Writes: Upendra
Identity is important, as it gives a sense of belonging to individuals and communities. Who we are identified as, by others, sets the tone for how they perceive us, react to our presence, and their general behaviour towards us. The people who are Indian citizens of Nepali ethnicity have had to face discrimination ever since our independence and one of the main reasons is because our ‘identity’ as Indians – among rest of Indian populace – has remained ambiguous at best.
Today the Indian citizens of Nepali ethnicity are ourselves confused as to “how should we identify ourselves” as. Should we call ourselves Nepali? or Nepalese? or Gorkha? or Indian Nepali? or Indian Gorkha? Much discussion and debate has been going on, especially in the North-Eastern states.
UNWANTED CONTROVERSY - AN EXAMPLE
Recently in Assam, Mr. Harka Bahadur Chetry who is leading the campaign for the formation of a Gorkha Autonomus Council and inclusion of “Gorkhas” as the “original inhabitant of Assam” created an online controversy, when he took offense to newly elected Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal for addressing an event where he referred the participants as “Nepalis” and not “Gorkhas.” Mr. Chetry posted notes on Facebook and Twitter condemning the CM, here is what he wrote on twitter, “Hon'ble CM, You made the entire Gorkhas of Assam disappointed using the term Nepalese to identify us in your speech at @Rabindrabhawan, Ghy.”
What Mr. Chetry and his supporters conveniently failed to mention though is that the event was organized by a body called “Nepali Sanskriti Suraksha Parishad.”
Imagine this scenario, if you as a CM are invited by a body called “Assam Sanskriti Suraksha Parishad,” how will you address the crowd as? I would address it as “mere pyare Assamese bhaiyon aur beheno” as that is what a basic courtesy to the organization that invited me, would require me to do. If later it turned out that the program was organized by “Bodos” and one of their politician decided to politicize the issue and said, “why did you call us Assamese and not Bodos?” well, I would say because it wasn’t “Bodo Sanskriti Suraksha Parishad” that invited me.
Same is the case here, Mr. Chetry who seems to be overzealous and enthusiastic for the term “Gorkha” to be used, instead of “Nepali,” would have done well to question the organizers on the name choice for their organization, instead of questioning a guest, who was merely being courteous to the hosts.
But hey, who am I to tell the great “Gorkhalis” of Assam that?
On the other extreme is Sikkim CM Mr. Pawan Kumar Chamling, who created another controversy by saying that the Indian citizens of Nepali ethnicity in Sikkim are “Sikkimese Nepali” and not “Gorkhas.” He went a step further and claimed, “Gorkhas are those who came to India after joining the army… we are indigenous to the land, so we are Sikkimese Nepali and not Gorkha.”
I did write a detailed critique to Mr. Chamling’s diatribe, which can be read here [http://bit.ly/1sxhMgl]
HAGI SAKYO DAILO DEKHYO….
Back in early 1990s, when Nepali Bhasa Andolan was about to succeed and our language was about to be recognized as one of the national languages of India under the VIIIth Scheduled of our constitution, there was a short lived debate on what we should call our language, “Nepali” or “Gorkha” bhasa?
The older I get, the more I realize what a visionary politician Subash Ghising was. Back in the day he had demanded that the name for our language be called “Gorkha Bhasa.” His inspiration in calling our language “Gorkha Bhasa” emanated from the fact that all the states formed in India had been on the basis of Linguistic differences (and until Telangana was formed, language was the only criterion for the formation of new states). So he had argued, “if we get our language recognized as Gorkha bhasa today, it will be easier for us to attain the Gorkhaland state tomorrow.”
A literal pandemonium had broken out back then, with Indian citizens of Nepali ethnicity vocally criticizing Subash Ghising. Almost all the so called “intellectuals” and “bhasa premis” from our community had called him “pagla – mad” back then. As a protest, GNLF cadres had went on a spree of vandalizing the murti of Bhanu Bhakta across the Darjeeling hills.
Leading the charge against using the term “Gorkha Bhasa” instead of “Nepali bhasa” were the “intellectuals” from North-East India, particularly those from Assam and Sikkim.
Its ironic that the same group of "intellectuals" had ended up forming "Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangh," and today, the same group of people who protested against Subash Ghising’s request for using the term “Gorkha Bhasa” are getting offended when someone refers to them as “Nepali” and not “Gorkha.”
At times I feel that our people get offended as being referred to as "Nepali" due to our own insecurities... while we celebrate Sunil Chettri and Jitu Rai (both of whom are from Nepal) as our own, we often tend to disown anything remotely connecting ourselves to Nepal.
IDENTITY IS NOT ABSOLUTE
Many people view identity as an absolute thing, which it is not. Identity is a multi-layered, multi-faceted entity which is derived from who we are, how we live, where we live, how do we identify ourselves as, how do others identify us as and so on. In Darjeeling, we are at the same time Indians, people of Nepali ethnicity, and residents of West Bengal (though forced upon us) and so on.
For instance take the term “Gorkha” itself.
To some the term “Gorkha” refers to the followers of the legendary 11th century saint Guru Gorkahnath. To those in Nepal the term “Gorkha” refers to people from the erstwhile Gorkha district. To majority of the world, including India, the term “Gorkha/ Gurkha” relates to those who are in the Army – be it of India, UK, Brunei and so on. Even in India the term “Gorkha” refers to various groups, for instance in the North East it is used to refer to Indian citizens who are ethnically Nepali, and in Darjeeling, traditionally it referred to the three predominant hill groups ‘Lepcha, Bhutia and Nepali,” and today the term “Gorkhas” in our Darjeeling hills refers to everyone who was born here, hence we have “Gorkha Bangali,” “Gorkha Marwari,” “Gorkha Muslim,” “Gorkha Bihari” and so on.
And what is most important for us to realize is the fact that all of the above mentioned uses and definition of the term “Gorkha” are correct.
Which is why I have asserted, “identity” is not an absolute entity, it’s a dynamic and ever changing concept, and is derived from the time, place and context in which it is used.
HISTORY TO THE RESCUE
While the rest of India and the world may keep getting confused, we need to be very clear ourselves on who we are.
For example, take this question asked in a “Gorkha” related WhatsApp group.
Louis asked, “Respectful seniors हरु लाई एउटा अनुरोध गर्ने छु कि मलाई Indian Gorkha को actual meaning update दिनुहोस न... छमा चाहन्छु… म पनि एउटा गोर्खा नै हो तर त्यति भित्र देखि मलाई पनि थाह छैन. So plz help me to solve out this problem…”
To which, a Mr. Raju Chettri responded, “Indian Gorkha मतलब जो नेपाल बाट मिग्रते भएर India मा settle भएको थियो र जसको India मा voting right छ… तिनीहरु सब Indian Gorkha ho... okay.”
Let me clarify one thing here, not all Indian Gorkhas migrated or immigrated to India from Nepal. Majority of us, CAME WITH THE LAND. Till 1816, from the east of river Teesta to West of river Sutlej, from Sikkim to Kangra – the hills and terai parts of today’s India belonged to Nepal. When the treaty of Sugauli was signed between the British and Nepal in 1816, there was a considerable Nepali population already living in these parts. Most of the people in India today are unaware of this fact, and seems like even our own people don’t realize this.
In Darjeeling and Sikkim region, the Lepchas, Limbus (Tsong), Dukpas, Rai and Magars who today form the ‘Gorkha” community in Darjeeling region are indigenous to the place. You can read more on this issue in a seminal book written by Dr. Sonam B Wangyal “Sikkim & Darjeeling: Division & Deception” and also in his article “Brief History of Darjeeling” [Details: http://bit.ly/2ehsJ4n].
So it is important for us to realize that we are as INDIAN as anyone in this nation of ours, we do not have to justify our being here, we came with the land. Even when the much publicized tea garden workers were bring brought into Darjeeling region, the workers were merely shifting to another part of Nepal that had been occupied by the British. India as we know it didn’t exist before the British and even in 1947 India wasn’t what it is today. From Kashmir to Hyderabad to Goa, the “Gorkhas’ have helped shape India to what it is today. So we don’t have to apologize or give excuses to anyone for being who we are.
DO WE NEED A UNIFIED TERM TO IDENTIFY OURSELVES
As time goes by, there is a strong need felt to use a unified term to identify ourselves. Do we call ourselves, “Gorkhas” or “Indian Nepalis” or “Indian Gorkhas” or “Nepalis of India” this question is being much debated, and I guess we will need a National Gorkha Symposium to come to a conclusion on this issue.
However, here is what I feel, no matter what we call ourselves, it is what others recognize us as, that is more important. The ‘identity crisis’ that we feel is not because we don’t know who we are, it is because the rest of Indians don’t know or pretend not to know that we are as much Indians as them.
So our goal should be to assert our place in India. We can do so by excelling in any of our field of choice, be it in sports like Mr. Shiva Thapa, academics like Dr. MP Lama or administration like Ms. Jyotsna Sitling, Mr. Binod Pradhan in movies and so on.
We should also unite to strive for Gorkhaland statehood, as that would help rest of India know decisively for once that we are as much Indians as they are.
But most important of all, we should realize that we need to take pride in our roots. Today when someone calls a Punjabi, “Punjabi,” 100% of the time that individual won’t get offended as he is secure in the knowledge that he is INDIAN PUNJABI and not a Punjabi from Pakistan. Today when someone is referred to as “Bengali,” 100% of the time the individual will be ok as s/he knows s/he is INDIAN BENGALI and not a Bangladeshi.
So today when someone calls me a Nepali, I am fine with it, as I know I am an INDIAN NEPALI and not someone from Nepal. My ethnic roots are in Nepal and I am proud of it. But the country where I was born in, my nationality and the country that I live and die for is INDIA.
You can call me a “Gorkha” or “Indian Gorkha” or “Indian Nepali” or “Nepalese,” if you want, as it doesn’t change who I am.
George RR Martin once wrote “Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness. Armour yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you”…
Hope my community people will learn to rejoice in being who we are, GORKHA - Indian citizens of Nepali ethnicity.
Jai Gorkha !! Jai Gorkhaland !!
Source : TheDC
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