A Story of Teesta and Rangit

        

 - Manprasad Subba

 

The Rangit nowadays

is an irony to himself.

Emaciated and thinned as he is today

even a goat kid can hop across him.

 

While in his eternal youthfulness

he would show masculine pride

to his beloved Teesta.

At the mere sight of his pride

the rising hills trembled with fear.

But while he glided lovingly singing

all trees rejoiced and birds fluttered cheerfully.

His breath was a boon to the hills and valleys.

His attractive gait, confident move,

his indomitable power of roaring flow

bearing torrential rain…

All these are now but merely a mythical story.

And who else has the time

even to listen to this story?

 

At the crack of dawn

as the wild fowl let out its first crow

the Banjhankri would perform his ablutions

in the crystal Rangit water.

But, as even his incantations

couldn’t rejuvenate the Rangit,

he, nowadays, has just vanished.

(He is believed to have uttered -

Any deity’s wrath could be appeased,

but things fallen under dark human-spell

rarely escape.)  

+

His brother, Chhota Rangit,

coming from the south

carries him on his back nowadays

down to Tribeni and leaves him to the care

of the Teesta who arrives there sighing.

And seeing each-other’s poor shapes

both break down in embrace.

Without uttering a word, both know

that their souls have been abducted

by one dark eye coming from the underworld.

 

(Strange! Who is singing so soulfully -

Where the Teesta-Rangit flow…)

 

‘Never to part with each other’

is the promise they made aeon ago.

 

Now both in one single entity

that moves on haltingly-

sluggishly …

In winter season

Teesta unable to drag itself

needs rest quite often.

Her stomach swells up

like suffering from cirrhosis.

 

Like silver medals on the chest

of an ex-soldier now in wheel chair

flashes in her memory the words -

‘O Mighty Teesta !’- once uttered by poet Devkota

standing on the Anderson Bridge.

 

In such an infirmity,

she thinks also of the poem

Bikas Gotamey had once read to her -

‘Flow on, O Teesta, keep flowing..’

 

And all these songs and poems get mixed up

in her memory like a jigsaw puzzle -

‘where flow O mighty flow you Teesta..’

___________________ 

 

*Banjhankri - A mythical shaman living in some deep forest cave.           

  

  [Translated from Nepali original by the poet.]  

      

 

    

 

 

     

    

 A Poem for a Poet

 

She is a poet.

So, do not look for her in her poems.

She won’t be there.

Rather, you will be there, I’ll be

and many others like us.

Leaving herself back in her room,

she comes out into poems – in the forms

of you people and many ‘I’s.

 

She doesn’t spread her wounds

out in the sun of poem

nor flashes her delight on her teeth

as an ad of a certain toothpaste.

Rather from an edge of her wound

she draws in poem the map of a village

which is just devastated in a riot.

 

Incarnated in words,

poet cannot remain herself in poem.

In it, in fact, stands an elephant

which the blinds touch and they see

their individual beliefs in it.

 

Poet is always at the edge

of the main road of her poem.

 

Poet’s breathing

and poem’s rhythm

are two different things…

_______________________    

- Manprasad Subba  

 

 Outpourings of a Masochist

- Manprasad Subba

 

Strike me with the thorny whip of your fury

So that I may love you more vigorously

 

Hit me with the stones of your condemnation

So that I may cry in orgasmic ecstasy

 

Poke me all over my naked body

With the burning cigar of your hatred   

So that I may grow more affectionate towards you  

 

Heap upon me the trashes of your insults

So that my heart may turn to be

A spa of reverence for you

 

Hurl at me the darts of your frothy abusive words  

So that I may write a passionate poem for you

 

Bury me under the weight of your sweaty earth

So that I may sprout through you anew

And grow to be ever with you

________________________

                                                April 29, 2023 // 12. 30 pm.   

 

     

 

 

 

Chhota Rangit is her name. A medium sized Mountain River originating from the base of Maneybhanjyang in the south and rushing down towards Sikkim in the north where it embraces the Bara Rangit creating beautiful confluence. However, nowadays, the Bara Rangit, once a second biggest river of Sikkim, now being forced to run through the hellish dark tunnel where he (this river is depicted as male in a Lepcha folk tale) cannot see his own physical self, the confluence has lost all its charm. The mighty Bara Rangit has today been reduced to a tiny creek which even a tottering kid can easily cross. I often miss his rumbling voice and majestic rippling shape.

For some days a chilling gust of fear has started blowing that the Chhota Rangit also might meet similar fate as that of the Bara Rangit and Teesta.  It is quite evident from the initial work of the project at the base where the Baluwabas merges with the Chhota Rangit that the work has actually started. It is now in everybody’s knowledge in the Chhota Rangit valley that one WB State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd. is all set to go ahead with the 18 megawatt power project by harnessing the entire volume of water ever flowing in the Chhota Rangit since time immemorial. But how can we allow the Company to abduct this pristine river for their narrow material motive?

Chhota Rangit is the most precious gift, a divine gift, the mother Nature has endowed this valley with. Besides being an ever inspiring vibrant object of irreplaceable scenic beauty, this river has ever kept alive the environment and ecology of not only the entire valley of Bijanbari-Pulbazar region but all the adjoining regions including Darjeeling town. One can imagine the devastating impact upon the flora and fauna of the whole region. How a certain profit amassing company can lay claim upon the river which is the source of life for countless of creatures and vegetation is beyond anybody’s reasoning. 

Apart from its prime environmental and ecological importance, this north-bound river is related with a number of religious and cultural sentiment and significance. Its being north-bound, the Hindus regard this river as uniquely sacred and prefer to cremate their relatives’ bodies on the bank of this river to the satisfaction of their own religious belief. Some other ethnic groups in Nepali (Gorkha) community also perform their ethnic rituals on the banks of this river. Biharis also feel proud to perform their annual Chhat Puja along the bank of this river.

To hundreds of toiling folks this dancingly flowing river has ever been a source of sustenance in various manners.

Today when a Company is determined to loot this river, the whole valley has risen up with its sleeves rolled up to defend its Life Line knowing full well that the battle it has taken up will not end anytime soon. But it has made up its mind to fight to the last drop of blood.

I, on behalf of the Save Chhota Rangit Campaigning Committee, request everyone to extend your support to this Valley in whatever manner you like.           

       

 

 

 Quest for Identity through Language and Beyond…

                                                                                 -Manprasad Subba

Thirty-six long years of struggle that started in 1956 with Anand Singh Thapa’s letter to the then President of India raising demand for the constitutional recognition of Nepali language, came to a rest when Nepali language was finally enshrined in the Eighth Schedule of Indian Constitution on August 20, 1992. The maiden letter Thapa mailed to Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the first President of independent India, must find a very special niche in the archive of the history of the Nepali language movement in India.   

     I presume that no other Indian language had to fight for such a long period and with so much of trials and tribulations to find a rightful place in the Constitution. Although Anand Singh Thapa’s letter to the President created not much stir in the Nepali speaking Indians then, it unquestionably planted a healthy seed that in course of time sprouted in the minds of a few intellectuals in the Darjeeling Hills and elsewhere. But it was not visible in any form before 1972 when a dozen or so intellectuals and enthusiasts met to form Nepali Bhasha Samiti, renamed as Akhil Bharatiya Nepali Bhasha Samiti a couple of years later. The Samiti was founded by some lawyers, professors, prominent social workers based in Darjeeling town among whom Prem Kumar Alley, Bal Dewan, Dr. Kumar Pradhan, Enos Das Pradhan, B. P. Gurung, L.B. Rai were in the fore front.  

     Here, it must be recalled that eleven years prior to the emergence of Nepali Bhasha Smiti, there had been a language stir erupted almost abruptly at the regional level of Darjeeling Hills under the leadership of two illustrious intellectuals – Ganeshlal Subba and Indrabahadur Rai. That movement was stirred by the then Bengal government’s faulty language policy that had attempted to impose Bengali language even in the Darjeeling Hills. People sharply reacted and were irrepressibly agitated. Massive protest rallies hit the streets of Darjeeling town; walls of government office-buildings were splashed with posters vehemently condemning the imposition that had deeply hurt the sentiment of the Hill folks. This agitation forced the state government to come to terms with the hill sentiment and a Bill was introduced in the State Assembly to recognize Nepali language as a state language in three hill sub-divisions of Darjeeling district in the same year, i. e.1961.

     Two years before Nepali Bhasha Samiti came to the fore, a committee called Nepali Bhasha Prayog Gara Abhiyan Samiti, had made a meteor-like appearance in the firmament of Darjeling. The singular purpose of the Committee, as its name suggested, was aimed at stressing on the use of Nepali language in all official as well as private matters. In its brief period of whirlwind movement it proved really vigourous and committed to practically exercise the right that the WB Official Language Act-1961 accorded to Nepali language in the Hills. It even published a booklet of official terminology in Nepali language to help the workers in the government offices and other institutions, its zealous members boldly came out on the streets to smear all the English signboards in the town with black paint, and appealed the drivers and vehicle owners to replace the English number-plates with Nepali ones. This Samiti, consisting of only five members, namely Prem Sherpa Biroki, Haren Aley, Lok Thapa, Em Pathik and Dhansingh Moktan, disappeared soon after Nepali Bhasha Samiti took birth.

     Another unforgettable historical event that occurred in 1971, is related to a legendary person Ratanlal Brahmin, popularly known as Maaila Bajae. Representing Darjeeling district as a lone Member of Parliament, he, when desiring to take oath of office in his mother tongue Nepali, was rebuffed just because Nepali language, being then not yet placed in the constitution, was not considered an Indian language. And he was compelled to take oath in Hindi. “But during the budget session, no one could prevent him from placing his rebuttal in his mother tongue. …for the first time in the history of the Parliament House, a speech was made in Nepali, a language as marginalized as its people. It was translated into English and shared in the House. The support he received from other MPs pushed him, in December 1971, to garner the signature of 74 MPs on a memorandum to the Prime Minister and Home Ministry, seeking recognition of Nepali as one of the national languages of India… He also piloted a private member’s bill in February 1972 on the amendment of the constitution to include Nepali in the Eighth Schedule.”- (The Red Lion of the Hills by Preeti Brahmin / 2021 / page 125). Preeti Brahmin further writes that ‘the Nepali Bhasha Samity was formed in 1972 on his (Ratanlal Brahmin’s) initiative.’        

     Until 1977 Nepali Bhasha Samiti’s activity was not beyond the confine of correspondence, leaflets, posters and occasional public speeches in the towns. It was only when Morarjee Desai, the first non-Congress Premier of India, gave a thunderous slap on the cheeks of the delegation of Bhasha Samiti, its exercise turned into a movement in a real sense of the term. It was the first time that none other than the then Prime Minister of the country had bluntly called Nepali language a foreign language and even threatened to disband the Gorkha regiment in the Indian Army. What greater insult and humiliation could there be!

     This humiliation and insult at the hand of the most powerful person in the national capital shook the entire Nepali community of the land like never before.  And the poets poured out their anguish, playwrights portrayed their national agony in theatricals, painters began to give revolutionary tone and texture to their paintings and musicians composed melodies evoking deep rooted Nepali ethnic cultural ethos. Young painters of the time, notably Krishna Subba and Sonam Sherpa, painted their emotions and visions quite strikingly in their own individual style. Some of their paintings still adorn the walls of the office of Gorkha Dukha Niwarak Sammelan (GDNS).  

     A few lines from a poem entitled ‘Backlash’ that was spurred by the anguished moments of that time and published first in ‘Haamro Bhasha’-1978, the Bhasha Samiti’s mouthpiece, and also in Diyalo, then a reputed literary monthly, may be cited here to show the different tone and texture of Indian Nepali poetry in late seventies and eighties: 

         At the very crack of dawn

         Without any sign of rainclouds

         This pine tree in my barren garden

         Was suddenly struck by a thunderbolt

         While I was looking forward to the advent of Spring 

         …        …      …

         I, as old as the Himalaya,

         But now a derelict

         In my own country!

         …         …      …

         Now is the time to be born of death’s womb

         O my hills and mountains!

         Why are you still quiet with your arms crossed?

         Burst forth thunderously releasing the streams of lava all around

         Against this dark chasm…

-         Subba

 

Mohan Thakuri, a well-known poet, also articulated in these words:

 

         I am here standing for ages

         Flowing with songs of rivers

         Echoing on the hills

         The soil of the land where I stand

         Speaks out the testimony of my being here…

 

                                                                         -Need of the Hour (1980)

 

     And the language movement, instead of being cowed down by the shabby treatment at the hand of Morarjee Desai, was re-energized with all the more vigour and determination. It was, of course, a serious question of identity crisis, and the then sixty lakh Nepali-speaking Indians fervently believed that the inclusion of Nepali language in the Constitution would solve, once and for all, this crisis, the primary cause of their decades-long suffering – physical as well as psychological. ‘Our language, our life’, ‘We sacrifice our lives but we will reach the goal’- slogans rent the sky of the Darjeeling Hills and the Dooars and their echo could be heard in far flung regions like Manipur-Mizoram in the east and Dehradun-Bhaksu in the west.

     Post-Morarjee encounter, Bhasha Samiti was thoroughly restructured, expanded and made pan-India Indian Nepali umbrella-organization. Amidst national humiliation suffered by the whole of Indian Nepali community, Indrabahadur Rai, icon of Indian Nepali literature, unable to stay quiet any longer, joined the Bhasha Samiti and accepted the pivotal portfolio of chairmanship. His patriarchal presence immensely reinvigourated the Samiti that then began to exude inexhaustible spirit. Unprecedentedly charged Samiti gave a call to stage a torch-bearing evening procession all over the Hills symbolizing indomitable and ever-burning spirit of Nepali-speaking community in India. Another major programme executed was a historic Vikshobh Diwas (Day for venting of mass anguish) on 11 December 1977. This event made Darjeeling stand still for over six hours at a stretch. That very evening All India Radio aired the news announcing the names of Sahitya Akademi Award winners for 1977 and for the first time an Indian Nepali author’s name was uttered along with others’ from other Indian languages, and that name was none other than Indrabahadur Rai. His work of critique, Nepali Upanyaska Adhaarharu, was adjudged best for the award that year. This, first ever Akademi Award to the Indian Nepali literature came as a great morale booster to the Nepali-speaking Indian community at that time of volatility.

     Another significant event that followed Vikshobh Diwas was a 2-day Conference of five languages demanding constitutional recognition. Representatives of Dogri, Konkani, Manipuri and Rajsthani languages had attended the conference in Darjeeling. A joint action committee was formed to reinforce the movement. The entire atmosphere was reverberated with the revolutionary song ‘We shall overcome’ sung in English, Hindi and Nepali alternately. The Samiti organised rallies in Dehradun, Guwahati, Imphal and many other places. But, one day, I. B. Sir, all on a sudden, resigned from the Samiti, and no amount of persuasion could revert his mind. Despite I. B. sir’s forsaking of Samiti, it did not slacken its activities in the journey toward the cherished goal. A three-day hunger strike was held at the Esplanade East in Calcutta. Following the urge of the Samiti, State Governments of WB, Sikkim and Tripura adopted resolutions recommending to the Central government for immediate recognition of Nepali language.  

     By the way, a bold gesture made by an undergraduate examinee in the Darjeeling Government College may also be brought to our memory: even after winning the status of an official language of West Bengal, Nepali was not yet allowed to be used for writing examination papers in colleges and universities except for Nepali vernacular subject till 1978. It was Birbahadur Thakuri who, defying the university norm and caring the least about the consequence, wrote his answers in Nepali in the political science examination. Amid tumultuous atmosphere in the Hills, the North Bengal University, after initial rejection, could not but accept the answer-script written in Nepali. In due time result was published and Birbahadur Thakuri found his name among those passed.              

     □    

     In just three years after being in the saddle, the Morarjee government was toppled and after a few tottering dispensations that followed in between, Indira Gandhi stormed back into power. Bhasha Samiti once again led a delegation to Delhi with a renewed hope but PM Mrs. Gandhi was reluctant to give any assurance. On the contrary, she later labeled the demand for constitutional recognition of Nepali language as “more an emotional than rational.” It was strange that she could not see the rationality in the demand for inclusion of Nepali language in the eighth schedule of the constitution. She was completely unaware that a globally renowned linguist Dr. Suniti Kumar Chatterjee, long ago, had enlisted Nepali language as one of the major Indian languages on the basis of which Sahitya Akademi, the highest National Academy of Letters in India had duly recognized it in 1975. To the Nepali speaking sentiments, the denial of constitutional recognition of the language was the denial of recognition of the community as Indian. Consequently, a kind of frustration was gripping Nepali speaking people in Darjeeling and other parts of the country. And this is when Nepali identity politics emerges in its unprecedented manifestation.  

     In the early eighties of the preceding century, a historic seminar held at Sukeypokhari gave birth to a new organization named Pranta Parishad (Council for Separate State) steered by Indrabahadur Rai. Its solitary objective was to lead the movement with the theory of forming a separate state free from the clutch of West Bengal but within the Union of India. Now the Nepali speaking people’s movement shifted from language to the land. So to say, the movement of cultural identity starting from language was so violently shaken by Morarjee Desai’s utterly insensitive words and also by the subsequent government’s ignorance and apathy that Nepali-speaking Indians were made to think hard about their national-political identity in the country from different perspective. The Pranta Parishad was, of course, born of the womb of the long-felt need for establishing the Nepali speaking Indians as a distinct community in the country which they firmly believe to be their motherland. In fact, question of articulating distinctive identity in the context of Indian nationality has ever been there as ‘collective unconscious’ in the minds of Indian Nepalis, and this deep-rooted dormant psychic element has often found its expression in one way or the other. Here, it is pertinent to call to our mind that the hill community had demanded for the ‘separate administrative arrangement’ forty years before the end of British colonial rule in India. That was in 1907, to be precise, when the Hillmen Association came up with such demand. So, the emergence of Pranta Parishad can be called a bigger manifestation of the same aspiration to exorcise the ghost of identity crisis deeply rooted in that collective unconscious. However, the Parishad’s activities could not go beyond the public speeches. It utterly lacked the organizational work at the grass-root level; its leaders’ intellectual talks from the high pulpit could have only limited impact upon the general mass.

     One bloody incident that took place in a public meeting of Pranta Parishad in downtown Darjeeling in the year 1981 has remained etched in the mind of everyone who happened to witness it. Chowk bazaar was so jam-packed that one could not walk through it. The sea of humanity stood motionless in rapt attention listening to a speech being delivered from Gitangey Daanra, now renamed Sumeru Manch. Suddenly, there was a commotion in the front part of the huge assemblage. A little later sound of gunshots pierced the atmosphere and people were scampering toward all directions. In no time Chowk Bazar looked completely deserted except near the Bata Co.’s shoe shop where a small crowd was hastily taking care of someone profusely bleeding. The crowd rushed to the Sadar Hospital carrying the wounded. A few more gunshots were heard. Gun-toting cops were marching along the street back and forth. And more gunshots and one more bleeding boy was brought to the hospital. The hospital was swarmed by the people – with anxiety and anguish and indignation in their eyes. An hour or so later, the first victim who fell in front of the Bata was pronounced dead. He was none but one of the brightest of young painters and a martial art master Krishna Subba. The second one, Devraj Sharma, an innocent student of St. Robert’s High School, also succumbed to the bullet injury.    

     Next morning, every inch of the poster-wall of Chowk bazaar was covered with posters crying condemnation against the brutal police action and demanding suspension of one particular police-inspector who thereafter was never seen in the town. But when he, after a few years, reappeared, he proudly strode the same street displaying insignia of a Deputy Superintendent of Police. It cannot be said whether he noticed the small concrete memorial erected in memory of Krishna Subba at the same spot where he had fallen. Another memorial stood at one side of Barick. As time rolled on, memorials also disappeared not only from their respective spots but also from the people’s memory. How short the memory really is! Particularly, that of ours!

      □            

     And a couple of years later, Subash Ghising, almost suddenly, emerged with a bang in the political scenario of the Hills. The self-styled leader roared the slogan of Gorkhaland, and the name of his organization “Gorkha National Liberation Front” sounded very much disturbing to the leaders in the state of West Bengal as well as at the Centre. (‘Gorkhaland’ nomenclature may be the echo of ‘Gorkhasthan’ once raised by Randhir Subba and some other CPI leaders before independence. It may also be guessed that soldier-turned-writer-turned politician Subash Ghising might have thought of Gorkhaland in the fashion of Nagaland.)   Whatever may it be, he single-handedly attracted the greatest ever mass support towards him before he held the first public address in Darjeeling on the 13^th of April 1986. While slogan of “Chhuttai Pranta” of the Parishad could not catch the fancy of common people at the grass-root, Ghising’s Gorkhaland, in no time, became extensively popular. Undeniably, it was Subash Ghising who popularized the nomenclature of Gorkha and Gorkhaland. He gave a clarion call to replace the word Nepali with Gorkha as the former, he argued, has ever landed us only in identity confusion in our own country. Although questionable, his argument in this matter is not insubstantial. In this context, I would like to recall some of my experiences I have had on many occasions while attending national literary meets and seminars. My first such encounter was in 1979 at Chandigarh where I, along with my three fellow poets from Darjeeling, was invited as a young promising poet to participate in a week-long Nine North-Indian Language Poets’ Workshop. Poets and writers from other Indian languages would ask us where we were from and what language we wrote in. The moment they heard the names like Darjeeling and Nepali they would jump to conclude that we were from Nepal. I have had such experiences even as lately as 2012. At a function of Kolkata literary festival, a cabinet minister, the day’s chief guest, expressed his pleasure over the presence of a poet from Nepal, and the poet he meant was none but me. A little later when it was my turn to speak I corrected him in a bit elaborate manner. Similarly, in the same year, a distinguished guest while concluding the two-day National Seminar on Translation mentioned me as from Nepal, and immediately after he finished, I asked permission of the chairperson of the session and reacted to what was said in the speech just concluded. However there is no such confusion with the languages like Bengali, Urdu, Punjabi or Sindhi. It’s unfortunate that only Nepali language and Nepali speaking people are pushed into confusion with Nepal.

     In order to get rid of this haunting confusion, Ghising and his couple of intellectual supporters insisted on the use of the word Gorkha despite the fact that at some point of history Gorkha was the name of a small hill kingdom to the west of Kathmandu and now a district of Nepal with the same name. During the process of ‘unification’ of Nepal the soldiers and officers coming from that part of the land used to be called Gorkha or Gorkhali. Even long after Nepal took the present shape the language that spread from that region used to be called Gorkha Bhasha. It had also some other names like Parvate or Khas. Even the present Nepal Rashtriya Pragya Pratishthan which during the time of royalty was called Royal Nepal Academy, at its nascent period was named Gorkha Bhasha Pracharini Saamiti. It was only much later that it was gradually replaced with Nepali. So, it clearly explains that the term Gorkha is as much intrinsically connected with Nepal as the term Nepali. But Ghising was doggedly bent to the use of Gorkha nomenclature and he went to that extent as to threat with a slogan such as “Those demanding Nepali language must leave for Nepal”. He had even aired his extreme view that Bhanu Jayanti must not be observed by the Indian Gorkhas as the poet Bhanubhakta Acharya belonged to Nepal. And he officially started to celebrate every year the birth anniversary of the poet Agamsingh Giri whom he called true Gorkha poet who always gave expressions to the plight of Indian Nepalis in his poetry of distinctively romantic tenor. But ironically, Giri seldom used the word Gorkha; his poetry is replete with the word Nepali.

     And the precipitously saddest event of that period is that one early morning, on the day of Bhanu Jayanti in 1992, the Hills awoke only to be shocked by the news that the statues of their most revered poet were vandalized in all three major hill towns simultaneously. It was far beyond people’s imagination that such a ghastly act of desecration would ever be committed to Poet Bhanubhakta who, for several decades, is being revered more as cultural icon of Indian Nepali community than merely a pioneering poet. Of the three Bhanu statues vandalized in one and the same night, the metal bust at Chowrasta of Darjeeling town that was literally decapitated was the most valuable in every respect. Historically, it was the first ever bust of poet Bhanubhakta Acharya installed anywhere in the world. Its artistic value can be surmised by what E. W. Thompson, a European sculptor, had said at the time of undertaking the job. In August 1948 Thompson had expressed his notion – “Superfluous resemblances or decorations mean nothing of importance to the artist. The artist goes deeper than what is apparently visible. The sincere representation of inner self is precisely what the artist strives for.” In Sonam B. Wangyal’s words, ‘Thompson .. commenced by trying to understand not just the physical part of the poet but mindset, his feelings and his attitude.’ (Decapitated but not dead / published in the Statesman -2004, and reproduced in Kalantar – II / 2018).     

     Another gory event enacted little over four months after decapitation of the Bhanu-statue was the brutal murder of Sudarshan Sharma, a fervent worker of Nepali language movement and a fearless critic of the then regional political set-up.

    □         

     It was during the time when Gorkhaland agitation grew more violent by each passing day in 1986-87 and the Darjeeling-based leaders of the language movement were under constant threat, the central office of Akhil Bharatiya Nepali Bhasha Samiti had to be shifted from Darjeeling to Dehradun. Ghising had literally changed the narrative of Gorkha identity movement: ‘Why beg for milk instead of claiming the cow itself?” And the demand for constitutional recognition of Nepali language was pushed to the rear seat.

     With the central office in Dehradun manned by the officials belonging to the same place, Bhasha Samiti could do little to steer the language movement forward. The office rather seemed to have gone defunct. To reinvigorate the movement from where Bhasha Samiti had left, a new organization named Bharatiya Nepali Rashtriya Parishad, under the chairmanship of Narbahadur Bhandari, the then Chief Minister of Sikkim, came up into existence with its office at Gangtok. Noted historian and distinguished literary critic, Dr. Kumar Pradhan, was with the Parishad as its intellectual mentor and guide. (Dr. Pradhan had been with the central committee of All India Nepali Bhasha Samiti right from its inception.) Distinguished writer Sanu Lama, a well-known dramatist C. K. Shreshtha and a devoted social worker S. R. Subba, who held the portfolios of secretaries and treasurer respectively also richly deserve mention here for their unconditional service towards the solitary goal of the Parishad or for that matter, of whole of Indian Nepali community. The Parishad also published a bi-monthly journal of good literary standard, named Adhaar.

     This organisation dedicatedly championed the cause of Nepali language movement by holding conferences at different places, sending delegations to the Central government and garnering practical support from the central leaders and the members of Parliament. In one of such conferences of the Parishad, on 12 June, 1990, what Dr. Kumar Pradhan, addressing as chairperson, said is worth recalling. The most memorable part of his speech was uttered in these words: “In the context of the cultural identity (jaati), our typical dresses, topi or khukuri, are merely the external symbols. When we go to bed we put off our dresses, take our topi off the head, hang the khukuri up on the peg on the wall, but we can never take off our language. Language is inherent with us. Inherent with our jaati, this Nepali language is our mother. Tendrils of our thoughts, our ideas grow on its props. This is the language of my whispering of love. This is the language of my woes and tears. This is the language that lets out my roar. This is the same Nepali language in which I smile while dreaming something joyous and this is the very same language in which I scream while in nightmares. This is why this language is my soul --- the Soul of us all.” [My translation from Nepali original text.]                      

     After all out efforts and exercises on the part of the Bharatiya Nepali Rashtriya Parishad a silver line had appeared in the dark cloud that ever hung over the head of Indian Nepali community. The learned Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao had indicated to the delegates of the Parishad of his being greatly impressed by the History of Nepali Literature which the author Dr. Kumar Pradhan had presented him the previous day..

     On the day when the language recognition bill was being placed and deliberated in the Parliament House, Ghising was desperately using all his political might, especially through MP Indrajit Khullar, to replace the term Nepali with Gorkha, and nothing but Gorkhha. And when, with Mrs. Dilkumari Bhandari, then lone MP from Sikkim, and Mr. R. B. Rai, MP in the Upper House, putting up their tremendous fight against those opposing voices, the Language Bill was finally passed in the Parliament, there was no celebration in the Darjeeling Hills. What greater irony can there be than this? People in Darjeeling Hills were too scared to celebrate the historic event. Ghising’s effort also did not go fruitless: the term Gorkha also was inserted alongside Nepali.   

     Perhaps, we are expected to view all those acts on the part of Ghising as his exercise towards finding a permanent solution to the identity crisis in the Indian context. It was the same intention that he, in the latter part of his being in power, raised the issue of Sixth Schedule which he believed could give distinct identity to the Gorkhas. But he failed to understand that the identity Sixth Schedule could give would be confined to the particular region or the state only. It cannot give us the national identity as a state or a lesser Union Territory does. In all probabilities, Ghising was, in fact, sorely endeavouring to atone himself for the historic blunder he committed by signing the tripartite accord and dropping the demand for separate Gorkhaland state, the proposed map of which included the entire strip of Dooars land, but sadly, the infamous Accord severed the Terai land right from Sukuna. Compared to the map of erstwhile Darjeeling district or Darjeeling Zilla Parishad, the map of Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council looked like a person with one leg amputated right at the joint of a thigh just below the pelvic bone.

     We can now only lament that it was very much unwise of Ghising to not carefully study the draft of Accord and to not seek advice of expertise relating to different fields before sealing the future of one crore Gorkhas with his artistic signature. Had he acted wisely and bargained prudently, a number of vital achievements, minus separate state, could have been bagged. Even the political demand like restoration of the Darjeeling parliamentary constituency in its former shape, for which Ghising much later, while basking in the sun of power, gave a call to boycott a Parliamentary election demanding Mal & Mateli back. However, after the election that easily went in favour of CPI(M), the demand was never repeated. Also the Assembly constituencies in the Hills which were four till mid-seventies but then curtailed to three, could be deliberated and found a satisfactory solution. But alas!! [People of Darjeeling and Dooars have ever been duped and deceived by the establishment as well as their own leaders time and time again. Delimitation of the Darjeeling parliamentary constituency in the seventies was obviously executed to weaken Nepali-speaking people in the region. However, not a word of protest was uttered at that time.]

     Less than a year after the first Council was formed through the state electoral process, a well-known playwright and actor Kiran Thakuri staged a play titled Amar Atma (Immortal Soul) in Bhanu Bhawan. The play was a bold and brilliant portrayal of disillusionment of all those people who had suffered and sacrificed while dreaming political and cultural emancipation that would enable them to walk with their heads held high. The fact that the play ran for five weeks at a stretch, and after a few days’ respite, for a couple of weeks more, tells us how the spectators might have felt the cathartic release of their pent-up feelings of deceit and disillusion. This drama of such a strong theme of betrayal and disillusionment Indian Gorkhas suffered then traveled to Kathmandu where it attracted the theatre-goers for over a month.  

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     Culturally or politically, search for panacea to the identity crisis of Nepali speaking Indians has not yet come to a rest. Our belief that the inclusion of Nepali language in the Eighth Schedule of the constitution would be the final answer to the spectre-like question of national identity, and the euphoria we had therefrom evaporated before long. There is still a deep-rooted feeling of political insecurity in Indian Nepalis or Gorkhas. Whichever parts of the country they are in, they have been subjected to various types of physical as well as psychological sufferings. They bitterly feel marginalized in many ways; their selfless service and sacrifice for the cause of the nation have been utterly ignored in history. So, majority of Nepali speaking Indians are of the belief that only a separate political arrangement can help them live with their heads held high. People with this aspiration had supported the second leg of Gorkhaland movement that started in 2007 under the banner of Gorkha Janamukti Morcha. People from all walks of life and from other communities as well were attracted to its professed non-violent movement and as it grew in magnitude it also could not restrain itself from faltering. When general people from all walks of life seemed to have been swayed by the loud fluttering of the flag of Morcha headed by Bimal Gurung, one firebrand leader with a few dozens of supporters stood relentlessly critical of the newly emerged party. And on one fateful day while supervising the preparation for his public address he was hacked to death. Almost all the accusing fingers pointed to the recently emerged and triumphantly fluttering flag. One prime accused, put in the Pintel Village near Siliguri, heavily surrounded by security force, was, one fine morning, said to have mysteriously escaped and has remained untraced till date!    

      In the meantime, 33 year-long Left Front rule in West Bengal came to an end giving way to Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamul Congress in 2011. Having firmly held the rein of the state in her hand, Mamata Banerjee, first of all, successfully dealt with the Hill situation by bringing the only stakeholder (GJMM) on the table and making it sign the agreement of a new set-up named Gorkhaland Territorial Administration in 2012. The apparent difference between the previous set-up and the successive one is in their names: the former had ‘Gorkha’ while the latter is called ‘Gorkhaland’ which, in reality, is nothing better than the name of prince given to a pauper living in a dilapidated hut. (If the greatest Bard of the 16^th century asks- “What’s in a name?” we can say, for now, that the name matters.) Estimation may also be made that CM Ms. Bnerjee’s path that led to the settlement of the Hill problem relatively in a very short period was paved by the murky situation the GJMM leaders had fallen into following the assassination of Madan Tamang.

     Towards the end of the first term of GTA, in the first week of June 2017 to be precise, dark and disturbing shadow of the very same spectre of 1961, believed to have been exorcised the same year, had reappeared in the Hills: the CM had made an announcement to make Bengali language compulsory in all schools, including those in the Hills. And the prompt reaction all over the hills showed up that grew in dimension with each passing day. On the 8^th of June, an impromptu huge protest rally marched toward the Raj Bhawan (Governor’s House), Darjeeling, where the CM was holding her Cabinet Meeting. (It was the first ever State Cabinet Meeting in Darjeeling.) However, when a big crowd of police force, armed with wicker shields and batons and even guns, stood in the way blocking the people’s protest march from moving ahead beyond the Gorkha Rangamanch, the boiling protesters were pushing police barricades defying the khaki force who then resorted to firing teargas shells and indiscriminately landing their batons hard on the protesters’ bodies. Some of the protesters, physically releasing their ire, pelted stones. In an hour or so, entire town wore a deserted look. Smoke bellowed from a state bus set on fire at the Motor Stand. The town remained withdrawn on the next day too. The entire Hills looked outraged, gloomy and scared and overcome by uncertainties.

     It was the people’s protest that had hit the street on its own. It was the people’s strike as a backlash to the CM’s announcement. Not directed by any political party. Slogans that echoed in the hills and valleys during the language movement in the seventies were heard again, and at the same time, rose also the slogans for Gorkhaland. People’s sentiment was, and is, just looking a pretext, seeking for a crack, to pour out their deep-rooted feelings. Protesters in growing number took to the street day after day. GJMM, then the ruling party of GTA, could no longer stay at the fence and was soon drawn to the people’s rally against the state and it came forward to lead the protest from the front. All other political parties at the fringe also could not stand merely as onlookers. Protest rally kept swelling by each day.

     On 17 June ’17, a long procession of protesters was heading from Singhamari (North Point) to the town. But at one point of the road police force had put up barricades and some of the boys while attempting to push aside the barricades there ensued tension. And that was a provocation enough for the khaki-clad force to pull the trigger and three young boys fell to the ground then and there. However, this cruel action on the part of the state establishment did not deter the people from taking to the streets displaying solidarity of the Hill people, the solidarity which the new state establishment, after the assumption of power, had made a sinister design to break into fragments on caste line by alluring with Boards of special perks and privileges. There had been virtually a scramble of clever and cunning persons to grab the state offers. However, when there sounded a more urgent call of the hour, all came out across caste lines to be again one single Gorkha community.  

     Protest rallies everywhere in the entire Hill region went on day after day with greater number of people taking part in them. Markets and bazaars continued to remain shut for indefinite period. People were once again greatly inspired by their common dream of liberating themselves from the iron grip of Bengal. Movement this time was very much different from that of Eighties and 2007. Rallies in support of the movement were held also in various parts of India and abroad. In the national capital city, hundreds of supporters sat for dharna for months holding press conference with national and international media. Three months passed but the towns and all other sub-towns showed no sign to open; rallies moved on. Candle-light rallies were also held. Establishment seemed to be on the defensive. Central government kept mum. Or, was it just buying time for its own motive? National news media, after highlighting the movement for the first few days, had been curiously silent and indifferent. Internet service was completely clamped down. During this prolonged period of tense stalemate, hundreds of activists were arrested, most of the leaders had gone underground, and some were put in the prisons far away from the Hills. One Barun Bhujel, a prominent GJMM worker from Kalimpong, was tortured to death while in prison.

     It was past hundred days, but life in the Hills stood still. It moved only when rallies came out routinely each day. Dashain, the greatest of Nepali festivals, was fast approaching. At this juncture, news was made public that the Hill leaders were invited to an all-party meeting at Nabanno, the CM’s office, and two front-ranking leaders were sent there as GJMM representatives. After a couple of days when they came back from Kolkata, they were heavily escorted by the police force right from Bagdogra airport to Kurseong town where people in a large number with all the curious excitement had assembled to listen to the duo as to what the outcome of the all-party meeting at Nabanno was, but at the same time a question pregnant with suspicion was incessantly knocking their heads: why should those two men be specially escorted by the state police force while all of their fellow leaders were in hiding? Was there not something already cooked and was about to be served?

     One of the two addressed the huge gathering in front of the railway station. What he delivered was quite ambiguous except one sentence: ‘Strike comes to an end with immediate effect; markets, offices and transport will open from tomorrow.’ Most of the people, absolutely flabbergasted, stood askance with their mouths agape! They smelt something fishy. And they left the meeting place, disgusted and disillusioned.

     However, shutters of the markets remained downed on the following day too as in the past more than hundred days. Roads lay quiet. One of the two ‘marked’ leaders accompanied by a host of armed police force was seen urging the shopkeepers to open their shops in the town of Kurseong. The other was making similar effort in Darjeeling town. But no one heeded them. It was only when Bimal Gurung from his hiding aired a message urging the people to relax the strike to enable general people to celebrate Dashain, life crept back to normalcy. But once the Hills opened, the state government had already seized the opportunity of gaining upper hand over the agitating Hills. A gaping crack was already visible in the strongest party of the Hills. In a fortnight, the state government nominated the members of its choice to form the administrative board of GTA with the ‘noted duo’ as its chairman and vice-chairman respectively. This is how a highly charged historic procession that had headed toward the national capital with an unprecedented excitement and a century old common aspiration was clandestinely hoodwinked and bent down toward the Hoogly River in which it was immersed quietly.

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      It appears that Nepali-speaking Indian community has ever been jinxed in the matter of its identity --- political as well as cultural. It often encounters awkward circumstances. Of late, a group of Nepali speaking Indian girls aspiring to win an entry for performing a patriotic song at the 75^th Independence Day national celebration, a lady in the All India Women’s Conference rejected the song in Nepali on its being a ‘foreign’ language. When this unfortunate event went viral and protests poured over AIWC from all corners of the country, the lady named Chandraprabha Pandey was forced not only to apologize in writing but also relinquish her position in the AIWC. The AIWC chairperson also circulated the apology on behalf of the organisation in all forms of communication on 17 June 2022. It is strange why such incidents of ‘ignorance’ keep recurring only in relation to Nepali-speaking Indians.                                      

     In conclusion, we may say that until and unless the Nepali speaking Indians are recognized as a distinct community in India the question of political and cultural identity will continue to pester them. It can be hoped that a political solution, not like that of the present and preceding arrangements, but with a tangible and real form and foothold, will be found out and sketched in the map of India in near future.    

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“Abruptly, a furred dark glove forced itself through the darkness. Its hard blunt nail made its way into Juni’s clothes and with one sharp pull tore her only honour into two. Ghosts burst into laughter. Exactly in a human voice it commanded in the national language, ‘Abbe saala, batti bujhaa, batti bujhaa.’ And all semi-spherical yellow eyes went off. Entire house was plunged into impenetrable darkness. Horrified, Juni screamed for the second time, a huge rock from the dark cell itself fell heavily upon her. Strangling her, it tied her to the bed. She desperately fought to push the darkness aside. She was floundering like a lunatic for a little bit of light. She made every effort to tear off the thick fur and stout skin of the darkness with her teeth and finger-nails. But the darkness, now even darker, relentlessly kept descending upon her, and grabbed her completely exhausted body, and wildly tearing all the remaining obstructions the darkness, with its all brutishness, thrust itself into her furthest depth.”

This is the English translation of a paragraph from Nunko Chiya, a novel in Nepali version of Bengali original Nun Chaa by Bimal Lama. Nepali translation is accomplished by Samik Chakraborty. Isn’t it very interesting that the novel was written in Bengali by the one whose mother tongue is Nepali, and it has been translated into Nepali by the one whose mother tongue is Bengali?

In the paragraph quoted above, (English translation mine), the writer, employing the metaphor of darkness, dark fur etcetera, has so grippingly brought alive the rape scene committed by an armed raider during the period of the Gorkhaland movement in 1986 – 88. The scene created with the words in the paragraph violently stirs the reader’s sensibility. Isn’t it like a powerful symbolic scene come out of the mind of a highly creative and deft cine director? Isn’t it like a great cubistic painting?

The novel, Nunko Chiya, is undoubtedly a work of great artistry. The subtle interlacing of two strands of the story beginning a few chapters later is simply superb, outstanding. Ending of the novel exhibits even greater artistry of the writer. Only the one with great craft and aesthetic sense can create such kind of work. I wish this novel be translated into English by some competent translator and published by internationally well known publisher.