The way the tea industry is set up is highly feudalistic with the workers having zero rights. This was a model championed by the colonial Britishers. They did not want the natives to have any rights, and to remain bonded to the tea companies. This modern day bonded labour practice has continued in the tea gardens of Darjeeling hills, Terai and Dooars.
I cannot help but wonder, why would the WB Govt post a quarter page ad on the front page of a leading Nepali language daily, about Parja Patta rights being given to “refugees” in Nadia, while denying the same rights to the people from Darjeeling hills, Terai and Dooars?
It’s because TMC knows that they will get away with murder, literally, as long as it happens in the North. They will continue to deny us our rights, for as long as we remain divided. They will keep the South appeased, as there are more MP and MLA seats in the south. They will to keep the indigenous communities of the North deprived, because they can afford to do so.
But, can we, the people from the North, afford to keep on appeasing a government that discriminates our region and people deliberately?
Harish Mukhia was a trailblazer, who revolutionized the Darjeeling Tea Industry, and continued to serve our region and people till his last breath. A humble grounded man, who helped all those who sought his help, and considered his wife Mani as the main inspiration behind his success This is his story.
We know Sir, you must have multiple agenda and issues to deal with nationally, so I felt I will help you with avoiding some issues, while you relax with your family here, and perhaps meet with politicians who have won the recent elections and ink a few deals on “Political Solution” (fact that Mamata Banerjee hasn’t said a word against your presence here is a dead give-away).
Fathers’ too undergo serious emotional pain and experience tremendous nervousness. That was the time I truly realized that it’s not easy to become a father. I was looking for a support or even a distraction but none came to my rescue. To make matter worse there was a big television screen with flashing reports on increasing number of positive cases in India.
A roundup of this week’s political events and stories from Darjeeling
There was something about the voice that felt so heavenly the first time I heard it in the National Panasonic tape recorder that my family had recently bought back in the mid 1980s. I was barely 12 then, and I had just started listening to greats like Mohd Rafi and Kishore Kumar, along with new singers like Kumar Sanu and Udit Narayan Jha. However, the Nepali songs like the ones sung by the legendary Kumar Subba were something else, and they swam through my cerebral cortex like a wakeful dream, the lyrics, the voice quality, the music notes, all easy on the ears and relaxing me to the hilt.
Spotlighting such unfair practices in teachers’ recruitment does not seem to create much outrage among the hill public these days, as the whole education system in the hills is widely politicised by the politicians and their party workers. So, the practice of nepotism and favouritism is very overt in the hill education system, and it has become a culture of sorts and is perhaps appreciated and expected by the educated hill mass.
Tea workers of the region are working below minimum wage, and over the years systematically all of their facilities have been stripped off. In order to support and sustain their family, they are forced to do small scale animal husbandry and horticulture. This is in addition to 12-14 hours of back-breaking labour every day.
When I discovered a remarkably unique species having a claw resembling the Gorkha machete ‘khukuri’, my professor Dr. Karmakar immediately told me to name this species after this traditional Gorkha weapon. Besides, we found our way to tribute the Gorkha people for their hospitality and hence the species was named “Floridotarsonemus kukri Karmakar & Mondal 2021”.