Why Gorkhaland (And Similar Other ‘Lands’ Like Bodoland) Must Be Opposed

India, right now, is going through a major crisis. Nepal – with whom India shares intimate political, cultural and civilizational ties – has been increasingly becoming hostile under its Communist regime. It is certainly not a new trend. Ever since the Communists took control of Nepal, they have been slowly and steadily moving closer to China. 

In this context, it is important to talk about the Gorkhaland movement whose proponents seek to carve out a separate state out of Bengal’s northern hills.

1. Gorkhaland agitation in the 1980s

According to the 2011 census, there are 30 Lakh Indian citizens who identify themselves as Gorkhas and of them, more than 29 Lakh speak the Nepali language as mother tongue. West Bengal has around 11 Lakh Gorkha population, Assam close to 6 Lakh and Sikkim has around 3.7 Lakh. Most of the Gorkha population of Bengal are concentrated in the 3 subdivisions of the erstwhile undivided Darjeeling district [now Kalimpong subdivision is a separate district] & small numbers live in the Dooars region of erstwhile Jalpaiguri district (now the Dooars region is part of both Jalpaiguri district and Alipurduar district carved out of Jalpaiguri). The first phase of the Gorkhaland movement started in Darjeeling district in 1986. The first phase lasted between 1986 & 1988 under the leadership of Subhash Ghisingh and his Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF). 

At that time, there was unprecedented violence in the hills of Darjeeling. An estimated 1200 people died between 1986 and 1988. The situation was no different from the violent armed insurgencies in other parts of North East. Police and CRPF jawans trying to bring the situation under control were attacked by armed mobs, their vehicles were set on fire by GNLF cadres. Numerous Police and CRPF personnel were killed by violent GNLF mobs. At some places, food supplies to villages were blocked to put pressure on the administration to ensure the demands of GNLF were met. Schools were forcefully shut down; they remained shut for months.

The most obnoxious part of Ghising’s campaign was the attempt to internationalize a domestic issue. He started off by writing letters to the King of Nepal, seeking the Nepalese government’s support for the Gorkhaland movement. After that, in an extraordinary move, Ghising and several leaders of GNLF wrote letters to foreign governments (including the United Kingdom, United States of America, Soviet Union and Pakistan) and the General Secretary of the United Nations, seeking foreign support and intervention to facilitate the formation of Gorkhaland. The letters made allegations of systematic state sponsored “racism”, “discrimination” against Gorkhas; that Indian Gorkhas were treated as foreigners by none other than the Indian state, quite an extra-ordinary claim since not just Indian Gorkhas but even Nepal born Gorkhas who are Nepalese citizens are entitled to do government jobs in India, move freely across the border without passport or visa, live, work, own property or conduct trade or business in India (under 1950 Indo-Nepal treaty) . 

When confronted, Ghising claimed that Gorkhas in the Indian territory of Darjeeling were “Nepali citizens”. In reality, they were all Indian citizens. Not to forget, Ghisingh’s original demand was a “separate independent sovereign Nepalese nation state” in the hills of Darjeeling, on the lines of other separatist movements and insurgencies in the North East, whose ultimate demands were to secede from India. Ghisingh dropped that obnoxious demand and settled for a “separate state within the Indian union” only when threatened with arrest & crackdown by the West Bengal government. The violence finally ended in 1988 when the Central government under Congress party’s Rajiv Gandhi, the West Bengal State government under CPIM’s Jyoti Basu and the GNLF signed an agreement to establish the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) for the local administration of Gorkha dominated hills of Darjeeling (then Darjeeling, Kurseong, Kalimpong subdivision of Darjeeling district)

2. Gorkhaland agitation after 2005

From 1988 to 2005, Subhash Ghisingh led GNLF dominated the elected body of DGHC. Subhash Ghisingh remained its elected chairman till 2005. Of course, the two main parties Congress and the CPIM dominated politics in state and general elections.

In 2005, the state government decided not to hold DGHC elections and made Ghising its caretaker secretary till 2007 (he stayed in that position till 2008).

Instead, the GNLF led DGHC decided to enter into a “final settlement” with the State and the Central government on the issue of Gorkhaland. Under this settlement, Gorkhaland would not be a separate state. Instead, a new “Hill council” replacing the old DGHC will be formed under the “Sixth schedule” of the Indian constitution with certain safeguards for the tribal population (like Tamang, Limbu, Sherpa and so on).

The “sixth schedule” is a provision in the constitution, which enables the formation of autonomous administrative bodies in Tribal dominated areas to provide self-government and safeguard the “indigenous” culture of the tribes from the encroachment of “outsiders” and “Non-tribals”. In most cases, the land inside the jurisdiction of autonomous administrative councils could not be purchased by “Non Tribals” and “outsiders” depending on the laws and rules of the council (often the outsiders/ non tribals are part of the “Scheduled castes” and ethnic minorities residing there for ages). Autonomous councils have varying degrees of extraordinary powers with regards to taxation, land revenue, education institutions and control over all segments of the economy, leading to a “state within a state” situation (often these are done with noble intentions of protecting Tribals from exploitation but often ordinary local non-tribal communities suffer the consequences). Some autonomous councils even have the powers of Legislative bodies and can frame laws for their jurisdiction.

However, there was a problem. The autonomous councils under the “Sixth schedule” are meant for Tribal dominated areas in North East. The area under the proposed council in Darjeeling had only 35% Tribal population and was not exactly part of the North East. To solve this problem, Ghising asked many non-tribal communities to declare themselves as tribals to ensure tribal majority. He even proposed a bizarre arrangement where Gorkhas would give up “idol worship” in order to become “animist tribals”! The new “Gorkha Hill Council” would have reservation / proportional representation and other “safeguards” for the Tribal communities. Ghisingh went ahead with this agreement without consulting his party leaders, who saw the entire exercise as a betrayal of their cause (which was a separate state,  not an autonomous council) and an attempt to divide Gorkhas and engineer a new Gorkha identity for which no one was ready. Since that proposed arrangement not only ruled out a new state of Gorkhaland but was also perceived to be “divisive”, dissidents within the GNLF began to oppose the move. Besides, there were apprehensions that those who would not declare themselves as “tribals” would be marginalized. Those communities categorized as “scheduled castes” too feared marginalization. Opposition was there for another reason – Once the council would be formed, the dreams of a separate state would be over. The autonomous council would have got extraordinary powers, but its jurisdiction would be limited only to the hills of Darjeeling; whereas the demand for separate Gorkhaland state included not just the hills of Darjeeling, but the plains of Siliguri and also the Terai regions of the then Jalpaiguri district as well (a substantially larger area). 

As opposition to Ghising’s plans grew, GNLF dissidents led by Bimal Gurung rebelled against Ghising’s leadership.

Meanwhile, something else happened. In Mumbai, the 3rd season of the singing contest ‘Indian Idol’ was going on. The popular TV show ran between June & September 2007. The fate of contestants was to be decided by the public who would vote by sending text messages (SMS) from their phones. Prashant Tamang, a Gorkha from Darjeeling working in Kolkata police, participated and even reached the stage where his fate would be decided by public voting. Bimal Gurung, the dissident GNLF leader launched a massive campaign in the hills of Darjeeling, Sikkim asking all Gorkhas all over India to send endless text messages from their phones to ensure Tamang’s victory in the contest. This massive mobilization of Gorkhas worked. Prashant Tamang won the contest in September 2007. This catapulted Bimal Gurung into a “hero”! After all it was quite clear that Tamang won the contest because of Gurung’s campaign and not because of his non-existent singing skills. Already popular in pockets of the Darjeeling hills as a GNLF leader, he was now hailed as the new “saviour” of Gorkhas. Very soon, Gurung got another opportunity. A Radio jockey in Delhi made offensive remarks and innuendoes about the Gorkha community during a Radio broadcast. This led to massive outrage from both Gorkhas and non-Gorkhas. There were massive protests in the hills of Darjeeling. Gurung soon turned this into an opportunity to launch a fresh demand for a separate Gorkhaland state by injecting a sense of victimhood among the Gorkha population. The rejection of the new Hill council under “Sixth schedule” was coupled with the demand for a new state of Gorkhaland. Gurung launched the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha [GJM] which became the dominant party in the hills within a few months and Ghisingh’s GNLF was relegated to the sidelines.

By early 2009, GJM managed to convince BJP regarding the need for a separate Gorkhaland state. BJP, seeing this as an opportunity to embarrass the CPIM led Left Front jumped into the Gorkhaland bandwagon. BJP previously as a matter of principle supported the creation of smaller states (Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Uttarakhand) as BJP rightly or wrongly believed that smaller states could be administered better. The late Jaswant Singh of BJP, decided to contest 2009 general elections from Darjeeling with the full support of GJM, promising people of Darjeeling hills a new Gorkhaland state. Jaswant Singh won eventually, but BJP lost the general elections and the dream of a separate state of Gorkhaland was put on hold. Congress and TMC Alliance (UPA) which emerged victorious in 2009 Lok Sabha elections in Bengal were in no mood to support the demand for bifurcation of Bengal as they were heading towards a decisive Legislative Assembly elections in 2011, in which the UPA were the favourites to win and the 34 year old CPIM led Left Front were heading towards a defeat. Eventually, the UPA won in 2011 and Mamata Banerjee became the Chief Minister of West Bengal. TMC alone won 184 seats, way ahead of the majority mark of 148 seats. Congress won 42 seats. The alliance would break a year later and TMC would fight subsequent elections alone. Towards the end of 2011, CM Mamata Banerjee signed a new agreement with GJM and a new Gorkha Territorial Administration [GTA], an autonomous body for the administration of hills of Darjeeling, was formed. In 2012, elections for GTA was held. GJM won all seats unopposed. But the dream of separate Gorkhaland was kept alive and the GTA was seen as a temporary arrangement. Nepali was also declared the second official language of West Bengal. In 2014 General elections, BJP once again supported the demand for separate Gorkhaland and BJP’s Surinder Singh Ahluwalia won from Darjeeling with the support of GJM.

In 2017, Gorkhaland agitation and violence was revived for sometime before it was suppressed by the Bengal police. As of early 2020, both GJM and GNLF opposed the Citizenship Amendment Act [CAA] and supported TMC’s anti CAA protests in exchange for Inner Line Permit in the hills which would prevent “Non Tribals” [and perhaps all non-Gorkhas] from settling/ entering/ buying property in the hills.

3. Problems with the movement & why it must be opposed.

The proponents and supporters of the Gorkhaland movement insist that it is a legitimate demand for a separate state within the Indian union. After all, many Indian states, including West Bengal, in which the territories of proposed Gorkhaland state are located, were formed on the basis of ethno- linguistic identities. And Gorkhas being a separate ethno-linguistic group, most of whose members use the Nepali language as either their mother tongue or lingua franca and being heavily concentrated in the hills of Darjeeling deserve a separate Gorkha state. While the demand may sound valid and not something unprecedented, it has too many problems. Whatever the claims of its proponents be, the Gorkhaland movement in its character is no different from the violent separatist/ secessionist insurgencies which have prevailed elsewhere in the North East. The ultimate aim of this movement is to secede Sikkim, hills of Darjeeling, Kalimpong & substantial parts of Dooars all the way upto borders of Assam from Indian control & merge it with Nepal, as a part of long standing “Greater Nepal” wet dreams of certain sections of the Nepalese elite and the explicitly Pro-China Communist rulers of Nepal. The process is quite simple — First, the creation of separate Gorkhaland state within Indian union, then merger with Sikkim [where 63% of the population is Gorkha and Nepali is the lingua franca & state language] as a larger Gorkha state and finally separation from India and merger with an independent Nepal. 

This might seem to be a weird conspiracy theory, but it isn’t. To begin with, Darjeeling and Sikkim along with entire Kumaon, Garhwal (present day Uttarakhand), large parts of Himachal Pradesh, a substantial portion of terai regions of Uttar Pradesh were once part of the Nepalese kingdom, though only for a short while. After the Anglo-Nepal war of 1814-16, which resulted in the defeat of Nepalese forces, Nepal entered into a treaty with the British [treaty of Sugauli], under which Nepal conceded large chunk of its territory [the ones mentioned above] to the British and remaining Nepal eventually became a British protectorate. Sikkim was handed over to its original ruler (before its annexation by Nepal) the “Chogyal”. Many Nepalese from then on began to serve in the British Indian Army. Many in Kathmandu’s political circles consider Darjeeling, some pockets of North Bengal, Himachal, the whole of Uttarakhand, terais of Uttar Pradesh and Sikkim to be something that rightfully belongs to Nepal. Even recently there have been reports that Nepalese Prime Minister allegedly claimed Dehradun and Nainital to be part of Nepal. 

There are other problems with the demand for Gorkhaland. The entire movement is based on the claim that Darjeeling hills historically “belonged” to the Nepalese and that the Gorkhas have been its inhabitants for at least a few centuries. But the reality is that the Lepchas were the original inhabitants of Darjeeling and the Gorkhas were settled in the hills by the British in the 19th century. Infact much of the Darjeeling district, including the plains, were sparsely populated till the 19th century. Most urban Bengalis in Siliguri, Marwaris, Tribes from Chhotanagpur were brought to the region by the British. More Bengali Hindus arrived as refugees after partition from East Pakistan and many Gorkhas too migrated to the hills from Nepal after 1947. Gorkhas historically never formed the majority in the entire District. In 1872 census, Bengalis outnumbered Gorkhas. In 2011, Gorkhas were 46% of Darjeeling district and majority only in Darjeeling, Kurseong, Kalimpong (now a separate district) subdivisions. 

What is even curious is that the maps floated by those demanding separate Gorkhaland state include not only the Gorkha dominated hills of Darjeeling (Kalimpong subdivision turned district, Kurseong and Darjeeling subdivisions) but also Siliguri region (which is overwhelmingly dominated by Bengalis, Chhotanagpur Tribes and some Marwaris) and the entire northern part of undivided Jalpaiguri district, now Alipurduar district (where Gorkhas constitute only 6% of the population) all the way up to borders of Assam! In today’s context, the Darjeeling district in its entirety, Kalimpong district, the northern part of Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar district. In this entire region, Gorkhas form not more than 30% of the population. Rest of the population is comprised of Bengalis, tribes of Chhotanagpur origin, other non-Gorkha tribes and a small number of Biharis and Marwaris. It is not surprising that the Adivasi Vikas Parishad representing Tribes of Chhotanagpur origin (who form a majority in Terai and Dooars), opposed the inclusion of Dooars and Terai region (Alipurduar district and the northern part of Jalpaiguri) into the proposed Gorkhaland state. 

4. Religious aspect

There is even a religious angle to the entire agitation. It is a well known fact that most of the separatist movements, insurgencies, demand for separate states, demand for ‘Inner Line Permits’ in the North East were supported by the Church and Christian missionaries (this aspect will be discussed in detail in another article) – with the agenda of carving out small states in tribal dominated regions whose economy, institutions, political class, social services and state machinery could easily be captured by the Church and be used for the purpose of mass conversions. In most cases, Christianization of a region or significant conversions preceded demands for a separate state and after the formation of a separate state, mass conversions increased further. Nagaland, Mizoram [87% Christian population], Meghalaya [74% with almost all Khasis, Garos, Jaintias converted], Manipur (41%, almost all Nagas and Kukis converted), Arunachal Pradesh (Christian population went from 0 to 30% between 1971 and 2011) have witnessed massive conversions. In Manipur, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh, the Christian population was tiny at the time of Independence. Tripura and Assam (both have 4% Christian population, mostly some of the Hindu tribes who have been converted), Sikkim (9%) are still resisting the missionaries – though even Sikkim has seen a huge increase in Christian numbers in recent 2 census periods. In Assam and Tripura too, demand for separate Tribal states and/or Autonomous councils (like Bodoland/ Tripuri Territorial councils, demand for Bodoland, Kamtapur states) were led by the protestant Churches. The Indian government in the past committed huge blunders by carving out separate states out of Undivided Assam. Creation of Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram did not end either separatism or xenophobia and Tribalism. The Indian government instead of keeping undivided Assam as a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-linguistic state (merging Tripura, Manipur, Arunachal with Assam would have been even better) went on dividing the state in order to appease Church backed separatists, who did not just stop at demanding separate states; they further fuelled ethnic clashes, clashes between different tribes and mobilised various smaller tribal groups with the demand for dozens of smaller autonomous territorial councils or demands for even smaller states. Which is why smaller states like Bodoland (out of Assam), Kamtapur (out of Assam and north Bengal), separate Bengali state in North East (out of Cachar, Barak Valley, Bengali regions of Tripura) must not be carved out any more (although to be fair there has been no demand for any Bengali state in NE as of now).

The demand for Gorkhaland must be seen in this context. Christians form 8% of the population of the undivided Darjeeling district. In the plains, they are few. But in the hills, they form a substantial portion of the population [around 13–14%]. Newly formed Kalimpong district (erstwhile Kalimpong subdivision) has around 20%. The share of Christians in the district has sharply increased since 1971. The Secular Indian state and its patronage of Church run institutions combined with its suppression of or lack of support for Hindu and Buddhist institutions as a continuation of the British era policy, have played a role here. Infact, the Catholic church has been quite vocal in its demand for a separate Gorkhaland state. In the mid 2000s, GNLF even imposed a ban on Saraswati Puja & Vishwakarma Puja celebrated by the Bengali Hindus who are in a minority in the hills. It claimed “Idol worship” to be alien to the culture of Gorkhas – which was, of course, utter rubbish as 85% of the Gorkhas even in the hills are idol worshipping Hindus and Buddhists. But the obnoxious “ban” was very similar to bans imposed by Church funded Tripuri militant groups and the separatist United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) against Durga Puja celebrations in Tripura and Assam respectively, falsely claiming the tradition to be alien to “local culture”. It would not be wrong to claim that a separate Gorkhaland state will end up as another Nagaland. Besides, many Gorkha activists in the past demanded the expulsion of “Non Gorkhas” from Darjeeling hills. Quite extraordinary, since Gorkhas have never been at the receiving end of ethnic violence in West Bengal. The only state in India in which Gorkhas faced persecution was in Meghalaya, where tens of thousands of Gorkhas were driven out in the 1980s by Church backed xenophobic insurgents. Considering the fact that the GNLF & GJM have recently demanded Inner Line Permit, which exists in many North Eastern states, there could well be xenophobia against Non- Gorkha population too, once again backed by the Church. A troubled state complete with Church funded xenophobic mob with arms, tribalism, Bible thumping frenzied fanatical population in the sensitive area which shares its borders with Chinese controlled Tibet, a hostile Communist ruled pro-China Nepal, Bhutan and India’s imaginary friend Bangladesh will certainly not be a great idea. Already the “Chicken’s Neck”, the narrow strip of land between Bangladesh and Nepal, in the Raiganj region of West Bengal, connecting mainland India with India’s northeast is dominated by another kind of “minority” population with transnational loyalties. A separate Gorkhaland with an expanding Church-going population would be a disaster. A threat to India’s national security which may undermine our ability to retain the North East in future – helping the dreams of certain segments for Greater Bangladesh as well.

5. Chinese angle

This brings us to the Chinese angle. In 2006, the Nepalese Hindu Monarch was removed from power and the monarchy was abolished in 2008. The Maoist-Communist insurgents and other opposition parties were supported by Indian communists and the then UPA regime led by Manmohan Singh in their attempt to dislodge the Hindu monarchy & replace it with a “secular democracy”. Since then Nepal has often been ruled by the Communists, often with the support of other parties. Under the Communist rule, Nepal has increasingly become hostile towards India and more friendly with China. Also, the communists have attempted to cut off Nepal’s civilizational ties with India, by supporting Christian missionary activities, especially among the Tribal population. Since 2006, the Bible thumping crowd has steadily expanded its numbers. A Nepal without Hinduism and Buddhism will be antagonistic to India & could easily be gobbled up by China or the West. It is not a coincidence that the second phase of Gorkhaland agitation started in 2007, within a year of Communist takeover of Nepal. It was part of China’s long term plan to create chaos across sensitive border regions.

Looking at these situations, a separate Gorkhaland state must not be carved out of West Bengal. The solution to the problem lies in keeping the present scenario, where Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) for the administration of hills would fulfil the political and cultural  aspirations of Gorkhas and take care of the issue of their political representation. Any further balkanization of this frontier would be a disaster.

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India, Towards Anarchy, 1967-1992 By N. S. Saksena

Ethnic Unrest in India and Her Neighbours: Also Includes Europe, West Asia, the Balkans –Book by Pannalal Dhar

Cooperation and Conflict in South Asia By Partha Sarathy Ghosh

Gorkhaland movement: a study in ethnic separatism by Amiya k. Samanta 

Gorkhaland crisis of statehood Romit Bagchi

Separatism in North-East India: Role of Religion, Language   and Script By Dr. Kunal Ghosh