Choosing the Gorkha: at the crossroads of class and ethnicity in the Darjeeling hills

Like water for justice

“…The hill sub-divisions thus have a majority Nepali population which is nonetheless diverse in its race, ethnicity and caste. This in-migration added to an already diverse ethnic composition of the ''first people'' of this region, which includes ethnic-tribal groups like the Lepchas, Magars and Limbus (Chettri, 2013). There was also a smaller in-migration of communities engaged in trade and other professions from Bhutan and the plains in India.…”

“…Chettri (2013) writes of how previous [local] CPI(M) leaderships employed the constituency of landless labourers in the tea and Cinchona estates in Darjeeling district in meeting their political agendas, giving back little in return, in much the same way as this constituency is now mobilised; their problems constructed and positioned in new political agendas for a separate State of Gorkhaland.…”

“…A separate state of Gorkhaland is thus presented as a panacea to all forms of wrongs and injustice prevalent in the region. However, as I will describe below, while a tyrannical ''alien'' State is readily blamed, the Gorkhaland conflict appears to reproduce principles of the coercive State in a region that is criss-crossed by historical and ethno-political injustices (Wenner, 2013;Chettri, 2013).…”

Water Management in Post-colonial Darjeeling: The Promise and Limits of Decentralised Resource Provision

“…Prior to the founding of Darjeeling town, what is now Darjeeling district was sporadically inhabited for centuries by Lepcha ethnic groups and Nepali-speaking residents who also laid claim to the landscape (Chettri, 2013;Golay, 2006). The current sociocultural dynamics were to a considerable degree influenced by British colonial settlement and development practices.…”

“…Many investigations look at Darjeeling's ethnic and linguistic diversity, as well as the tensions between plains-based and hill-based residents of West Bengal. The rights of indigenous groups and Nepali-speaking populations are included in these explorations (Chettri, 2013;Foning, 1987;Ganguly, 2005). Some assert that at issue in such tensions is the politics of belonging (Middleton, 2013).…”