the half-a-century, between 1872 and 1921, the same Gazetteer states “the population of Alipur Duars subdivision had increased by a fantastic 1,042.3 per cent.”[11] Such a fantastic and almost incomparable increase of population in a small region was not a result of Gorkha immigration, as the Gazetteer and census figures testify, but even then the Gorkha citizens of the Dooars have nothing against these Bengali settlers basically because it was a pre-Independence phenomenon. But demographic politics designed to make the native people and ancient settlers into an absolute minority, after 1947, by politics of assisted and calculated program is what the autochthones, Adhibasis and Gorkhas are trying to remove, through the formation of a new state beyond the political influence and decree of Bengali dominated state of West Bengal.

POST-INDEPENDENCE Going back to the Census Report of 1961, in reference to the immigrants of post-Independence era, we find that the decadal increase of population, in Jalpaiguri district, for those born countries in Asia but outside India was 2,59,795 persons[12] and the same Census reports that 2,18,341 persons were from Bangladesh[13] which amounts to 84% of the immigrants. This is an unparalleled explosion of numbers in the history of census records in post-independent India for such a small area. The immigration, illegal but made legal, constituted a staggering figure of 16 per cent of the total existing population. In other words every seventh person one came across in the district was a fresh immigrant from Bangladesh. The total immigration rise was 48.27% in comparison to 8.13% in 1941-1951 and, what is difficult to believe is that, approximately 80% of the immigrants were from Bangladesh. This is what the Gazetteer published by the West Bengal government admits to. Such a huge influx is impossible anywhere in the world except in West Bengal and it is possible in this particular state because the state government actively pursues a politics of demographic hegemony by welcoming foreign citizens, granting them citizenship and even land and finance. How else can the Government of West Bengal justify the existence of a Department/Ministry in the guise and label of Ministry of Refugee Relief and Rehabilitation after over SIXTY years of the creation of East Pakistan/Bangladesh.The Department was formed in 1950 with the following objective, according to the official website: “The Refugee Relief and Rehabilitation Department was created to handle the enormous dimensions of the human tragedy that West Bengal had to face following the partition of India in 1947…”[14] The Ministry has been in existence for almost 60 years and if it has not been able to redress the “human tragedy” in these many years then it defies its existence. Successive Governments in West Bengal have institutionalized the practice of welcoming, aiding and granting ration cards or voter identity cards through the connivance of theMinistry of Refugee Relief and Rehabilitation. In fact as late as 2006 the rehabilitation Minister, Binoy Krishna Biswas, claimed that he had distributed legal papers for land ownership (patta) and that he would soon distribute more to the refugees living in various colonies.[15]

DEMOGRAPHIC HEGEMONY Today the wider implications of this massive infiltration and resettlement are being faced by not just the bordering states of West Bengal but by states as far away as Maharashtra and New Delhi. If there was an increase of 48% plus in immigration figures any government in the world would have shown the severest of concern but West Bengal government maintained a premeditated and deliberate silence in the case of Dooars simply because the immigrants were Bengalis and it suited the policy of changing the ground reality through deliberate and planned population hegemony. The ethnic people too have become victims of this politics under another cleaver method. Consider the following figures:

Total Population of the District (1961): 13,59,292
Bengali Speaking Population 7,40,829 (54.50% a
majority)

But this figure included Rajbansis who out of a total of 3,16,020 some 2,97,333 declared Bengali as mother-tongue, thus making the Bengali-speakers the majority.

Should we minus the Rajbansis only (i.e. excluding Mechis, Totos, and other tribal people who ‘declared’ Bengali as mother tongue) we arrive at a Bengali speaking population of only 4,24,809 or 31.25%, clearly a minority.

The independent and non-political Dooars Study Forum strongly feels that Census reports are flawed and whereas the British were ready to admit their shortcomings[16] the post independence Census does not admit to any weakness in compiling the returns. If Darjeeling district’s census, a district that contains the cream of educated Gorkhas, could be fudged[17] the population figure of the Gorkhas in the Dooars was far easier pickings. It must be also remembered that the census enumerators were entirely non-Gorkhas, they were inadequately trained and poorly paid and therefore not adequately motivated to any degree of sacrifice or to achieve any degree of accuracy. The Gorkhas in the Dooars are largely agriculturists or tea plantation labourers. Each agricultural plot could be several acres in size and the enumerators did not have the motivation or the energy to walk across several acres of land to enumerate the next house and the next and so on. In the lapse the Gorkhas were the main losers. Most enumerators like to do their job in the mornings to avoid the scorching heat of the Dooars sun but in the mornings the Gorkha plantation workers would be in the tea gardens. This again left a wide gap in reporting faithfully the actual number of residents. The style and system of fact-finding itself was flawed. Some of our Forum members were told by several Gorkha residents that the enumerators would ask, in Bengali, questions like “Apnaara eai baritay kahjon aachhay?” (How many people are there in this house?) and if one replied in Bengali “Aamra charjon aachhi” (We are four.) the enumerator would then ask “Achha, apni Bangla bolen?” (Oh! You speak Bengali?). If one answered in the positive the enumerator would mark the four people of the house as Bengali speakers. In numerous cases the Gorkha resident was never asked what his mother tongue was. The enumerator would not be entirely wrong, for they could speak Bengali, but the officer’s brief was not to put in his interpretation but to strictly follow the guidelines provided. In this case it would have become necessary for the enumerator to ask what the mother tongue of the respondent was. The simple and innocent Gorkhas are only now realizing the cost of the ‘mistake’ made by the enumerators.

There are other ways the population figures were manipulated to disadvantage the minority communities. We have already illustrated the 1961 Census which reflected Bengali speakers at 54.50% with the inclusion of a huge numbers of Rajbansis and the same was done in 1971, the last Census done on linguistic basis, showing a comfortable majority of the Bengali speaking population amounting to 60.23%.

A MACRO STUDY Even if one is stupid enough to concede that these reports could be correct with only some minor flaws a careful look at the census figures in some blocks show some very revealing results. It points to a massive amount of infiltration from the south, Bangladesh. Firstly let us consider the northern parts of the district which borders Bhutan. In Matiali Block, Hindi speakers are the largest in number (21,067), Kurukh (10,372) is second, Nepali (9,563) is third and Bengali (8,739) is fourth. In Nagrakata Block, Hindi (23,094) is first, Kurukh (12,530) is second, Nepali (10,444) is third and Bengali (9,181) once again is fourth. In Birpara Block, Nepali (19,265) is first, Hindi (12,321) is second, Kurukh (11,581) is third and Bengali (6,756) is again fourth. Similarly, in Kalchini Block, Hindi (40,949) comes first followed by Nepali (32,601). Kurukh scores third (16,123) and Bengali brings up the expected rear (16,076). Why these blocks have such scanty number of Bengali speakers is because they are far away from Bangladesh border and if one takes an even closer look nowhere do the figures reach close to 50.000. When the population statistics for places in the southern parts of the district, which borders Bangladesh, is scanned a reverse picture is found. Rajganj Block has a massive 1,06,248 Bengali speakers against only 19,705 speakers of Hindi, Kurukh and Nepali combined. Similarly, Jalpaiguri Block has another colossal 1,90,859 against 26,918 of the other three languages. The drama repeats itself in Mainaguri Block which records Bengali speakers to the tune of 1,51,053 against 7,370 of Hindi, Kurukh and Nepali combine and so it is also with Dhupguri Block, Falakata Block etc. The Bengali population in each case is above a lakh with one Block almost tipping two lakhs. Any person of average intelligence would see in these numbers something abnormal, unbelievable and possibly even an element of something being contrived. Such staggering differences cannot be possible between the first settled places or the north and the later settled places or the south. It is only possible through infiltration, immigration, colonization etc. and to occur in such numbers requires a government that actively encourages these foreigners to settle in the border areas. The Left Front government not only gives to the immigrants ration cards, legal rights on lands (patta) but even assists in the procurement of voter identity cards.[18] In a constitutional democracy like India the West Bengal government is not embarrassed that immigrants are acquiring equal rights as the sons of the soil but openly admits to be a party to help the aliens obtain legal papers.

MEDIA REPORTS The retired Chief of Intelligence and former Governor of West Bengal, T. V. Rajeshwar, wrote that the Bangladeshi influx was serious and even quoted State Government sources about 28 lakh Bangladeshi nationals entering West Bengal of which five lakh merged with the Indian population, never to return.[19] These are the people that the Refugee Rehabilitation Ministry looks after and provides them with ration cards, pattas, and voter ID cards. The state government is so brazen that it openly ignored the Election Commission’s directive to all the Chief Electoral Officers in the state to identify and delete the names of foreigners enrolled as voters. “The West Bengal Home Secretary, Mr. Manish Gupta, has conveyed to all District Magistrates, Additional District Magistrates and Subdivisional Officers, who serve as District Returning Officers and Assistant Returning Officers, the State Information Minister, Mr. Buddhadev Bhattacharya’s[20] instructions that their current exercise of identifying and deleting foreigners’ name from the state electoral roll be immediately stopped”[21] The Statesman further reported that, “Mr. Bhattacharya’s instructions came when DROs (District Returning Officers) and AROs (Assistant Returning Officers) of 17 districts had prepared a list of more than 100,000 suspected Bangladeshis whose names figured in the state’s electoral roll”. “The police had begun photographing the places populated by Bangladeshis, to which Mr. Bhattacharya had taken strong exception”. “Mr. Gupta had conveyed the Minister’s strong displeasure to the officials concerned and asked them to stop their “overzealous act in identifying the Bangladeshis”
On one hand the state government discourages or blocks or impedes the process of identifying illegal immigrants and on the other hand it actively pursues a policy of legalizing them as Indians through distribution of ration cards, voter identity cards and official land holding papers. Consider the case of the Refugee Rehabilitation Minister who publicly admitted to dishing out documents legalizing the immigrants as Indians and went a step further saying more papers would be distributed in the future.[22] In the late 1990s, when the Shiv Sena-BJP regime resolved to evict Bangladeshis from the city, the opposition came not so much from Bangladesh as from certain West Bengal politicians.[23] Rough estimates suggest that more than 160 lakhs migrants, mostly Muslims but also some Hindus, have found shelter since 1972, mostly in Assam and West Bengal. The August 2000 report of the Task Force on Border Management placed the figure at 150 lakhs, with 300,000 Bangladeshis entering India illegally every month.[24] A more conservative estimate was given by the Defence Minister during a seminar on “Integrated Management of Security” in Chandigarh where he estimated the immigration to be in the vicinity of one lakh Bangladeshis entering India every month.[25] But even this approximate figure is alarming since more than 90% of the immigrants settle in Assam or West Bengal.

A MICRO STUDY Since Census recording based on languages has been done away for the last three decades, the Dooars Study Forum (DSF) and Study Forum, Kalimpong, did extensive survey of the Duars to arrive at an approximation of the Gorkha population. Old Census records where some communities were erroneously put as non-Gorkhas were corrected and, most of all, the last Electoral list was studied and from it each Gorkha name was meticulously picked and counted Block by Block, rejecting names that are analogous to Bengali and Gorkha, to arrive at the conclusion that the Gorkha population was at, the minimum, 5 to 5,50,000 persons. The Gorkha population in the district according to the Census of 1961 was 1,13,043 and the 1971 Census returned a figure of 1,30,744, an increase of only 17,701 (15.66%). While the DSF refuses to accept even the 1961 returns, it outright rejects the 1971 Census figure. This is simply unacceptable because the decadal growth in the district was 28.76%, the state 26.87%, and the nation 24.80% and the Gorkhas are made to lag behind on all three parameters with only 15.66% growth. Should one agree to the rate of growth espoused by the government the Gorkhas population would be around 58,327only in thewhole of Alipurduar subdivision (1971 = 37706[26], 1981 = 43,601, 1991 = 50,430, 2001 = 58,327). However, the DSForum, assisted by Study Forum (Kalimpong), did a sample microstudy one Block alone (Kalchini) and the findings strongly contradicted the government’s figures. In fact the Gorkha population of this one Block alone was more than the projected population of the whole subdivision. The Study Forum (Kalimpong) based its findings on the latest (2009) Electoral List. Each and every Gorkha name was counted and titles analogous to the Gorkhas and the Bengalis (and obvious other ones e.g. Singh/Sinha used by Gorkha, Bengali, Punjabi and other communities) were excluded and it found the Gorkha voting population to be 46,076. If we presume that 40% of the actual population was under 18 years in age and therefore not in the Electoral list (including adults not registered in the voter list) one would get 18,340 heads making the total Gorkha population in the Kalchini Block alone to be (40,076 + 18,340) 64,506. Taking into account the Gorkhas in the twelve other Blocks in the district,[27] the Dooars Study Forum came to conclusion that the population should be around 5,00,000 to 5,50,000 in the district.

CIRCUITING THE CENSUS The DSF’s position that the Census can and was fudged to negatively impact the Gorkhas can be substantiated. Take the 1951 Census as a glaring example. Darjeeling’s Gorkha population of 67% (1941) had plunged to only 26% in 1951 without any natural calamities, epidemics or mass migration. Surprisingly, only the Gorkha population decreased while the total population rose from 376,369 (1941) to 445,269 (1951). As in the case of the Darjeeling hills the population of Jalpaiguri was shown to grow by only 8.13% in 1951 while in the next census (1961) the growth registered an staggering 48%.[28] But why did the WB Government require to fudge the figures! The answer is simple: The cry from various different regions of India for reorganization of states was there from pre-independence days but it had begun to get a stronger and more organized momentum. The post independence period saw it grow on more rational basis, in the context of not only from financial, economic and administrative management of independent India but also due to the growing importance of regional languages. Consequently, the Provinces Commissions or the Dar Report was placed in the Parliament in 1948 and the White Paper on Indian States in 1950. From these Reports and the growing demand for separate states on linguistic basis from different regions made the politicians of India, and Bengal in particular, more or less certain that the Central Government would very soon institute some mechanism to address the issue. Dr. B.C. Roy, the then Chief Minister of West Bengal, craftily conducted a statistical ethnic cleansing by making thousands upon thousands of Gorkhas disappear in Darjeeling and the Dooars of Jalpaiguri in the 1951 census. He with impunity made the Gorkhas reappear in 1961 as 75% of the population in Darjeeling. A brilliant masterstroke for in 1961 the SRC was not in function! Unfortunately for the Dooars Gorkhas the fabrication of census figures did not end with decennial count of 1961. The census returns of 1971, the last census based on caste lines, gives the impression that the Gorkhas’ reproductive instinct remained severely damaged and the Bengalis’, on the other hand, healthy and super active. The average decadal growth then was approximately 27.5% and it is natural to expect a similar reflection in the growth percentage of different communities. However, wherever the Gorkha population was in sizeable numbers its increase fell far below the district average while the Bengali count increased by astonishing numbers and in places where the Bengali population was in good strength their population simply exploded. Consider the case of Falakata Block where the Bengali population swelled by 42% and in Rajganj Block it even breached the 50% mark by showing a growth of 59.4%. On the other hand the areas where the Gorkhas were in substantial strength the counts showed a miserable increase: close to half and even less than half of the district average. Kalchini Block where the Gorkha concentration is robust it climbed by only 14.74%, in Nagarkatta Block by 12.56% and in Metiali Block the increase in population was a miserable 5.8%.[29] The question to be asked here is was the Gorkhas’ ability to procreate inexplicably reduced by more than half or had the Gorkhas suddenly decided to put their natural instinct on hold for a period of ten years. On the other hand even if the Bengali prowess to procreate had gone up by a staggering 10% beyond the average there is no adequate explanation to the 14% in rise in Falakata or to the 31.8% rise in Rajganj.

Such an inexplicable increase can only be due to a massive immigration and the only possible place from where the immigrants could come is from Bangladesh. The reader must bear in mind that, no matter what ethnic or religious ties there may be, people of Bangladesh are not Indians and therefore the immigration was illegal especially when the subject and statistics refer to the period between 1961 to 1971, a full 14 to 24 years after the creation of Bangladesh (East Pakistan) and India.

________________________________________
[1] Karkham, R. Clements: Narrative of George Bogle to Tibet and of the Journey Thomas Manning, Cosmo Publications, 1989, (1876), Footnote No.1
[2] Hooker, Joseph Dalton: Himalayan Journals, Vol. 2, Today and Tomorrow Printers and Publishers, New Delhi, 1987 (1855), p. 10.
Eden, Sir Ashley: Report on the State of Bootan, (In Political Missions to Bootan, Manjusri Publishing Limited, New Delhi, 1972 (1864), p. 9.
Pemberton, Capt. Boileau: Report on Bootan, (in Political Missions…1838), p. 178.
[3] Hunter, WW: A Statistical Account of Bengal, Vol. X, Districts of Darjiling and Jalpaiguri, and State of Kuch Behar, Trubner & Co., London, 1876 (Concept Publishing Co., Delhi, 1984), pp. 254 & 255.
De, Barun: 81.
[4] Bengal District Gazetteer Jalpaiguri (1980): p. 78.
[5] Letter from W. Hastings to J. Dupre, dated 9th March, 1773, from Memories of O.H.W. Hastings, Vol. 1, p. 303. (As quoted in Coocb Beharer Itihas)
[6] Ahmad, Khan Choudhuri Amantaulla: Cooch Beharer Itihas, (Part 1), State Press and Published under Authority of the Cooch Behar State, 1936, p. 232.
[7] Ibid: p. 235.
[8] Ray, Subhajyoti: Transformations on the Bengal Frontier: Jalpaiguri, 1765-1948, SOAS, London, 2003, pp. 28 & 27. The Sanyasi movement headed towards its end with the first major skirmish in Rangpur in 1772 when the East India Company intervened in the internal politics of Cooch Behar.
[9] Op cit De, Barun: p. 78.
[10] Ibid: p. 63.
[11] Ibid: p. 72.
[12] Ibid: p. 74, Table 5.
[13] Ibid: p. 73.
[14] The official website gives the following details: Refugee Relief and Rehabilitation headed by the Hon’ble Minister of State, Shri Binay Krishna Biswas (Secretary: Smt. R. Venkataraman, IAS, and Officer on Special Duty: Shri A. Kanugo, WBCS).
[15] Ganashakti, Kolkata, 18 December, 2006.
[16] The FIRST official statistical account of the Dooars or that of Jalpaiguri by W.W. Hunter (see Footnote 10) is candid enough to confess the obvious errors in the Census reports: page 247. The last Census conducted by the British in 1941 is also fraught with possibilities and the highly placed British bureaucrat, Arthur Jules Dash admits to it in West Bengal District Gazetteers DARJEELING, (1947) pages 50, 54, 58, 62, 68 etc. The 1907 Gazetteer of Darjeeling by L.S.S. O’Malley also admits of flaws in the Census (page 35)
[17] In 1941 the Census reflected Darjeeling District’s Gorkha population as 2,52,167 and in 1951 it had declined to 1,32,632. Instead of increaing more than 50% of the Gorkha population had simply disappeared while the total population had almost doubled viz. 3,76,377 (1941) – 6,98,063 (1951). After a whole lot of hue and cry adjustments were made and in 1961 the Gorkha population is returned as 4,74,726.
[18] Jyoti Parimal:Sarkar (Research scholar), BANGLADESHI MIGRATION TO WEST BENGAL:A CAUSE OF CONCERN, , Centre for the Study of Regional Development, JNU, New Delhi
[19] The Statesman, Kolkata, 6 & 9 April, 1990.
[20] Presently the Chief Minister
[21] The Statesman, Kolkata, 1 November, 1992.
[22] Ganashakti, Kolkata, 18 December, 2006.
[23] The Times of India, New Delhi, 5 April, 2004.
[24] On line Asia Times,14 January, 2005 (www.atimes.com)
[25] Asian Age, Kolkata, 28 September, 2003.
[26] Census of India 1971
[27] Jalpaiguri, Rajganj, Maynaguri, Dhupguri, Mal, Matelli, Nagarkatta, Madarihaat, Falakata, Alipurduar-1, Alipurduar-2, and Kumargram.
[28] On Line Asia Times, 14 January, 2005, (www.atimes.com)
[29] District Census Handbook, 1971, Series 22, Part X, (A & B), pp. 3-18

It was towards the winter of 1995 in one of my customary visits to Professor Richard Keith Sprigg’s one-room books and journals lined apartment that I received one of the most fascinating surprises of my life. Dr. Sprigg, a retired professor of Cambridge University, is in many ways a man of many surprises but I was never prepared for the particular surprise that was in store for me.

Reaching Kalimpong early one day, and having plenty of time to ‘kill’ before picking up my daughter from the Convent, one of the many options open to me was a visit to the old linguist. A visit to him had always been profitable and this one was not expected to be any less. In most of my visits I would be the one to begin the conversation as I always had a stock of questions to which he invariably had ready set of amazingly scholarly answers. This time around it was he who commenced the proceedings and that too in a very extraordinary manner. He opened a cupboard, took out a fresh bottle of premium Scotch Whisky and asked that we celebrate. It appeared that he had been waiting for several weeks to find someone suitable to mark one of the most memorable days in his life. The problem was that it was just ten o’clock in the morning and at twelve I had to collect my daughter and the hum of alcohol in my breath would immediately erase the relatively good impression that I had cultivated, over almost a decade, with the nuns at the convent. Despite the great honour from the internationally respected linguist I was not prepared to annihilate my reputation, and in the process my daughter’s too, without having some extraordinarily compelling reasons. Eventually we hit upon a compromise: he would narrate the unforgettable event and if I found that to be worthy of a celebration I would wet my throat. In the meanwhile I had mentally planned to ask my friend to fetch my daughter should the unexpected had the better of me.

The old gentleman proudly informed me that he had received his third Doctorate a few weeks ago. The news just stunned me. I knew that he was working on a Balti dictionary but in my over half a dozen annual visits to his place I had never seen him working on a dissertation and all of a sudden this surprise. Knowing that he had a Ph. D. from London University and a Litt. D. from Cambridge I enquired if this one was from Oxford. The Professor was firm that this Doctorate was more valuable than what Oxford could confer and recounted the following story.

A few weeks ago he had been invited to address a Rai conference in Capitol Hall at Darjeeling. He planned out two speeches, a short and a long one, with the same introduction. While delivering the introductory part of the speech if the audience became fidgety and noisy he would follow it up with the short speech and if the public responded well then he would go for the longer one. The response was favourable and he continued with the lengthy lecture dwelling on the historical, cultural and other aspects of the Rais of Nepal and Darjeeling. The Rais, it must be remembered, have a most unique and colourful feature in their cultural milieu represented by the Bijuwa (shaman) whom they call Mangpa. It was natural that a good portion of the lecture had to do with the mangpas and at the end of the speech the mangpas present were so pleased with what the old man had to say that they went up the stage, put the mangpa attire on him, beat their drums, chanted mantras and officially ordained Professor Sprigg as an honorary mangpa. Thus Professor Richard Keith Sprigg, an Englishman to the boot, became the first and only European mangpa. The story ended there and he uncorked the bottle confident that I would now honor the event with a sip or two.

I was still not prepared to humour him and asked him to tell me about his third Doctorate instead of wasting time over a true but off the track story. He stared at me through his light blue eyes, almost apologetically, and remarked in a tone of disappointment that I had overlooked the story. He exclaimed with an unmistakable emphasis that he was now a mangpa, and that was a Doctorate because he had now become Rai witchdoctor. It was an unusual Doctorate but it was valuable and significant to him because it had come from the hearts of the simple people he had gone to address. He was overwhelmed and if he had won some Rai hearts with his speech the Rais had certainly gained him with their gesture. The Doctorate actually was an extraordinary one and certainly not something that Oxford University could bestow.

My mentor had won. It was barely 10:30 am and there I was absolutely dumbfounded not because of the Scotch in me but because of the story that led me to imbibe it.

Here’s an earlier article by Dr. Wangyal on Professor Sprigg.
-admin

On 7 September 2008 The Story of Darjeeling: The Land of the Indian Gorkha by Basant B. Lama was released in Kurseong. Some of you know Basant Lama as the man whose house and land at Siliguri was acquired, i.e. legally taken against his free will, by the government for the Sikkim Nationalized Transport complex. That, of course, has nothing to do with the book but it is being put in as just by way of an introduction.

The 364-page book is a pleasant read. It is spread over 24 chapters most of which are less than 15 pages in length making each chapter a compact unit. This trimness has the advantage that before one realizes a chapter is through one is already on to the next one. It appears that modesty and conscious caution prevented Lama from titling the book as The History… instead of The Story… but history it definitely is. Most history books are of staid pages, dull and laborious to read. The Story…is a pleasant surprise. History writing follows a chronological order and the language is as a rule cold, direct, and detached. Lama’s account is, however, from the guts and so it is often emotive, the language colloquial, it rejects sequential order, and at times it even gets humorous. The combination of these unusual features makes this book immensely readable.

Almost all books on history are generally a rehash of what has been written before and neither Lama, nor anybody else for that matter, can claim full immunity from this phenomenon. However, what puts him apart from the rest is that he has surprises in store. Consider for example his claim that it was the Gorkhas, and Gorkhas alone, who were responsible for the escape of Subhas Chandra Bose to Germany. For the Sikkimeses reader I might add here that amongst these Gorkhas one was a certain Yonzone, personal servant of Subhas Chandra Bose, and he hailed from Sikkim. Another revelation is that the book claims that Netaji spoke fluent Nepali.

It is not my intention lay bare the whole book but let me just say that it is not a text book stuff. The emotive nature of the writing gives a soul to the book and the occasional sprinkling of humour adds a zest and combined they bring about a vivacity which is rare in a topic as dreary as history. Lama traces the birth of the Bengali bhadrolog and its subsequent effects on Bengal, India and the Gorkhas. Events as distant in time and space as the partition of Bengal is recalled and woven into the fabric of Darjeeling’s history.
In conclusion I can safely claim that this book is ‘raw stuff’ and yet it is one of the easiest to read. If you want to read a book with a heart and a bit of humour, and still feel you are reading history then this is the book. For those of you who are interested to know about the circumstances that Darjeeling and the Dooars are currently placed in, how it came about, and possibly what the future holds, this book is an absolute must.

-Dr. Sonam B. Wangyal

-Dr. Sonam B. Wangyal

The following is a chronicle of the long and enduring struggle of a peoples’ movement for a separate homeland for over a hundred years. It is not a testament to ridicule or chastise our Bengali counterparts but simply to let them understand the sense of helpless predicament that a minority community suffers under the weight of an overwhelming majority population, the helplessness under the dark cloud of political chauvinism, and the helplessness in suffering financial nepotism.

This is also a testament to illustrate many states in India have had the good sense to agree to a partition(s) without feeling a loss of prestige even when there was a possibility of another bifurcation. Assam has been split more times than Bengal can even dread of, and it is still alive and kicking, despite the threat of even more partitions. Consider the strong and proud martial state of Punjab which was partitioned into Punjab and Haryana, it was further partitioned with the formation of Himachal Pradesh and a third partition created Chhandigarh. Punjab still survives not humiliated, not politically weakened and not financially at any great loss. The partitioning of Madhya Pradesh created Chhattisgarh; Andhra Pradesh was a result of the partition of Madras (Tamil Nadu), and Jharkhand was a result of partition of Bihar.

New states have been created but the partition or the process and the subsequent evolvements have never reduced the prestige and the standing of the ‘mother’ states. Examples abound and my prayer is that Bengal politicians should draw lessons form history. I am absolutely confident that a Bengali will be at home in Gorkhaland as a Gorkha will be in Bengal as has been for a Sardar in Haryana or a Jat in Punjab. The exercise is basically to give an identity to a community, race or language, in the form of a separate homeland.

I seriously empathized with one of my good friend, a Bengali from Cachar in Assam, who used to feel isolated, violated and insulted, for his community was an absolute minority with Cachar and its Bengali population like an island surrounded by non-Bengalis. I would request my Bengali friends to co-relate the plight of the Cachar Bengalis in Assam to the dilemma of the Gorkhas and tribal people in West Bengal and then fashion one’s opinion.

One is naturally inclined to believe, and even entirely agree, that Bengal has always been above fair and square with the hills but the present Chief Minister himself is on record commenting that enough had not been done, a statement that comes after 61 years of independence of India and 73 years after the creation of Bengal Legislative Assembly. It is therefore not surprising that numerous Bengali intellectuals are openly espousing Gorkhaland and that is so because history is their testimony, not misplaced sentiment, undue pride or jingoistic political fuss. Of course some confrontational groups of Bengalis and a few politicians do share a different opinion, and the former has over-reacted occasionally and the latter harps on non-acceptance of another partition, but in the end history and reality have to be respected, agreed upon and accepted. No where in India has a community ever had such a profound and protracted struggle like the toil, effort and endeavour for a homeland and I for one believe that an amicable separation is any day better than a rancorous and a bitter divorce.

The story of a struggle for a creation of a separate homeland unfolds in 1907, in the last century, and even continues to the present one. As a non-political observer I find it amazing that despite the Bengali politicians generally being highly cultured, refined, well-educated and staunch believers in human dignity and rights to self determination feels no embarrassment in retaining Darjeeling and the Dooars as parts of West Bengal.

1907: The FIRST DEMAND for a Separate Homeland

Following the division of Bengal the Darjeeling district was put under Bhagalpur Division in Bihar. This did not solve the problem for us because even in Bihar we were still a wretched minority. 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 hillmen would be an ineffective minority amongst the teeming millions of plainsmen. Furthermore, educationally or financially the hillmen were no match against the plainsmen who had established colleges, universities and commercial industries.

Then came the news of the Morley-Minto Reforms (1909)^[1] which promised constitutional changes and some voice to the Indians in deciding public matters. This must have appeared like a small light at the end of the tunnel and so two years before (1907) the actual reforms came into practice the “leaders of the Hill people” submitted to the government a joint petition on behalf of the Bhutias, Lepchas, and Nepalis demanding a “separate administrative set-up” outside the influence of Bengal. At that period of time, most of the new states that have come up in the past decade or two, had not even been conceptualized, let alone demanded or struggled for.

Nothing materialized out of the 1907 petition and it could be called a failure except for the fact that it was for the first time the three major communities had come under one umbrella, united for a common cause, to seek a homeland of their own. Despite the government’s indifference the year in history did not draw a total blank for Kurseong and Siliguri obtained municipality status in that year.

1917: The SECOND DEMAND for a Separate Homeland

After a gap of ten years on 5th December, 1917, The Hillmen’s Association petitioned Edwin Montague, the Secretary of State for India that “Darjeeling’s 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.”^[2] This would translate as Darjeeling and the Dooars and it was the first demarcation of the homeland in the minds of our forefathers as far back as 1917. It is of no surprise that the Prant Parishad, 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 (cf. North West Frontier Province) which would include Darjeeling District, Dooars, Assam and NEFA (Arunachal Pradesh). Signatories were S.W. Laden La, Dr. Yensingh Sitling, Khardgabahadur Gurung, Meghbir Singh, Lachman Singh, Narprasad Kumai, and Deonidhi Upadhaya.

1920: The THIRD DEMAND for a Separate Homeland

The Hillmen’s Association once again appealed to Edwin Montague on 11 February 1920. The Ninth Dispatch on Indian Constitutional Reforms had placed the district as a “Backward Tract” but the Association rejected this label as derogatory and also as a camouflage to keep the Hills under Bengal. The Memorial stated, “It appears to us that our case has been somewhat obscured by including the dispatch under “Backward Tracts” and our prayer for separation from Bengal has been misunderstood…We respectfully ask that at the present time, when the question of our political future is being determined, we should be granted the recognized rights of self-determination. We do not wish to be dominated by the people of the plains. We are sure that if we were, we would be swamped by the millions of Bengal and our own people would not get their rightful place in the Government of their own country. …Moreover, if our original proposal be adopted, viz., that the portion of the Jalpaiguri District which (along with the Kalimpong Sub-Division) was annexed from Bhutan in 1865, should be excluded from Jalpaiguri and included in our unit, then, we should have a population about as large as that of New Zealand. ”

1920: The FOURTH DEMAND for a Separate Homeland

In 1920 something strange and unexpected occurred. The Darjeeling Planters’ Association and the European Association of Darjeeling along with the Hillmen’s Association petitioned the government to create an “Excluded Area” comprising of Darjeeling District and the Dooars. Of interest here is that the first two associations’ memberships consisted entirely of Europeans and it becomes apparent that even they felt their interests threatened under the increasing power of native Bengali administrators. The Europeans had huge investments in tea, real estate and hotels and they calculated they would be better protected if the area was administratively detached from Bengal. It is not any great task to imagine the fear and insecurity the hillmen must have endured considering that even the members of the ruling race were worried scared of a continued existence under Bengal. Because of this one joint petition with the British subjects very occasionally some mischievous people try to subject all other later petitions as being influenced by the Darjeeling resident British people. The British were never admitted to any of the hill organizations and they were never taken into confidence nor sought out for guidance or advice, never.

N.B. Statehood for Chattishgarh was first mooted in this year by Rangpur Congress Unit, Thirteen years junior to our demand. The agitation for a state commenced only in the mid-1960s and the first united all party movement came about only in 1990 under Chattishgarh Raj Nirman Manch. In 2000 a new state was born. They were chronologically years behind us but they passed us by because in 1990 all Parties came together including the Congress and the BJP in a bid to create a new state. Maybe there is an important lesson here for our leaders: Chhutay-ra chhuttai rajya paonu garo chha, ektamai hamro jeet chha. A year later in 1921 Thakur Chandansingh (Dehra Doon) formed the Gorkha League,^[3] predominantly consisting of retired Gorkha soldiers. In 1921 Mahatma Gandhi launched the Non-cooperation Movement in which Dalbahadur Giri from Darjeeling and Chhabilal Upadhaya from Assam contributed appreciatively.

1929: The FIFTH DEMAND for a Separate Homeland

The Hillmen’s Association’s demand of 1917 was reiterated once more when Simon Commission visited India in 1929.^[4] This was the year that the First memorandum for a Jharkhand state was placed, junior to our demand by 22 years. In 1947 the All India Jharkhand Party was formed followed by Sonat Santhal Samaj under Shibu Soren in 1969, both junior to out All India Gorkha League by 4 and 26 years respectively. Nothing much happened till when the Maoist Communist Centre once more reiterated the demand in 1971. By this time we had already petitioned the government 18 times. In 1972 Soren formed the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and coincidentally we too have a Mukti Morcha. Jharkhand Area Autonomous Council was conceded to in 1995 but even this was junior to our autonomous Hill Council by 7 years. AND yet Jharkhand became a state in 2000 and we are still languishing even today. If Jharkhand’s famous wicket-keeping son M.S. Dhoni had been born in our hills he would have surely questioned “How’s that?” Yes, how is that possible?

1930: The SIXTH DEMAND for a Separate Homeland

On 25th October 1930 the “Gorkhas settled and domiciled in India” placed before the government a demand for homeland stating, “Darjeeling, where the Gorkha population predominate, should be excluded from Bengal and treated as an independent administrative unit, with the Deputy Commissioner as the Administrator, vested with much more powers than that of a District Magistrate, and assisted by a small Executive Council, representative of all the interests in the administration of the area.”^[5] Signatories: Rai Saheb H.P. Pradhan (President, Hillmen’s Association, Kalimpong), Lt. Gobardhan Gurung (President, Gorkha Army Officers’ Association), P.M. Sundas (Secretary, Gorkha Library, Kurseong), N.B. Gurung (Secretary, Hillmen’s Association, Kalimpong) and P.P. Pradhan (Secretary, Hillmens Association, Darjeeling).

1934: The SEVENTH DEMAND for a Separate Homeland

The Hillmen’s Association had pleaded for a separate homeland five times and each time the government had failed to respond positively. So on 6th August 1934 the Hillmen’s Association once more submitted a memorial to Sir Samuel Hoare, Secretary of State for India which stated: “No consideration had been given to the hill peoples” (this is in reference to the previous appeals) “…whereas all minority communities in India had received due consideration of their claims …your memorialists emphatically urge that the District of Darjeeling should be totally excluded from Bengal by the creation of an Independent Administrative Unit with an Administrator the Head of the Area assisted by an Executive Council … the area should be placed directly under the Central Government, the Governor of Bengal acting as the Agent to the Governor-General.”^[6] The signatories to the memorial were S.W. Laden La, Lt. Gobardhan Gurung, and Madan Thapa.

1935: The EIGHTH DEMAND for a Separate Homeland

Rupnarayan Sinha appealed to The Bengal Government in 1935, on behalf of the Hillmen’s Association, and opposed the 1915 Act, as did almost every responsible Indian. But Sinha went a step further and he even added a demand for the creation of a Separate Homeland.

1937: The NINTH DEMAND for a Separate Homeland

Rai Saheb Hari Prasad Pradhan, the former President of the Hillmens Association (Kalimpong Unit), indirectly appealed to the government that the hills should be separated from Bengal.^[7] “The Hill people as a minority in the Province under the new Constitution have not failed to realize the drawbacks and disadvantages of the present arrangement and they are now apprehensive that their social solidarity and their existence as a community is being threatened with serious disruption owing to various factors coming into play chiefly by the realization by many of them that the hill people’s welfare is now dependent on the exigencies to party politics in the Bengal Assembly and their utter helplessness to make their voice heard.” How very prophetic!

1941: The TENTH DEMAND for a Separate Homeland

There are some people who claim that up till now the hill people had only resorted to petitioning, or paper pushing, and the absence of any aggressive move had stalled the creation of a homeland. The opposite opinion is that there were no political parties till then and in the absence of any political organization the best that could be done was to place repeated petitions before the government. When the 1940s came the emergence of political parties also became a reality and the disintegration of the Hillmen’s Association became imminent. The Association made its last appeal in 1941 with a petition to Lord Pethik Lawrence, Secretary of State for India, for a creation of a separate Chief Commissioner’s Province.

Two years later, 1943, the All India Gorkha League was formed by Dambarsingh Gurung. 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.

1944: The ELEVENTH DEMAND for a Separate Homeland

There is a little known story of the next plea for a homeland and this was not addressed to the British government, despite India not having attained independence then. In Bhagirath Rawat’s Matoko Maya, 1982, page 32, we learn that when Mahatma Gandhi and M.M. Jinah came to Darjeeling, a deputation had met them and had demanded that the hills be separately treated else the hillmen would suffer in the fields of security and development. It appears that our forefathers had the common sense to realize who the next masters were going to be. The approach was correct but as in the previous cases the response was nothing short of indifference. In the following year (1945) the communists dissociated themselves from the AIGL. In this year the AIGL mouthpiece, a periodical called Gorkha mooted the idea of ‘Gorkhastan’ (Year 1, issue 12).

1947: The TWELFTH DEMAND for a Separate Homeland

In 1947 India was to become an independent nation but the hill people were far from being locally independent. In this year of our national independence the Communist Party of India (Darjeeling District Committee) made one of the most preposterous demands ever made by Communists. The Communist Party of India (Darjeeling District Committee) tendered a Memorandum to the Constituent Assembly (6 April 1947), addressed to Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (Vice-President of the Interim Government of India) and Liaquat Ali Khan (Finance Minister of the Interim Government of India and leader of Muslim League). The memorandum stated: “The Communist Party of India…demand, after making necessary revisions of the existing boundaries, the three contiguous areas of Darjeeling District, Southern Sikkim, and Nepal be formed into one single zone to be called ‘GORKHASTAN’.” Since Gorkhastan is not designated as a country it would technically fall under India. It sounds all very well but not when it comes out of the mouths of die-hard communists. The thought of robbing Sikkim of all its fertile lands and fleecing Nepal of its sovereignty is quite incomprehensible. The whole idea reeks of colonialism. Had the brainstorm come from capitalists, imperialists, and the bourgeois beasts it would have been understandable but what is even more surprising is that not a single enlightened communist criticized the memorandum. Whatever be the merit or demerit of the demand one can safely say that this was another demand for a separate homelamd. This was a period when the All India Gorkha League could have also voiced a demand for a separate homeland and with its huge following, possibly also uniting with the Communists, a strong point could have been made. It is unfortunate that the AIGL leadership was too busy with lesser causes to have a vision of the greater goal.

Even in those days the politicians had their own axe to grind but our litterateurs also proved to be no less and they commenced the verbal war of Gorkha versus Nepali. After decades it has settled to the language being designated Nepali and the community as Gorkha.

1948: The THIRTEENTH DEMAND for a Separate Homeland (1948)

After the death of Dambar Singh Gurung a shift in the thinking of the AIGL could be noticed. The new President of the All India Gorkha League, Nar Bahadur Gurung, wrote to the Prime Minister Pandit Nehru proposing three alternatives in regard to a separate homeland:

1. A Separate Administrative Unit under the Central Government.

2. A Separate Province comprising of Darjeeling district and neighbouring areas.

3. The district of Darjeeling with the Dooars be included in Assam

In this year the Territory of North East Frontier Agency (later Arunachal Pradesh) was formed and was placed under the administration of the Union Government. In 1972 it was declared a Union Territory and on February 20, 1987, it became a full-fledged state. It did not require dozens of petitions, years of peaceful struggle, violent agitation or a no non-cooperation movement for this to materialize. In this same year (15 April) Himachal Pradesh was declared a Centrally Administered territory and despite the State Reorganization Committee’s strong recommendation that Himachal Pradesh be merged with Punjab it still became a new state on 25 January 1971.

1949: The FOURTEENTH DEMAND for a Separate Homeland

The Deputy Foreign Minister while on a visit to Sikkim was met by a delegation of the All India Gorkha League and a demand replacing the above one was made where a state consisting of the district of Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Sikkim and Cooch Behar was suggested.

Post our independence the creation of a separate homeland became virtually impossible for amongst the policy makers was the tough man Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the first Deputy Prime Minister, who held very strong and racial views against us and our likes. His letter to Pandit Nehru, dated 7th July 1950 is quite unbelievable and racially slurred:

“All along the Himalayas in the north and northeast, we have on our side of the frontier, a population ethnologically and culturally different from Tibetans or Mongoloids. The undefined state of the frontier and existence on our side of a population with its affinities to Tibetans or Chinese have all the elements of potential trouble between China and ourselves…

Let us consider the political conditions on this potential troublesome frontier. Our northern or northeastern approaches consists of Nepal, Sikkim, Darjeeling and the Tribal areas of Assam. …The contact of these areas with us, is by no means, close and intimate. The people inhabiting these portions have no established loyalty or devotion to India. Even Darjeeling and Kalimpong areas are not free from pro-Mongoloid prejudices.” (Emphasis added)

Can any leader say the same today?

1949: The FIFTEENTH DEMAND for a Separate Homeland

With the misguided and prejudiced opinion of the second most powerful man in the nation what hopes could be entertained for a separate homeland! It is reasonable to presume a bit of that evil legacy still lingers on in Kolkata and New Delhi. Anyway, unknown of the above letter and the distrust nursed in the highest quarters of the country our ancestors kept on appealing and a fresh petition was submitted to the one person who would have never agreed to the demand, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

On 30th October 1949 various leaders of Darjeeling, Sikkim, Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar met in Darjeeling and formed a bloc known as Uttar Khand Pradesh Sangh. This Sangh submitted a petition to Sardar Vallabhai Patel, pleading for the creation of a new state comprising of Darjeeling district, Sikkim, Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar and Goalpara of Assam. With Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel firmly entrenched in Delhi what could be a better example of barking up the wrong tree. As expected, Sardar Patel opposed this demand tooth and nail and the movement lost its wind un the face of such a strong opposition.

1949: The SIXTEENTH DEMAND for a Separate Homeland

Towards the end of the October of 1949 Dr. B.V. Keskar, the Deputy Foreign Minister, was in Sikkim, and the All India Gorkha League suggested that in an laternative to an earlier proposal to join Darjeeling to Assam a separate Province could be created with the District of Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Sikkim and Cooch Behar.

1952: The SEVENTEENTH DEMAND for a Separate Homeland

Prime Minister Pandit Nehru came to Darjeeling in 1952 and when he was in Kalimpong to visit the famous Dr. Graham’s Homes he was presented with an appeal by the All India Gorkha League seeking the formation of a North East Frontier Province.

Note: 1952 was the year when the FIRST demand for a statehood came up for Uttaranchal, a late starter by 45 years, we were already on our sixteenth demand for our own state. The first practical political party in the proposed Uttarkhand (Uttaranchal) came up only in 1979 (Uttarkhand Kranti Dal), 36 years younger to AIGL, and yet it was awarded statehood in 2000. In less than 50 years it became a state (the Congress and BJP gave support with the latter asking a name change to Uttaranchal) and Gorkhaland with a history of over a hundred years is yet to see the end of the tunnel. Sardar Patel was no more around to scuttle the proposal, so where did we go wrong?

1955: The EIGHTEENTH DEMAND for a Separate Homeland

In 1953, 11 districts of Madras State were joined to form Andhra Pradesh. Two years later in 1955 the hills were fortunate to have the Chairman of the State Reorganization Committee on a visit to Darjeeling. The District Shramik Sangh submitted to him a memorandum where the President of the Sangh, Shri Daulatdas Bokhim stated that, “The Kochayas, Meches, Lepchas, Bhutias, Nepalis and Rajbanshis are the original inhabitants of this district whose customs,systems and traditions fundamentally differ from that of the rest of West Bengal. …I put forward this profound demand of the creation of a part ‘C’ State of North Bengal inclusive of Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar districts…” The final outcome, a year later, was negative for the hills but for Andhra Pradesh the SRC recommended the addition of 9 districts of the former Nizam’s dominions and it was made a full-fledged state with Hyderbad as the capital. Madhya Pradesh also came into existence in the same year.

1955: The NINETEENTH DEMAND for a Separate Homeland

It might be added here that up till now petitions/demands were put up by single organization or a single political party. In 1855 a more united forum placed an appeal before the State Reorganization Committee on behalf of the All Committee District Organization. The Secretary, Shri S.B. Ghosh, defined the areas of the new state to include Darjeeling district, Sikkim, Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar.

1980: The TWENTIETH DEMAND for a Separate Homeland

There is a period of relative inactivity as far as the demand for a state is concerned. It was a period when the All India Gorkha League dominated hill politics and the party was virtually an instrument of Deo Prakash Rai’s calls. Furthermore, the agitation for the recognition of the Nepali language seems to have sapped some of the energy and interest. There were also attention-diverting offers or suggestions like Autonomous Area, Regional Autonomy, Autonomous Administrative Set-Up etc.

But while all these were going on Nagaland became a state in 1961 and Meghalaya in 1972. In the background there were regrouping of forces and about the most active was the Prant Morcha (previously Prantiya Sanstha and in future Prant Parishad). Having garnered good support amongst the people it telegrammed the Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi: “Our long felt demand for a separate State Gorkhaland be carved out as soon as possible. Separate State only solution. We welcome our people from Assam to our own State Gorkhaland but not to be deported in other States. Gorkhaland always salutes to the national and your leadership.” Dated 23 April 1980.

1981: The TWENTY-FIRST DEMAND for a Separate Homeland

Now not to be outdone, the AIGL suddenly revived its old demand after a hibernation of 29 long years. The All India Gorkha League stated to Shri Zail Singh, Home Minister, during his visit to Darjeeling, that it “is very much relevant in our demand to get a Separate Statehood outside West Bengal to ensure administrative efficiency and convenience and coordination of economic development and welfare activities for this region.” This memorandum also included the causes leading to the increasing law and order problems, deforestation, neglected development and the need to include Nepali language in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution.

1982: The TWENTY-SECOND DEMAND for a Separate Homeland

By the time the 1980s were ushered in Prant Parishad was losing its appeal to the Gorkha National Liberation Front and eventually when the latter got the upper hand the Prant Parishad leaders were slighted, abused and threatened. Despite winds of popular support blowing in GNLF’s direction the President of the Prant Parishad, Shri Indrabahadur Rai, wrote to the Home Minister Shri Zail Singh, demanding a full fledged state: “We demand the formation of the State of Darjeeling comprising of the Nepali speaking regions North Bengal i.e., the Nepali speaking areas of the Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts.

…The Darjeeling Prant Parishad is of the opinion that nothing short of full-fledged statehood for Darjeeling and no other administrative scheme will ultimately found to be workable.” Dated 4the January 1982. Thus the 21st demand came to a close and soon Prant Parishad too was to become a closed chapter in the history of a search for a separate homeland.

1986: The TWENTY-THIRD DEMAND for a Separate Homeland

A widespread allegation was circulating in West Bengal, and not without truth, that the movement led by the GNLF had only hearts but no brains, since Subhash Ghising refused to take assistance of intellectuals and professionals. At this juncture, the more cerebral gentry of Darjeeling, calling themselves “educated and the professional hill people” petitioned the Prime Minister, Shri Rajiv Gandhi. These concerned people had come together as “Study Forum” and had such eminent people like Advocate B.K. Pradhan, Advocate Bal Dewan, Advocate Uttam Pradhan, Advocate D.K. Pradhan, Publisher-Printer Uday Mani Pradhan, MBA, Dr. Pinto C. Lama, Prof. Amar Rai, Prof. L.B. Rai, Prof. T.B. Chhetri, Sanitation expert Shri Gagan Gurung, internationally acclaimed bakery owner Shri J.B. Edwards, including social workers and luminaries like Shri Enos Das Pradhan, Shri Lee Pradhan, Shri L.B. Rai, Shri Ratan Mothey, and Shri Deep Waiba. Their petition of 31st August 1986 is a long document but just one paragraph will be quoted which more or less sums up the whole: “The demand is an expression of the belief in the best democratic tradition that the right to a state within the Indian Union is an inalienable right. It is therefore not a matter of acceding to the demand condescendingly but giving what is rightfully ours.”

This petition slightly blunted the allegations mentioned above but I have a strong feeling that the intelligentsia was doing this more for the love of the land than any respect or affection for the leader, Subhash Ghising. By now the hills were gripped with violence. For 85 years the hillmen had tolerantly accepted one rejection after another. The highlanders had endured police firing at Rohini Tea Garden (1949), another firing at Magaret’s Hope Tea Estate (1955), evictions at Rangli-Rangliot Tea Estate, and even the uncalled for killing of 6 people at Kurseong on 25th May 1986. Patience and tolerance was stretched taut and it just needed one more needless provocation and matters would come to a head. On 27 July 1986 the whole district took part in burning the Indo-Nepal Treaty of 1950. No one quite sees anything illegal in a simple act as burning of a Treaty but the administration responded by meeting the demonstrators with a hail of bullets in Kalimpong leaving behind 13 dead and about 50 injured. The hills erupted.

1986 The TWENTY-FOURTH DEMAND for a Separate Homeland

I would like to include the entire movement, but more specifically the record-shattering 40 days continuous strike as well as the huge list of martyrs, under the GNLF, as the TWENTY-FOURTH demand for a separate homeland. The importance of the whole exercise is that it now became violence for violence and most of the time it was difficult to point out who initiated the carnage. It proved to West Bengal and to the Centre that the highlanders were capable of extreme violence too. The hillmen claim 1200 of them were martyred and what can be a stronger, a more emphatic demand than hundreds of people sacrificing their lives for a separate homeland.

This demand and movement eventually fell victim to an agreement that resulted in Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council. Subhas Ghising agreed to ‘drop’ the demand for a homeland. The clarion call from Subhas Ghising had been “Do or Die” and the final outcome was Ghising did not ‘do’ and many people did ‘die’. All these years the Central Government and the State Government had disappointed the hills and there was now someone within to disappoint the highlanders. No wonder the West Bengal government always treated Subhas Ghising with velvet gloves.

1986: The TWENTY-FIFTH DEMAND for a Separate Homeland

West Bengal Assembly elections had just been completed on 23rd March 1987 and the hills had unanimously registered support for Gorkhaland by sending back empty ballot boxes: 129 empty boxes out of 154 in Darjeeling constituency, 147 empty out of 156 in Kalimpong, 151 empty out of 170 in Kurseong, 151 empty out of 170 in Mirik and even Dooars sent 10 empty ballot boxes. On 13th March 1987 the GNLF wrote to the Home Minister, Shri Buta Singh, that this was as good as a referendum in favour of a state outside West Bengal and demanded “a separate State of Gorkhaland within the framework of the Indian Constitution.” A copy of the demand was also dispatched to the Prime Minister, Shri Rajiv Gandhi. What could have been a more emphatic non-violent protest and demand than this! Nevertheless, the state and the Centre remained unmoved.

The question on everyone’s mind was when will a full-scale and no-holds-barred agitation commence since sporadic acts of violence were being reported from different parts of the district.

The TWENTY-SIXTH DEMAND for a Separate Homeland

The ongoing demand for a separate homeland under the banner of Gorkha Jana Mukti Morcha and the leadership of Shri Bimal Gurung has now become the TWENTY-SIXTH DEMAND for a Separate Homeland. So far it has ducked off any major violent move, despite the occasional provocations, and if this brings about the desired results all the better for us and for West Bengal.

The TWENTY-SEVENTH DEMAND for a Separate Homeland

We hope it will not come to this but…

[1] The Morley-Minto Reforms of 1909: The most important change in the Morley-Minto Reforms was the provision that qualified Indians would have a greater voice in deciding public questions. Thus one seat in the Governor-General’s Executive Council was reserved for an Indian member (Satyendra Prasanna Sinha, later Lord Sinha of Raipur, was appointed Law Member of the Governor-General’s Council, the first Indian to be so honoured.) The number of members in the Central Legislature was raised from sixteen to sixty and in the Provincial Legislative Councils the number of members was raised to fifty in the major provinces. The non-nominated members were to be elected by groups of local bodies, landholders, trade associations and universities. Darjeeling district and Dooars did not fit into any of these categories.

[7] The Act of 1935 proposed Provincial Autonomy. It also created Sind, separating it from Bombay and Orissa Presidencies, Burma was separated from British India and Aden also ceased to be a part of India.

Dear Readers,

Dr. Sonam Wangyal gave a presentation in the seminar organized by the Kurseong chapter of the Gorkha Janamukti Secondary Teachers’ Association on 12th July 2008. He has been kind enough to share this paper with us.

In this paper Dr. Wangyal has researched and studied our history like no one has done before, and has presented his exceptional findings in his inimitable story telling style.

This is priceless… A treasure trove of historical information, facts and analyses presented to us in this most user-friendly, accessible and approachable manner.

This is a must read for everyone.

Thank you Dr. Wangyal,

-Admin

p.s. I have taken the liberty of (roughly) translating some of Dr. Wangyal’s Nepali text, where it may appear necessary, for the benefit of our non-nepali speaking readership.

History of Darjeeling

Paper read on 12th July 2008 in the seminar organized by Gorkha Janamukti Secondary Teachers Association, Kurseong Chapter, At Gorkha Library

-Dr. Sonam B Wangyal

Namastay, Nomoshkar, Khamri, Kuzo-zangbo, Tashi Deleg and Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to express my hearty congratulations to the members of the Gorkha Janamukti Secondary Teachers’ Association for holding this seminar and inviting me to say a few words.

I will be reading this paper in English, not because I cannot read, write or speak in Nepali but because I can do it better in English. Ho, Nepalima yo paper parayko bha ajja mitho ra suwaudo hunay thiyo. Ma chhama chanhanchhu. Tara yuddama jasari jun hatiyar chalaunu subista hunchha tyahi chainchha yaha malai Angrezi mero subhistako hatiyaar ho jasto laagchha. (Yes, it would have been more appropriate and sweeter if this paper was read in Nepali. My apologies. But in war, it is necessary to wield the most apt of weapons, and I feel that for me English is that weapon.) When I was a schoolboy about 40 years ago my school Dr. Graham’s Homes, Kalimpong, did not have a Nepali Master. It was in my Senior Cambridge year that Mr Loben Lama was appointed to that post. So with just one solitary single year of Nepali classes I sat for the Senior Cambridge in 1968. My answer script was a total disaster, khatam bhanda pani khatam thiyo, but when the results came: I had passed with the skin of my tooth: junday ra pass bhayechha, actually examinerko daya amayalay malai pass garai diyekoho jasto laagchha (Actually it was probably due to the kind heartedness of the examiner that I passed). So that is my Nepali education, and now at this age I am learning the finer nuances of the language, the basics of grammar and I hope in a year or two things will change.

My paper relates to the history of Darjeeling but it will not touch on the tea and cinchona industries, it will avoid development of education, local self government and I will not even touch upon the thirteen or fourteen times we have petitioned for a homeland of their own. But before I commence I would just like to state that 1907 petition for a separate homeland is the oldest, the senior-most of its kind in India. Ek saya barsa katyo, tyo demandko chhora-chhori, naati, panatiharulay pani statehood paisakyo tara hami aaja pani banchit chou (A hundred years have passed, and statehood has been achieved by demand that came generations and generations after our original demand, but we are still left wanting). Anyway this paper will keep track of the early history of Darjeeling, its incorporation into the East India Company or the British Empire and the paper will end at when Darjeeling is joined to Bengal.

(1) THE THREE COMMUNITIES: BHUTIAS, GORKHAS & LEPCHAS

The history of Darjeeling has intimate relationship, nang ra masuko jasto, to the history of Sikkim, Nepal, Bhutan, and the East India Company and thereby to Britain. It will be appropriate to start from Kharsang for it was here that Maharajah Thodup Namgyal and Maharani Yeshay Dolma were imprisoned. jailed, locked up by the British and it was here that they wrote a historical book on Sikkim. It was translated into English by Kazi Daosamdup and he called it History of Sikkim. I have a copy of this rare document and therefore I will be extensively, freely and purposely quoting from it. In the manuscript the boundaries of Sikkim is defined as follows: “They were Dibdala in the North, Shingsa Dag-pay, Walung, Yangmak, Khangchen, Yarlung and Timar Chorten in the West, down along Arun and Dud Kosi Rivers, down to Maha Nodi, Nuxalbari, Titalia in the South. On the East Tagong La, and Tang La on the North.” These boundaries were defined after the enthronement, coronation, the appointment of the first Chogyal of Sikkim, Phuntshog Namgyal, 1642 CE. The first things the new ruler did was to construct forts called dzongs which operated as the military and administrative units. To these dzongs he appointed dzongpens, or fort masters, the local administrators or chiefs and they were all Lepchas, thus the Lepchas were appeased, made happy, made content. But that left out the Limbus and the Magars. The Magars staunchly resisted Bhutia incursion and political domination, and they actually went to war against the new rulers. The fact that the Magars were pretty well organized can be assessed from the forts they built which the ruling community in Sikkim called them Magar-dzongs. Eventually, the Magars lost and a large part of them got pushed westwards. As far as the Limbus were concerned the Chogyal made a pact called Lho-mon-tsong-sum (lho-Bhutias, mon-Lepchas, tsong-Limbus, and sum-three), thus giving us the Bhutia-Lepcha-Limbu trinity.

Now what importance this patch of history has for us vis-à-vis the present political scenario!
(1) The boundaries demarcated clearly shows that Darjeeling, Kharsang, Kalimpong and Siliguri were all in Sikkim and that the kingdom stretched all the way to Purnea in the south.
(2) The Gorkha population was in sufficient numbers to wage a war against Sikkim, as in the case of Magars, and large enough for the Chogyal to seek allegiance (Lho-mon-tsong-sum), as in the case of the Limbus.
And
(3) This is the most significant of the points mentioned so far: that the Maharajah’s History of Sikkim makes it absolutely certain that the Gorkhas were in the region even before the creation of Sikkim yaneki Sikkimko shristi, janma, sthapana bhanda dherai aghi dekhi nai hamro paharma Gorkhaharu thiyay.

(2) SIKKIM LOSES KALIMPONG

Tensung Namgyal became the next Chogyal (1670). Most historians, looking for wars, coups, assassinations, and political intrigues insult and degrade his reign claiming nothing important or interesting happened. Actually something very important had happened. He married three times. History of Sikkim states that his first wife, Nambi Ongmu, was from Bhutan, and she gave birth to a daughter, Pande Ongmu. The second was from Tibet and she gave birth to a son, Chagdor Namgyal. The third Rani was the daughter of a Limbu chief named Yong-Yong Hang. The royal History also says that along with the daughter of Yong-Yong Hang seven other Limbu ladies got married to “highest kazis and ministers of Sikkim.” When Tensung Namgyal died the daughter of the Bhutanese Rani staked her claim to the Sikkim gaddhi (throne), after all, the male contender, Chagdor Namgyal, was a minor and she was an adult besides she was also the child of the first queen. The princess sought the help of the Bhutanese who willingly obliged. Pande Ongmuko gaddhiko loblay garda Bhutanlay auta sunowlo mouka paayay. Ani Dukpaharu Sikkim pasay. Balak raja ra mantriharu jyan bachuna Bhot tira suikucha thokay (Because of Pande Ongmu’s greed for the throne Bhutan got a golden opportunity and entered Sikkim. The child-king and his ministers escaped to Tibet in fear of their lives). In 1707 the Bhutanese withdrew but retained all Sikkimese territories to the east of the Tista River whereby our present day Kalimpong became a part of Bhutan.

Now let us go back to this portion of the history.
(1) Tensung Namgyal by marrying daughters of important people indirectly purchased peace for Sikkim, after all uttarpatti haray ta Bhotko juwai sahib, paschim tira haray ta Limbu haruko juwai, ani Purba haray ta Bhutan ko juwai. Sikkimlai kaslay chai akraman garnay. So, kinachai Sikkimma shanty na hunu ra. (To the north, Tibetan in-laws; to the west, Limbu in-laws; to the east, Bhutanese in-laws. Who would dare attack Sikkim? And hence the peace in Sikkim). Taraipani (Nonetheless) it is ironic that historians still ignore and even refuse to give him credit for winning …. peace.
(2) It is said that too many cooks spoil the broth and Maharaha Tensung had two wives too many and Sikkim paid for it dearly.
(3) It is most probable that Limbus were not too happy with the prevailing sutuation, despite the lho-mon-tsong-sum pact. Therefore besides making a Limbuni a Rani of Sikkim seven other ladies were also taken as wives by highest kazis and ministers of Sikkim.
And finally,
(4) Most people think that Kalimpong originally belonged to Bhutan but we now know that it was originally a part of Sikkim. Chotkarima, Kalaybung Sikkim bata Bhutanlay gavayko ani Bhutan bata Angrejlay pach pareko ho (Bhutan took Kalimpong from Sikkim, and subsequently the British took Kalimpong from Bhutan).

(3) ANGLO-NEPAL WAR

Now we move on to the 6th Chogyal, Tenzing Namgyal who ascended the Sikkimese throne in 1780. His reign was punctuated, interrupted and disturbed with skirmishes and battles with the Gorkhas. Then there was a period of lull and quiet and the Gorkhas used this period of calm and peace to launch a surprise attack. Sikkimese were completely taken aback by the sudden shock raids. Purna Ale led a group of Gorkhas who came through Ilam and penetrated as far as Reling, Karmi, and Chakung (1788). Another Gorkha force under the command of Johar Singh stealthily advanced through the Singalila and in a complete surprise swoop took over the palace at Rabdentse: Yaspali pani Raja, praja ani mantriharulay taap kasay, tara Bhot tira hoina, kholsa, orar, gufa, khola-nadiko bagar ani junglema sharan lina pugay. History of Sikkim mentions, “Thus the Gurkhas remained masters of Sikkim, beyond the Teesta, while the Raja took flight and all Sikkimites were compelled to take refuge in the valleys of the rivers, hills and caves, suffering privations and hardship.” In 1790 Chogyal left his hiding and went to Tibet where he died three years later, and a boy of 12 years, Tsugphud Namgyal, was proclaimed the new Maharaja. It was during Tsugphud’s kingship that the Anglo-Nepal war broke out. The British eventually challenged the Gorkhas through a five pronged attack and Sikkim sided with the British.

We must pause here to reflect on a few points.
(1) Prithwinarayan Shah never wanted to attack Sikkim for the fear it might open up a fresh frontier of war with Tibet. However, the 1788 Gorkha move to penetrate deep into Sikkim signifies that the Gorkhas had grown confident enough to handle Sikkim and withstand a Tibetan attack.
(2) The Gorkhas did not bother the Sikkimese hiding in the ravines, jungles and caves as long as the strategic posts like Rabdentse, Dorje-ling and Na-gri were secure.
(3) Alliance with the British was the only hope for the Sikkim ruler to regain his lost territories and so he sided with the British. At the same time the British accepted Sikkim’s gesture because (a) in the five-pronged British attack the eastern front was the weakest and Sikkim’s assistance would offset that disadvantage to some extent. (b) With Sikkim as an ally any future alliance/intrigues between Nepal and Bhutan could be checked. And (c) It promised a possibility of trade with Tibet through Sikkim. After all East India Company was a trading company, the biggest ever in history.

(4) DISCOVERY OF DARJEELING

After the war the British restored to the Sikkim Maharaja the lands between Mechi and Tista Rivers through the treaty of Titalya. This treaty has nine functional Articles and the tenth one is just a protocol fulfillment. The first and the last operative or functional articles talk about restoring to Sikkim in ­full sovereignty and of the Company’s guarantee to the Raja and his successors the full and peaceable possession of the tract. Each and every other Article in between took away from Sikkim, piece by piece, the basic entitlements of sovereignty, independence and freedom to function as an absolute nation. What became important to Darjeeling’s history was Article Three which required, stipulated and stated that Sikkim was “to refer to the arbitration of the British Government any dispute or questions that may arise between his (i.e. Chogyal’s) subjects and those of Nepal, or any other neighbouring State, and to abide by the decision of the British Government.” This Article Three became operational when the Chogyal asked the East India Company to arbitrate on the Ontoo Dara dispute because both Sikkim and Nepal claimed the dara as its own. So as per the stipulation of Article Three Captain George Alymer Lloyd and J. W. Grant, the Commercial resident at Malda, were deputed to investigate and resolve the matter. It was on the journey to Ontoo Dara that the two men, in February 1829, stayed at Darjeeling for six days at “the old Goorka station called Dorjeling” and were “much impressed with the possibility of the station as a sanatarium.” On 18 June 1829 Lloyd communicated to the government regarding the possibility of Darjeeling serving as a sanatarium while about the same time Grant also urged the government to possess the tract.

Now reflecting upon this chapter of history we note the following
(1) The British kept their word and gave back to the Chogyal the lands between Mechi and Tista rivers.
(2) This transfer of land was effected through the Treaty of Titalya in which the beginning and the end of the treaty were sugarcoated to make the Sikkimese happy. In between the British squeezed out much more than what they had given. Angrejlay gulchay khaylyo (The British did not play fair).
And finally,
(3) A future Hill Station had been discovered by Lloyd and Grant and that hill station was called Dorje-ling and later as Darjeeling.

(5) DARJEELING BECOMES PART OF BRITISH INDIA

Lord William Bentinck, in June of 1830, proposed to commence negotiation with the Chogyal but this and another subsequent attempt were both struck down, stopped, by Sir C. Metcalfe, a Member of the Supreme Council, on the grounds that the neighbours might look at it with suspicion. Bentinck waited for almost four years and then ordered Major Lloyd to meet the Chogyal and negotiate the cession of Darjeeling “offering such equivalent either in land or money.” To cut short the story Lloyd conveyed the Governor-General’s message while the Chogyal placed three conditions viz (i) The Chogyal would quote a price and that should be paid, (ii) Sikkims border would be extended and (iii) Kummoo Pradhan, the tax collector who had fled to Nepal would be brought to Sikkim for execution of justice. What happened in between is rather vague but in a later meeting the Chogyal gave a short deed of grant. Since it did not define the boundaries of the land to be handed over, Lloyd produced his own deed on which the king stamped his lal mohar (Royal Seal). The area defined in this deed became known as the Darjeeling tract and the British claimed it as their new asset. They were under the impression that the grant was unconditional but the Chogyal kept on complaining/ that he had not been compensated, in other words the grant was conditional. It might interest this august house to know that the original negotiation was to be only for the area of present-day Darjeeling town, i.e. the Observatory Hill and the surroundings, but in the stamped deed the area was, about 30 miles long from top to bottom and about six to ten miles along the sides. Now, when the sahibs began building roads and houses the Chogyal began to protest, and with the progress of development the protests grew stronger and louder. Eventually when the Company realized that the Chogyal had been wronged they sent a compensation consisting of:

One double-barrelled gun, a rifle, 20 yards of red broad cloth and two shawls.

Yeshlai bhancha asal helchyakrai: besharam Angrejlay andaaz 240 barga mile jaminko sattako laagi duiwata bundook, ek than luga ani duiwata shawl kun hisablay diyeko hola. Yo hamilay Gorkhaland mangda DGHC diyeko jastai ho, abha aeuta “Chhakka” Schedule pani dinchhu bhandaichha. (This is the real injustice. By which calculation did the English exchange approximately 240 sq. miles of land for two guns, some cloth and two shawls. This is like getting DGHC when demanding Gorkhaland, and now they say they’ll give us the Sixth Schedule as well) The Chogyal’s pleadings for a just compensation now grew even louder. Eventually the Sikkim ruler threw a devastating bomb, in the form of a letter, to Campbell, who had now taken over from Lloyd as the First Superintendent of the Darjeeling tract. The letter still exists and it claimed in no uncertain words that his three conditions had been accepted by Lloyd. The following is a part of the letter: “Lloyd promised that whatever money I should desire in return should be granted, that my territory should be extended the west to the Tambar River; that Kummoo Pradhan and his brother be delivered to me; and that the deficit in my revenue in their hands should be made good.” The East India Company hurriedly offered a compensation of Rs 3,000 per annum which the ruler accepted with certain amount of displeasure. Nevertheless, the British now knew that the deed that they possessed, and the land they had acquired, were suspect, subject to questioning or of doubtful legality and that history would not treat it kindly. Another important fact that they realized was that the tract granted by the Maharaja was totally surrounded by Sikkimese territory and the approach road they were making was illegal because it went through Sikkim. The Chogyal could technically prohibit the British to make the road or even disallow them to pass through his Sikkim. Now with a suspect deed of grant and access to Darjeeling being only through Sikkimese soil the situation was not good at all. Something had to be done.

In examining the just mentioned episodes we find that:
(1) The deed of grant of Darjeeling could not become operative since the British had not met the conditions laid down by the Chogyal. Meet garnu saknay awastha panita thiyayna. Kummo Pradhan Nepalma guhar liyayra basako thiyo ani Angrez-Nepal majha kunai extradition treaty thiyayna. Chogyallay Sikkimko simana Tambar kholasamma baraidinay dawa rakheko thiyo tara tyo chhetra Sugauli Sandhima Nepallai deisakeko thiyo. (They were in no condition to meet the conditions. Kummo Pradhan had taken refuge in Nepal, and there was no extradition treaty between the British and Nepal. The Sikkim Chogyal had demanded the extension of Sikkim;s border till Tambar River, but that area had already been given to Nepal with the Sugauli Treaty). Therefore these two conditions were impossible to meet and so the treaty was in effect invalid.
(2) The best thing to do would have been to return Darjeeling tract to Sikkim. It was not done so because: three reasons (a) a lot of money had already been spent on the construction of the road, houses and staging posts, (b) a large number of Darjeeling plots had already been sold off, in Calcutta, and most of the buyers were men of money, matter and political muscle (c) the British desperately needed Darjeeling. Before Darjeeling was discovered the Himalayan region had Shimla, Chail and Mussoorie as hill stations serving the Europeans in North India, Central India had Mount Abu and Hazaribagh, South India had Mandapalle, Bangalore, Kotagiri, Ooty, and Kodaikanal, West India had Purandha and Mahabalshwar but Eastern India had no hill station. When Cherrapunji was taken over in 1829 the British thought they had that much sought after hill station but Cherra was the world’s rainiest place and all hopes got literally washed away. Shillong was a close option but the Khasis refused to surrender, they were giving the British a hard time. So, every officer in India could rush off to their own hill station be he from North, south, west or central India, but the capital of India, the second city of the British empire, had nowhere to go to. Imagine the frustration, imagine the embarrassment, and imagine the desperation and you can imagine why the British would not give back Darjeeling.
Finally,
(3) The Chogyal had in good faith blindly put his seal on the document produced by Lloyd. Yaha auta sanu kura bhannu chha. Lloyd chalak manchay thiyo. Uslay pesh gareko dalil Lapchay bhasama thiyo tara Raja thiyo Bhotay. Parnay echchha bhayetapani parnu nasaknay. So, Saheblay kinachai chhal-kapat garchha hola bhannay biswasma Sikkimpatti Maharajalay lalmohor thoki baakshinu bhayo. (There is something that has to be mentioned here. Lloyd was a shrewd individual. The document that was prepared was in the Lepcha language but the King/Chogyal spoke Tibetan. Even if the Chogyal wanted to read the document, he couldn’t have. So why did the Chogyal, in good faith, put his seal on the document!)

(6) ANNEXATION OF DARJEELING

Yes, now the only option left for the British was to militarily annex the areas south of the Rumman and Rungit Rivers and thereby get free access to the tract and also make the deed of grant a document of no importance, because Darjeeling would now be British through military victory and not because the Maharaja had granted it. The opportunity to strike at Sikkim came when Joseph Dalton Hooker, a botanist, and Campbell were arrested in Sikkim. Sikkim claimed that their entry was illegal and the British claimed that the Chogyal had issued them entry permits. Over this issue the British troops marched into Sikkim. Campbell and his soldiers crossed the Rangit River and stayed for several weeks along the northern bank. Sikkim did not contest and the troops returned and the British announced to the villagers that the area was now a property of the British government. This annexed area consisted of the Sikkim terai, and hill areas south of the Rumman Nadi, west of the Bara Rangit and Tista rivers and the hills to the east of the Nepal frontier.

Yaha auta thulo prashna aucha, question chha: Kay Hookerkoma Chogyallay diyeko permit sachinai thiyo ra? Permit raheko bhayay Sikkimko sarkari karmachari harulai kina dekhaunu sakena ya dekhayayna? Hamro paharko bisaya liyera Hooker saheblay dui wata moto moto kitabharu lekhnu bhayo jaha gumbako, phoolko, padam baas etyadiko assi wata jasto chitra chha tara tyo mahatapurna permitko kunai chitra chhaina. Permit nai thiyena bhanay chitra kaha bata chhapaunay. (Here arises an important question: Did Hooker actually have a permit issued by the Chogyal? If he did have the permit, why could he not, or why did he not produce it to the Sikkim authorities? Hooker has written two thick tomes based on the hills, with about eighty pictures of monasteries and flora and fauna etc., but no pictures of that royal document. How could he print a picture if he didn’t have the document?) In 1983, 135 years after his arrest there was great excitement in England because some hand written manuscript in vernacular was found amongst some old papers of Sir Joseph Hooker. Could they be the permit issued by the Maharajah of Sikkim? Unable to read the script Xerox of the same was sent to my teacher and friend, the world famous linguist, Professor Richard Keith Sprigg. Eeesh, pramaan chha bhanna lai Angrez haru tayar bha-ay. (The English were all prepared to produce the proof!) Professor Sprigg had to inform his fellow Englishmen that the papers were not the permit but the accounts of daily purchases and other expenses. Tyo kaagzharu ta Hooker sahibko baidarbabulay prati dinko kharcha, samanko daam etyadi, Lepcha lipima lekhekopo raicha. Angrez haru aja pani praman khojdai chha bhanchha. Khojos! Paunay kaha bata! (Those papers were just daily accounts of provisions and expenses kept by Hooker’s assistants, in the Lepcha script. It is said that the English are, to this day, looking for the proof. Let them search! Where will they find it?)

(7) DARJEELING PUSHED INTO BENGAL

The present-day sub-division of Kalimpong along with the Duars became British property following the defeat of the Bhutanese in the Anglo-Bhutan war in November 1865. It was first put under the Deputy Commissioner of Western Duars but in 1866 it was transferred to the District of Darjeeling giving the district its final shape. Initially, this new district was treated differently and was designated as a “NON-REGULATION District” meaning any Act or Regulation passed in the Bengal Presidency did not come into force in district unless they were specially extended to it. In 1919 when the Government of India Act formed the Legislative Council, Darjeeling was not required to send a member to it. The district was excluded and declared a BACKWARD TRACT and the administration was under the Governor in Council. Even the administrative expenses were not required to be passed by Bengal Government. Furthermore, any Act passed by Bengal Government, which automatically extended to whole of Bengal, would not apply to Darjeeling if the Governor in Council decided to reject it. This in a very subtle way brought our hills a little closer to Bengal, because it also meant that any law passed by the Bengal Government could be applicable to Darjeeling if the Governor did not reject it. This arrangement lasted for another 15 years. Then the black year came and ironically that was Darjeeling’s centenary year under the British. The British Government passed an Act in 1935 requiring the three hill subdivisions to send a representative to Bengal Legislative Assembly and Dambarsingh Gurung became Darjeeling’s MLA to Bengal. Darjeeling was now pushed into Bengal.

Now we come to the final review: It is patent and historically authenticated that Darjeeling was never a part of Bengal. When Bengal was partitioned in 1905 our Bengali brothers claimed that no one was consulted, no opinion was entertained, no fore-warning was given and no explanation was provided. Bengal and the intellectuals of India rose up as one against the partition. Let our friends not forget that when Darjeeling was merged to Bengal no one was consulted, no opinion was entertained, and that no fore-warning was given and no explanation was provided. Keeping these facts in mind would it not be logical if Bengal joined us in saying “Gorkhaland hunu parcha“, “Shatyi, Gorkhaland huwa uuchit” po bhannu parnay. Why do Bengal politicians keep harping and shouting that Bengal will not be partitioned again. Creating Gorkhaland is not a partition but a just, realistic and honourable act of giving back what was never part of Bengal. Instead Bengal should apologize for holding on to the hills for so many years. Our language is different, our physiognomy or physical structure is different, our food habits, music, drama, dances, and clothes are different, the whole cultural milieu is different, even the Hinduism and Buddhism practiced by Bengal and Gorkhaland are different. Geographically we are in the hills and mountains and Bengal is in the plains and so our biology, zoology, climatology and even the associated benefits and disasters of the two regions are different. We do not share the same script, we do not share the same mentality and most of all we do not have a shared history. If we look back to the period before we were pushed, forcibly joined, attached without consent, and made a part of Bengal merely for the sake of administrative convenience we find that we shared no connection with Bengal. How can we share a common future when we do not share a common past! No amount of legislation, state power, gentle cajoling or even brute force can bind two people with uncommon history: Soviet Union is an example, Yugoslavia is an example and Gorkhaland will be another example. Finally, mailay hazurharuko dherai samai liyay, I would like to end with the words of a Bengali intellectual: “Happy Gorkhas in Gorkhaland are any day better for Bengalis than angry Gorkhas in Bengal.”

Jai Gorkha

Jai Hind

Professor Richard Keith Sprigg is a person well known to the academics of Kalimpong and the surrounding areas. What is generally not known is that he was absolutely thorough in whatever he did. I once sent him a short study on the meanings of names of some places in the district for his opinion and what I got back was well over twice my input. He had consulted dictionaries, met people who taught Nepali, Hindi, Bengali and even consulted Lepcha elders before coming to any conclusion. He was that thorough. He lived for many years in Ahava Cottage at Dr. Graham’s Homes and his residence became a lodestone for linguists and historians from all over the Himalayan region and places further afar. People came to tap his vast knowledge of Tibeto-Burman languages and related subjects. In 1955, while with the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London, he arrived in Kathmandu with several photocopies of some manuscripts preserved at the India Office Library, London. The documents formed a part of Brian H. Hodgson’s collection made in Darjeeling and Nepal in the early 1840s. It was believed that the documents were in the Limbu script but there was no one in England could read them and Sprigg had arrived in Kathmandu to find someone who could. The following account will illustrate his thoroughness in finding a reader and the follow up to it.

At Kathmandu he met Tilbahadur Limbu and Col. B. Chemjong, both highly respected and educated Limbus, but they were none the wiser at reading the manuscript. They suggested that Kaziman Kandhanga of Ghoom Pahar, Darjeeling, could possibly shed some light on the matter. After sometime the Professor was at Ghoom but Kaziman too was helpless save for another address he provided: Iman Singh Chemjong at Ilam, Nepal. To decide in the next course of action he went to the tranquil settings of Kalimpong and made the Himalayan Hotel his base. There he thought he would find success in the Limbu school but the Limbu masters at Dungra Busti Jambok Memorial School were no more knowledgable than the previous contacts. Here someone once again suggested that Iman Singh Chemjong could possibly be the appropriate person. This was the second time the name had cropped up. A small bit of research revealed that Chemjong had worked in Sikkim the previous year and so Sprigg went there to find out if the man had the required knowledge to be worth the chase. T.D. Densapa, a respected scholar and a senior bureaucrat of Sikkim, confirmed that Chemjong had worked in the Revenue Department of Sikkim and was able to read and write in a script that was similar to the ones in the photocopies. There was at least some small hope now but there were several big problems for the Professor: Ilam was difficult of access, a foreigner needed special permission to enter the place, he was told that there were no hotels there, and if he at all got to Ilam there was no guarantee that Chemjong would be able to read the photocopies, a likely outcome especially after the three previous failures from dependable sources. Chemjong’s address was found and it was decided to invite Chemjong to Kalimpong. After sometime Chemjong arrived. Yes, he could read the script and to the baffling question of why the others could not do was that the scripts had been revised and improved upon by no other than Chemjong himself. All the others were folowing Chemjong’s alterations and were clueless about the original primitive script. I might add here that the script has undergone further modifications to make it computer compatible. Further additions like punctuation marks have been included and in the future there may be more additions with the introduction of diacritic marks. Anyway, that is looking far too ahead and let us go back to the past. In the short time that Sprigg spent with Chemjong, he learnt to read and write the Sirijonga script. Sometime later the Professor, along with his wife – a Kalimpong lady – went to the Limbu heartland of Ilam to actually live with the Limbus. This was no easy job for a European not used to answering nature’s call in the open and on missing out on egg and toast for breakfast and some wine at dinner. But the call of learning something new was too strong to cast aside. At Ilam he learnt the Limbu language and the way the Limbus lived while his wife, not equally academically inclined, spent her hours teaching the women folks how to knit sweaters, socks, muffins and gloves: something the Limbu women had never seen or done before.

In 1989 Sprigg reviewed for the SOAS “A Grammar of Limbu” by Professor George van Driem and in between made contributions like “Phonological formulae for the verb in Limbu” (1966), “The Limbu s-final and t-final verb roots” (1984), and he wrote the Foreword for H.W.R. Senior’s reprint of “A Vocabulary of Limbu Language of Eastern Nepal.”

As with all mortals who grow old and eventually die many words also get coined, enjoy a good spell, age and die. When I was young we had besides the rare rupiyā, small change called ānā paisā and pie. With the introduction of the decimal system there arrived new coins which we referred to as the ‘nayā paisā‘. In a short while ‘ānā‘ and ‘pie‘ were withdrawn from circulation and therefore also from our vocabulary and over the years the nayā paisa was no more ‘nayā‘ and the descriptive term was dropped in favour of just ‘paisā‘. Even the paisā, as a coin, is making a dash towards extinction for there is very little one can buy with a few ‘paisā‘ these days.

If changes in the monetary system spelled death for some words then changes in lifestyle spelt doom for other words like ‘jangār‘, ‘ghari‘, ‘chindo‘, ‘ghorsālā‘, ‘okhatsāla‘ etc.
-The archaic word ‘jyangār‘ became ‘jangār‘ meaning the crossing place of a river and ‘jangār taruwā‘ was the person who helped you to ford the river for a small consideration. With bridges coming up everywhere ‘jangār‘ and its ‘taruwā‘ became redundant.
-’Ghari‘ simply meant time (about 24 minutes to one ‘ghari‘), and not a watch but the original meaning has more or less vanished leaving us just a memory in the term ‘ghari ghari‘ (time and time) meaning time and again.
-With the easy availability of corrugated tins, straw roofs are hardly around and the word ‘chōrkhar‘ or thatch also suffered the same fate. Interestingly, the straw for the thatching was normally collected from the riverbanks and since the banks were no-man’s property the prefix ‘chor‘ (thief/stolen) was added.
-’Chindo‘ is a clay vessel (occasionally the shell of a dried gourd) and being a common household item it even enjoyed an idiom to its credit, “bheerko chindo udho na ubho” (a vessel on a precipice can go neither up nor down) meaning ‘to be in the horns of a dilemma’. Today with the easy availability of tin, aluminum, plastic, PVC, styrofoam and other materials the vessel, the word and even the idiom are extinct.
-A horse stable was a ‘ghōrsālā‘ (ghōra = horse, sālā = edifice c/f dharma-sālā) but in our ancestors time most of the horses were owned by the sahibs who preferred the word stable and we landed up with ‘astable‘ while ‘ghōrsālā‘ received an early pension.
-The word ‘okhatsālā‘ or a dispensary has a history, sadly only a history, of its own. The archaic Nepali term for medicine is ‘okhat‘ or ‘okhati‘ and place of dispensing medicine became ‘okhatsālā‘. At the ‘okhatsālā‘ the herbs were pounded in a mortar called ‘okhal‘ and a distant cousin of ‘okhal‘ still survives in the villages where the ‘okhli‘ is used to remove the husk from rice through pounding. ‘Okhalsālā‘, ‘okhat‘ and ‘okhal‘ have all perished and it wont be long before ‘okhli‘ also becomes another part of ‘okhatsālā’s fading history.

Some words just cease to exist for no apparent reason. The word ‘kari‘ was once used to denote a ring but it just vanished and in popular currency today is ‘authi‘. Nevertheless, the bigger version of the ‘kari‘ is still extant though nobody wants to wear it and it is called ‘hāt-kari‘ or handcuffs. Some words have been simply replaced and ‘chaplusi garnu‘ (to flatter) is now ‘tel lagāunu‘, the beautiful word ‘tas‘ (insult) from which we got ‘tasko‘ and terms like ‘tasko namaste‘ (reluctant or perfunctory salutation) are no more uttered, and our ‘dandi-biyo‘ was replaced by ‘guli-dandā‘ and that has today given way to the vastly more expensive game of cricket. Some years ago ‘gas‘ was extensively used to denote a girlfriend but today, like a real gas, it has evaporated to oblivion and a fresh coinage, ‘haves‘ for food (’haves bhayo?’ or ‘have you eaten?’), is doing its rounds.

But coming back to where we started we must keep in mind that in a living language words are born, mature and die and new ones are, should be, continually created. It is only in a dead language that the dynamics of this cycle is missing. In most countries they have standardized dictionaries, e.g., Concise Oxford English Dictionary in England. The lexicographers sit in a committee and decide what new words can be included and once the inclusion is made it becomes an accepted part of the English language. We unfortunately do not have that luxury and so numerous new words go wasted. The orthodox and the purist amongst us shudder at the thought of new words and the lofty grammarians do not possess the drive to put their heads together to consider a few changes. It’s high time they woke up for the wheels that carry our language forwards are old, clogged and in a state of bad disrepair.

Today we will consider some of the several number of words we use to give an absolutely specific meaning to one particular item. I have already written that we have over a dozen specific terms for our ten digits and that is true of many other things. Here three items will be under the scanner: bamboo, hair and the family brood.

For us a bamboo is not just a hollow plant that grows slim and tall but a whole variety of plants, each with its own unique function. Before getting bamboozled by the variety let me just remind you of our flute or ‘bāsuri‘ which translates as, and it could not be more apt, a bamboo with a melody (bās = bamboo, sur = melody). Now to the varieties of that slender plant: ‘kansay bās‘ is the reed-like bamboo that grows near the banks of rivers and ‘gulyo bās/bāns‘ is the sweet one and therefore fit for the table. But probably the more preferred edible variety is the ‘tāmay bās‘ from which the best ‘tāmako achār’ can be made. For the animals we have the ‘gopay bās’ (’go‘ = cow) whose leaves are used as fodder for the cows and buffalos. ‘Choya‘ mats or ‘doko‘ are not too common nowadays but the ‘nānglo‘ is still a common household item and the better ones are made from the ‘choyo bās’ whose split pieces and shavings are known as ‘choya‘. Then there is the handsome one called ‘philingay bās‘ or the sparkling bamboo and finally the ubiquitous ‘mālingo bās‘ which once gave our forefather ‘bāsko kalam‘ (pen) and has been giving us, then and now, the famous ‘lingay ping‘. I had mentioned that the Nepali bamboo has the potential to bamboozle and that is so because we have additionally ‘nibha nigālo bās‘, ‘poreng bās‘, ‘pahelo nigalo bās‘, ‘malbās‘, ‘deubās‘, ‘pahelo bās‘, ‘kansay nigalo bās‘, ‘balu bās‘, ‘kalo bās‘, ‘titay bās‘, ‘ban nigalo bās‘, ‘thudi nigalo bās‘, ‘paryang bās‘, ‘philing (lāhuray) bās‘, ‘kat bās‘, ‘kālo nigālo bās‘, ‘chiniya bās‘, ‘ghoray nigālo bās‘ etc.

We are not very hairy people but our vocabulary more than compensates this minor deficiency. The hair on our body is represented by not one but three terms: ‘kesh‘, ‘bāl‘ and ‘rau‘. But we like to be more specific and the Nepali equivalent for eyebrow is ‘ākhi bhow‘ (bhui) and for eyelashes it is ‘parelā‘. For moustache and beard it is ‘jungā‘ and ‘dāri‘. The hair on the head is ‘kapāl‘ and should that grow down to the shoulders it is ‘julphi‘ and if even longer (and unkempt) it is ‘bābari‘. Should it grow lengthier yet then it is ‘jhākro‘. Should a larger portion of the body be covered with hair we call that ‘jhusulay‘ and should the hair be shorn of the head and just a small tuft be left then it is ‘tuppi‘. We even have terms for the hidden growths: in the armpits it is ‘jairay‘ and what lies in the groin is ‘jāha‘. A long time ago a scholar friend of mine told me that ‘nāthay‘ could possibly refer to the hair on the toes, it sounded appropriate, but try as I might it I could not verify it and the dictionaries repeatedly gave the meaning as “a rogue, a villain, literally: ‘with a rope through the nose’”, c/f ‘nāthnu‘ or to pierce a bullock’s nose for putting a rope through. After having almost given up I struck gold in Ramchandra Dugana’s “Sangchhipta Nepali Kosh” (4th. edition, 1995) where it gave the meaning as, another of those that are hidden whiskers, the hair in the nostrils. Dugana’s does not provide us with any explanation or source references but considering that my copy was the fourth revised edition of the 1950 Nepali Bhasa Prakashani Samiti’s scrutinized first edition I accepted it without a wink.

We are by nature prolific breeders and it is only of late that families have been planned and reduced to manageable numbers. In the olden days it was customary for the elders to bless a child with the usual, ‘Santānālay dārā-kārā dhākōs‘ (May your offspring plaster the hills.). It is a small surprise therefore that the pecking order in the family brood be sufficiently long. We commence with ‘jethaa‘ for the eldest followed by ‘mailaa‘, ‘saila‘, ‘kaila‘, ‘thaila‘, ‘antaray‘, ‘jantaray‘, ‘khantaray‘, ‘mantaray‘ and ‘kancha‘. But just in case another toddler accidentally popped up the ‘kancha‘ was further stretched to ‘thulo kancha‘ and ‘sanu kancha‘. Wow! That makes a complete football team but we must keep in mind the impossibility of having only sons. Now add on ‘jethi‘, ‘maili‘ ‘saili‘ etc and you have more than a crowd. There was a time when we were actually plastering the hills and it came to such a point that Nepal Radio had to regularly broadcast, in complete contrast to the traditional blessings, “Santānālay dārā-kārā dhākōs na bhana.”

The game of football officially came to Kalimpong in 1910 (Centenary Year is coming fast!). The players played bare-feet and the teams did not necessarily have eleven players. To wear watches and steel rings around the wrist was a minor matter since carrying small knives and even khukuris were not deemed illegal. Later on when boots were introduced the players added stud-like nails to the soles. A good game then meant a good amount of blood spilled. All said and done, the team supporters were chaotic, the players tough and itching for a brawl, and the Mela Ground nothing short of a war zone. It was just a matter of time before someone went straight from the playing field to the cremation grounds. The danger was real and to add order and respectability (sanity?) to the game the Kalimpong Football Association (popularly known then as KFA) was formed and anything harmful, besides the regular football wear, was banned. But there were some things the KFA could do little about and so the free use of fists and hard-toed boots always left some blood on the grounds: the combat gear was removed but the gore remained. Times were rough and tough and the players played it tough and rough. Despite all the rules KFA imposed at the end of the long whistle it was not uncommon to see the referee beating it, post haste, up the Mela ground to the Motor Stand and straight home lest the losing side scrape some of his thick hide. Yes, referees then must have really been thick for if the losing side did not vent its anger then the public was always at hand. There were numerous occasions when the angry spectators invaded the ground, even while the game was on, and thrash the daylights out of the referee(s). Thick hide? Yes, for the next day or sometime later the same referee(s) would be back on Mela Ground, blowing his whistle to the curses and hooting of the public.

As a school boy I recall the late Mr. Dipsingh Foning always riding a horse up the Gr. Graham’s Homes’ steep incline and in one encounter he asked me if I played the game. This huge gentleman had such an overpowering personality that my knees became wobbly and I meekly replied, “A little.” He was pleased that I was not a regular kicker of the ball and told me why. In his days much before the game commenced targets would be fixed and a few players were specifically ordered to injure the better players of the opposing side. It did not matter if the opponent had the ball or not and all it required was that he be in the vicinity of the ball and “Wham!” one kick on the shin and the opposition was one less in count. I stared at the towering personality, as tough and steady as a papal tree, and silently thanked God that the small amount of football that I played was not in his times. Thats the way it was then. Normally a day before the match the players would hit the dingy tongba and rakshi joints, ‘charge’ themselves and march around the town, in full uniform, soliciting support from the townsfolk. Just prior to the match they would ‘recharge’ themselves and ’spiritually’ strengthened they would do the match, the tactical strength generally being a good amount of brawn and plenty of booze.

Somewhere around 1925-27 the games became so violent that they resembled gladiatorial encounters rather than sporting events. Football then had to be banned for several years. (I often wonder what would have happened if Kalimpong had taken after hockey. Twenty-two men each armed with a lethal hooked stick! It would have been a mayhem! No wonder hockey never took off in Kpg.) In the first few decades of the twentieth century, the gladiatorial years, Kalimpong’s football heroes were those who could kick the ball highest or the furthermost. People would gather at the kitchen fireside and tell their children of these heroes, “Ramay kicked the ball all the way to the masu-dokan, ammamma!” This prowess was utilized not just for the gallery but the ball would be shot beyond the masu-dokan to the forests nearby in order to waste time. If a team was winning by a goal or two then the winning team would repeatedly kick the ball as far to the jungle as possible and thus gain time. People think that the wasting time is a pretty new phenomenon acquired from the west. I think not: it was there in Kalimpong long before it became popular in Europe. Anyway, in the first half of 1930s a system of keeping a timekeeper was introduced and he would record all the minutes and seconds willfully wasted. At the end of the game the lost time was added on and it is quite amazing to think that Kalimpong football had “Time-added” system in the 1930s because for the rest of the world this a very recent development. All I can say is “Ammamma, hogi!”