The Indian Gorkhas, having a distinct socio-cultural identity and concentrated in contiguous districts of north Bengal, are seeking a separate state of Gorkhaland within the Indian union in order to preserve, protect and promote their identity.

A separate state would provide them a political identity and a constitutionally documented institutional space for interest articulation and protection within the broader territorial boundary of India. The desire for a separate identity also forms the basis for seeking assured development of the Darjeeling and Dooars region where the Indian Gorkhas reside in a majority.

The overwhelming support for Gorkhaland stems from the great irony that Indian Gorkhas, inspite of having been an integral part of the Indian union, are constantly being viewed as aliens. What can be more paradoxical that a people who have only wanted to be identified as a part of the Indian union, are dubbed as foreigners more often than not.

The Darjeeling hills and neighbouring regions became part of the Indian Dominion almost two hundred years ago but the people who came along with the land were far from integrated into the mainstream. Despite their rightful claim to the land, the Gorkhas in India have always been referred to as Nepalese or immigrants.

While it is true that Gorkhas have shared a common lineage and stock with the Nepalese, it will be grossly inaccurate to think of Indian Gorkhas as an immigrant Nepalese population living in India.

In India, there are Assamese, Bengalese, Biharis, Sindhis, Punjabis, Gorkhas, etc. belonging to different ethnic groups among the Indians. Similarly in Pakistan there are Punjabis, Pathans, Sindhis, Muhajeer etc. The Gorkha can thus be described as an ethnic community living in Nepal, India and elsewhere either as Nepalese, Indian or any other national.

The present agitation for Gorkhaland, thus, like the movement for the constitutional recognition of Gorkhali/Nepali language in early 90’s, has been linked to question of Gorkha identity and of the need to acknowledge their contribution in the making of modern India. The quest for statehood, however, should not be viewed as an emergence of parochial identities.

In India, language has provided an obvious basis for formation of separate states, because linguistic groups are also culturally distinct societies. The Indian National Congress recognised this principle of linguistic provinces in 1921, which was then stated in explicit terms by the Nehru Committee which produced a draft constitution for India in 1928. It said:

“Although we speak of India as a nation we are not oblivious to the fact that it is as great as a continent, that its various provinces have their own separate languages and distinctive cultures, their customs and manners differ largely and although in a broad sense India is one geographically and culturally, its diversity is immense and we have always aimed at unity in diversity. The government of a country of such continental dimensions must necessarily be federal in character, allowing internal autonomy to its various homogenous constituent units”.

Regarding the constitution of Provinces, the report expressed itself categorically as follows, “Everyone knows that the present distribution of provinces in India has no rational basis. It is merely due to accident and the circumstances attending the growth of British power in India. As a whole, it has little to do with geographical or historical or economic or linguistic reasons. Even from the purely administrative point of view, it is not a success. It is clear that there must be a redistribution of Provinces.....What principle should govern this redistribution? Partly geographical and partly economic and financial but the main consideration must necessarily be the wishes of the people and the linguistic unity of the area concerned”.

Nehru’s standpoint continues to be relevant, more so in the context of Gorkhaland.

But the need to distinguish regions on such grounds is of even earlier antiquity. Rasheeddudin Khan, in an article in Seminar (1973) had contended that linguistic and socio-cultural basis was even followed by Akbar. “The Ain-i-Akbari of Abul Fazl and the Tuzk-i-Jehangiri (Memoirs of Emperor Jehangir) reveals the basis on wihcch the Mughal subahs (provinces) were constituted. An obvious concern was shown for linguistic and socio-cultural homogeneity in the delimitation of provinces. In his memoirs, Jehangir mentions how his father, Emperor Akbar, was conscious of the fact that provinces should coincide with linguistic-cum-cultural regions of India”.

This was therefore also the general reasoning given by the first States Reorganisation Commission in 1955.

The desire to create a state of Gorkhaland on the basis of these linguistic-cultural societies is thus not only politically desirable but is almost a necessary condition precedent for progress being made in the direction of social democracy.

In addition to linguistic and cultural homogeneity, the SRC also laid down three other principles for determining and demarcating the boundary of a state. They were; "(i) preservation and strengthening of the unity and security of India (iii) financial, economic and administrative considerations; and (iv) successful working of a national plan.

The history of Darjeeling and the Dooars is intrinsically related to that of Nepal, Bhutan and Sikkim. As per the historical records of Darjeeling and Dooars, till the first half of 19th century belonged to the kingdom of Sikkim. In 1835, the East India Company was ‘granted’ the Darjeeling tract to make a sanatorium for ailing soldiers and occupied the whole region. In 1865 the British annexed to British India those portions now known as Kalimpong subdivision and the Dooars after a military expedition was sent against Bhutan, After acquiring the land up to the Sunkosh river, the British, as in Darjeeling, started tea cultivation in Dooars as well. Richard Hughton first planted tea bushes at Gajalduba in Dooars in 1874. Gorkhas from Darjeeling, Sikkim and Nepal and the tribals from Bihar, Chhota Nagpur and Santhal Purganas poured in and settled down deforesting and planting tea on the length and breadth of Dooars. In this way the Gorkhas from the hills and the tribals from the plains have been living in close harmony since the beginning of the 19th century. The Jalpaiguri District Gazetteer prepared by Suniti Kumar Chatterjee even records that the Gorkhas and Adivasis were living in the northern belt of the district since 1709.

Owing to the congenial climate of Darjeeling, the British preferred hills to plains. They extended roads and rails from plains to hills, constructed houses and hospitals, opened schools to educate their children. The missionaries were also active in imparting education in the rural areas. As such, though the living conditions of the Gorkhas and other in Darjeeling were precarious, they appeared better in life-style. On the other hand, the people of the plains lived a primitive life and no remarkable changes were noticeable till date.

The Gorkhas, Bhutias and Lepchas have a social, cultural and linguistic affinity with the tribals ie. Uraons, Mundas, Totos, Rabhas, Mechey, Santhals and Rajbangshis. Nepali language is their lingua-franca and is spoken along the length and breadth of the Gorkhaland Dooars. There are numerous instances of cross-cultural and inter-racial marriages.

There are remarkable affinities too in respect of rites and rituals. Among the Santhals there is no dowry system, similar to that of the Gorkhas. Their family pattern and their gastronomic cultures are also akin. Animism or shamanism is the cult of all the inhabitants of Dooars irrespective of community. All festivals are related to the worship of nature. Despite their pecuniary hardships Gorkhas and Adivasis alike enjoy feasts and festivals, beating drums, making music and drinking home-brewed liquor on such occasions.

Culturally though, the people of Darjeeling and the Dooars are very much exploited physically, economically, educationally, politically, administratively, culturally. There are only three Nepali-medium schools in the Dooars region whereas the Nepali language speakers are to the tune of approximately eight lakhs. To establish Hindi-medium schools has been a long-cherished dream of the Adivasis, but there is none. Instruction in the Bengali vernacular is thrust upon the inhabitants by the state administration. The people of Dooars do not see themselves as the free citizens of a free country, governed as they are by the elite community of the state. They are perceived as mere tools of political parties, a vote-bank and meagre revenue sources.

Mani Kumar Thapa, a Gorkha poet writes :

All are equally crushed here
Under the same grinding-stone
Whether they be Somra, Mangra, Mangari
Or Maney, Dhaney and Maili.

A man in a human form
Enjoys in your earnings all
Oh, he is not a human, but
A devil in a human form

It is but your native land
And a land of toil and tilling
Underneath the soil of Dooars
Your forefathers have long been sleeping.

Somra, Mangra and Mangari are common tribal names and represent the terai tribals, whereas Maney, Dhaney and Maili represent common Gorkha names.

Similarly, a tribal folksong in Mundari language runs thus :

If you flee to the jungle fearing a two-legged tiger
The four legged tiger will eat you up in the jungle.
And if you run away from the four-legged tiger
The two-legged tiger will eat you up in the open land.

The people of Dooars possess a very rich culture but have no Governmental patronage to preserve and to promote it at the national level. In the demographic map of India, Dooars is an island forlorn and foreshaken. If accorded statehood along with its contiguous areas of the hills, it would make a culturally distinct twenty ninth state of India.

Testimony to the above facts is borne out by history: there has not been a single instance of communal, religious or cultural tension in Darjeeling-Dooars region between Indian Gorkhas and Adivasis; the proposed state of Gorkhaland would be an example of secularism and brotherhood in the truest sense.