Gorkhas Never Part of India?
One of our readers, write
This is to bring you to the light of a notification released in the website of http://darjeeling.gov.in recently wherein the govt. has defined ‘Gorkha’ as the community who originally came from Nepal. But we all know that Darjeeling was originally a part of the Kingdom of Sikkim and was inhabited by the Tsongs (Limbu), the Bhutias, the Lepchas, and the Kirat (Rai) and the Magars, before being invaded by the Gorkhas who were able to subdue the combined indigenous Bhutia and Lepcha armies of Sikkim. The Gorkha army from Nepal invaded Darjeeling in the 1780s, attacked the Sikkimese capital of Rabdentse, and annexed territories up to the Teesta River into Nepal. By 1816 the whole of the area known as British Sikkim belonged to Nepal. After the Anglo-Gorkha War, Nepal ceded one-third of it territories to the British under the 1816 Sugauli Treaty, which included the land area between the Mechi and Teesta Rivers.
The Notification which consists of a letter from the Anthropological Survey of India dated 10 September, 2004 which states that Gorkhas exclusively came to India (which suggests that Gorkhas were never a part of India or were Indians originally) and also that the Nepal migrants at the time called themelves as Gorkhas which might be relevant. But the question that is being posed indirectly is regarding the Gorkha’s identity. So, during the Survey by the concerned esteemed Ministry where from did they gather the information about Gorkhas only being migrants. Didn’t they find or studied the history of Gorkhas and the land inhabited by them?
The letter is itself very vague mentioning Gorkha as a blanket term for migrants of Nepal to India. It has nowhere mentioned that they were inhabitants of land covered by India. The release of the Notification at such a time where it has no relevance poses 6 serious thought provoking questions-
- The letter in the Notification is of 10 September, 2004 which is about 14 years old. Why has it been released now? What is the objective of this Notification at the present times? What is it trying to portray?
- The letter has been written to Shri R.N. Chakraborty, Assistant Secretary, Home (Political Dept.), Govt. of West Bengal, Writers Building, Kolkata by Mr. Arun Kumar Singh, Head of Office wherein there is no signatures of both the personnel. So, is the letter genuine?
- In the letter, a segment of statements has been underlined which highlights that people coming from Nepal to India used to call themselves as Gorkhas. Is it suggesting that Gorkhas were not Indians originally or by birth (after Treaty)?
- Moreover, there is no marking or direction of the letter to be uploaded in the Government website. So, why has it been uploaded?
- Isn’t the Government aware that the land inhabited by Gorkhas for instance Darjeeling was taken into jurisdiction of East India Company from Nepal which later remained as a part of India when the Company left i.e. after Independence? Therefore, before uploading such matters why didn’t the Government verify the content matter?
- Before Kalimpong was under the jurisdiction of Darjeeling District. As we know, Kalimpong was taken by the Indian Government under lease from Bhutan for which the Indian Government pays lease to the country. Now that Kalimpong has been separated and gained the status of District, Darjeeling has become a distinct entity. Why has this fourteen years old letter in the Notification been released at this juncture? Is it done because now that Kalimpong has been separated from Darjeeling, it would be easy to raise questions at the identity of Darjeeling Gorkhas?
- Now the major and most saddening issue is what is our political heads or representatives(elected and nominated) doing even when this Notification is doing rounds in the website of www.darjeeling.gov.in.
First of all, the question arises why is it being uploaded in the very first hand. After it has been uploaded, what are these political figures thinking? Haven’t they come under the sight of this Notification? As they proudly say that they are the caretakers of Gorkhas, haven’t they even heard of this notification? They claim to know everything about our history and culture, what have they got to say now after this notification has openly been released? They seem to be deaf, dumb and mentally backward in this whole picture of the situation.
Lastly, it is a challenge to all the self claimed Netas who have promised to provide us identity to write a letter or release a Notification enclosing the whole history of Gorkhas stating very loudly and clearly that we were Indians who were geographically brought to India alongwith the land vide Inter-Country and Inter-State Treaties.
Do they have enough guts to write or spread such circular in the said website clearing away the annotation of Gorkhas as highlighted at the letter contained in the Notification?
Gorkhas Never Part of India claims this letter (original)
Likely story which could possibly be true but then all the minor ethnic origin of people within 22 states of India too falls under similar condition some donnt even qualify more than the Gorkha origin and have today a State of its own…pkm
No one is barred from submitting his or opinion in our society but people with egoistic make
up with added tendency to demote our Gorkha History need better education and higher senssnse and. sensibility. Gorkha , Sindhi ,Bengali or Bangalus are are is a jati name unlike Nepali, Bangaladeshi, Indian and Pakistanis
are citizenship names . All of us have have lands on the other side of Bagmati or Padma or the river Sindh. If we indulge in creating what we used to call in jurisprudence that is a cut throat wound each one of us could be worse than Ukraine at any point in history. So good feelings friends .Let us help to make one another rather destroying.
OurIndian Gorkha Identity has become aTRISHANKU due to juxtaposition of the termNepali which like the wordPakistaniorBangladeshi inherently carries citizenship name of theNepali citizens who are foreighners.
We cannot brush aside what Prof Michael Hut once wrote” ULTIMATELY being Nepali without Nepal has often moved impossible” .He wrote about Bhutanese refugees . That is why it is increasingly necessary for our Indian Gorkha sisters and brothers to learn a lesson from what Prof Hut penned( ( Nationalism and Hindu Kingdom).
We know LtGen Shakti Gurung’s view too” Gorkha is accepted as a soldier guarding India’s frontiersYET his language,culture and literature is termed NEPALI. ‘ He does not stop there, rather practically and clearly reminds us to rectify our mistake in including the nomenclatureNEPALI to the Eigschedule of the Indian Constitution ,when he says” NEPALI means a citizen of Nepal” ,( April 2018,NewDelhi) . The term Nepali does not suit us,and we may be better using terms such asGorkhajati GorkhaBhasa ,as these words are Ethnicitybased wheteasNepali,PakistaniBangladeshi are country based. Our another ‘ snake under the palm” being the clause VI and VI of the IndoNepal Treaty of Peace and Friendship which has been been the source of our misidentification ,miscoeption of ourIdentity .We had overcome this problem by using the termIndian Gorkha in order to separate us from them- theReciprocal epalese. DrMani Kumar Sharma Siliguri 23122024