Gorkha Dreaming Part 2 | Darj And Ne

Confusion seems to be the bane of the Indian Gorkha: nationality, language, land and even the term Gorkha itself. Firstly, Gorkha or Gurkha? After India became independent, the British army was allowed to retain the use of some Gorkha units while the others became part of the Indian army. For distinguishing between the Indian and British Gorkha army personnel recruited from Nepal after August 15,1947, it was agreed that in the British army the units would be known as the Gurkha Rifles, and in India, the Gorkha Rifles.

Coming to the bigger confusion between Gorkha and Nepalese, it should be made clear that Gorkha refers to a group of ethnic communities, pervading political borders, while Nepalese refers to a nationality, of Nepal. 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 is thus an ethnic community living in Nepal, India and elsewhere either as Nepalese, Indian or any other national.

DAVID DAMUEL ROBBINS/CORBIS

Why Gorkhaland?
The Gorkhas are a proud but much maligned lot - proud of their history, achievements, loyalty and service but maligned and seen with suspicion, first by their colonial masters and later by the Indian union. The Gorkha of the Hindi film maybe a grossly inaccurate portrayal of people whose achievements run much beyond guarding houses and offices but it does reflect the common perception of the Indian establishment. The Gorkhas have been an integral part of the Indian Union but have always been treated as aliens, and unfairly treated accordingly.

In 2004, some Bihari youth aspiring to sit for railway employment board exams were assaulted and insulted in Maharastra and Assam. There was hue and cry raised in the state of Bihar, and in retaliation, North Eastern Indian type travelers passing through the state of Bihar had to face the wrath of the agitated youth. Had Gorkhas been at the receiving end, at the most, there would be a whimper of an outcry limited to local Nepali language newspapers in Gorkha pockets of India. None in the country would ever be wiser or interested.

During the 1979 Anti-Foreigners movement in the North Eastern states of India for which the print media blamed unseen foreign hands, in a single day 17,000 Gorkhas living for decades had to flee from Meghalaya hills to Byrnihat town in Assam-Meghalaya border. How many at that time were injured or killed, no one knows or cared to know. Even the Gorkhas of Darjeeling or Sikkim Gorkhas were unaware of it, thanks to government censorship and media apathy.

India is a free country and yet bus crew in buses entering the North East states of India carry out passenger manifests. This system started with the Anti-foreigners Movement in 1979 particularly in Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal and Manipur. The buses are stopped at every Assam Police Check Post beginning at the very first one at Srirampur in Kokrajhar district. At the Check Posts, a few Police personal enter the bus, a Gorkha personnel of minor rank scans the passenger manifest carried by the bus crew for any passenger with Gorkha surname or the ones among the passengers with Gorkha appearance and rudely commands them to alight for checking. What follows next is a round of impolite and often improper questioning and checking, even women are not exempt. The unfortunate passengers have to produce a proof of nationality to continue onwards. Nowhere else does a similar system exist and on none else than the unfortunate Gorkha is it targeted.

Discrimination to the Gorkha has some in other fronts as well. Doordarshan, the Indian national televison broadcaster once showed bandmaster Late Capt. Ram Singh Thakuri of the Indian National Army (INA) and two of his INA colleagues recollecting days in Myanmar, and how the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose had required of him to compose a patriotic tune. He had presented the present day national anthem to Netaji but in the future tense as 'Jana gana mana jaya ho..' instead of 'Jana gana mana jaya he..'. His other contributions include other patriotic songs like 'Sare Jaha se achha...' and 'Kadam badaye ja…'. He got his reward many years after India became independent in the form of a public ridicule by a relative of the Netaji saying that the tune of the national anthem was beyond the capability of a Gorkha to compose. Even a booklet of patriotic songs released by the Government of India mentions the names of the lyricist and composer of every other song save those composed by the unfortunate Gorkha named Ram Singh Thakuri. It appeared that Ram Singh Thakuri or his clan seemed fit only to describe the black spots of Indian history like the Jalianwala Bagh Massacre in which the innocent mercenary Gorkha troop was used.

The Indian administration and the bureaucracy also seem largely ignorant of the Gorkha contribution in the Independence Movement. The names of freedom fighters like Jangbir Sapkota or INA's Capt. Khadka from the tiny town of Kalimpong have sadly been lost to obscurity. If only they would consult The Role of Honour, a book on INA published by a foundation or trust of the INA from Kolkata. It is true that the highest ranking Gorkha in the INA was just a Major in the form of Durga Malla, who had to face the gallows in the Red Fort after a trial by the British, but that cannot obliterate the record of the many that laid down their lives in the Irrawadi, Chindwin and jungles of Myanmar. The contributions have been many but how many among the Gorkhas have been lucky to be acknowledged for their selfless acts?

It was in such an ignominious and unfortunate circumstance that Subash Ghising painted in the hearts of the Gorkhas of India a vivid picture of Gorkhaland, a state like any of the extant 29 of the Indian Union. Many leaders in the past, including those belonging to the undivided Communist Party of India and local political parties, too had dangled a similar dream as a carrot in front of the Gorkha vote bank. Fed up with the discrimination and the treatment meted out, the public took the call. It seemed a chance to wipe out forever the immigrant stigma hanging over them at large.

EARL AND NAZIMA KOWAL/CORBIS

Consequently, once except for some 4 votes, all the ballot boxes from the hills were returned empty. After this there was no dearth of Argonauts ready to sacrifice their lives for enabling the Jason of Subash Ghising to bring the Golden Fleece of a state of the Indian Union for them or their survivors if they had to lay their lives on the way. The dragon was however too cunning for Ghising. He was handed over a counterfeit Golden Fleece wrapped in a piece of paper in the form of a notification declaring all those Gorkhas born in India prior to August 15, 1957 and their descendants as Indians. How effective and for how long this piece of paper will be able to protect the Gorkhas in India needs to be seen. The covert operation against the Gorkhas could have intensified, as understandably the puppeteers on having been able to remain unsuspected all these years after getting hundreds murdered and displacing thousands must have become more confident and bolder. For now, even if the piece of paper may seem a guarantee of nationality, it holds no value for Assam Police personnel ready to body search for booty on the plea of Certificate of Indian nationality.

Future
The Gorkhas appear placated at least temporarily but for how long? Till when will the Indian union stand by its promise of equality to the Gorkha? The DGHC has pushed Gorkhaland to the background but the core issues remain the same. The Gorkha community remains little more than a vote bank to be appeased briefly before elections, and Gorkhaland for politicians and other interested sections, more or less an anti-national secessionist design of misguided unwanted aliens.

Soon there can be several new states in India like Telangana, Bidarbha etc but Gorkhaland will apparently remain a pipe dream of the unfortunate immigrants, to use the favourite (or legal?) nomenclature in the country for them. These are the moments when we miss Netaji the most, if only he had not disappeared before his dreams had been fulfilled. If there was any leader who could vouch for the loyalty and contributions of the Gorkhas, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was one. For people like Major Durga Malla, Capt. Ram Singh Thakuri and the other insignificant souls of the Bahadur and Body Guard Battalions of the INA, if not for anything else.

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