I came across a small booklet released by Dr.Wangyal in support of Gorkhaland entitled “Brief notes on Gorkhaland “.
The larger part is related to the factual narration of the history of Darjeeling and the history of Nepali influx into Darjeeling with the stated aim of proving them to be original inhabitants (contradiction in itself as if they came in --- whenever --–they are not ethnic but immigrants---- both Marwari and Nepalese.)
A large portion lists the many memorandums etc to the various authorities for the grant of an exclusive Nepali homeland.
Dr. Wangyal vigorously refutes three opposing viewpoints, (taken from the internet) with both gusto and passion but with little substance.
For a self acclaimed intellectual he certainly takes umbrage very easily and takes all opposition very personally . He promptly categorizes opposition as non-Historian or non-economist or non-local and so unworthy and without locus -standi to comment !!
For somebody who proclaims “WRITING REJOINDERS IS NOT MY CUP OF TEA” he has sent rejoinders to three people in the booklet.
Produced below as an example is his reply to one P.C. Mundhra's letter and the good doctor plays a lot of "gulchay" (in the doctors own use of the vernacular.)
Format used is First Mundhra's views (Paranoid Mundhra) then Doctor Wangyal's reply (Gulchay Doctor ) and finally my comments.
A
“PARANOID MUNDHRA."
The Nepalese have immigrated to Darjeeling (Sikkim) area, at best within just the last hundred and fifty years, and are, (leaving aside the Bangladeshi's), the most recent substantial immigrants into India. Today the chicken's neck is in dire threat of going under the control of these two groups, (until very recently the vast majority were of foreign citizenry), because of the folly of vote bank politics which has allowed and encouraged them to freely populate this area.
Even today more than 50% of the Nepalese residents are immigrants who have entered India after 1950 which fact legally bars them from Indian citizenship as per the provisions of the Indo-Nepal Treaty of 1950—- and as for the Bangladeshi's we all know where they come from ,in what numbers they enter India , and where their faith and beliefs lie. (Subba an alleged murderer from Nepal is now a member of parliament in India!)
In addition both these citizen groups enjoy the benefit of going back to their country of origin as and when they want to, to the welcoming arms of their respective governments who grant them instant citizenship. (In fact Nepalese law expressly provides that a Nepalese person may return at any time and claim citizenship. And of-course both these governments openly harbour anti-Indian forces on their soil and look on with fierce favour at these forces collaborating with India's enemies from Bangladesh and Pakistan through their surrogate separatist fronts in Assam and Coochbihar. (Ironically these very same outfits, till very recently, when they comprehended the mischief potential from this group, accused the Nepalese of being Foreigners!!)
"GULCHAY DOCTOR."
1. A lot has been said about certain people being 'immigrants' and for P.C. to single out the Nepalis as immigrants amounts to 'The pot calling the kettle black'. After all P.C. timro babu-bajay pani ta Rajeshthan bata Sikkim paseko immigrants thiyo ani aaja pani tapaiharu immigranta nai ho. Or were your ancestors there in Sikkim when Phuntshog Namgyal became the first Chhogyal. Satya kura yo ho…Sikkim ko sabhai Marwari haru including the Mundras, Bhojraaj, Lakhotias, Sardas, Agarwals etc. etc. etc are also immigrants. You have mentioned of the Nepalis "until very recently the vast majority were of foreign citizenry" but you probably don't realize how many times the Marwaris appealed to the Sikkim Maharaja to make them SIKKIM SUBJECTS when Sikkim was not a part of India. This amounts to dumping one's Indian citizenship for that of Sikkim's and with that in reference how can you cast aspersions on another community's loyalty! Gilasko gharma basney harulay aruko gharma dhunga hirkaunu hundaina.
COMMENT.
Accusation of Marwari's also being immigrants does not absolve the Nepalese from being immigrants .In fact it actually reinforces the position. At best both communities are immigrants and after Sikkim became a part of India all became Indians except if they held any other nationality. However, a Nepalese residing in India before 1950 was given special rights to acquire Indian citizenship by the 1950 treaty between two countries and similarly an orginal East Pakistani refugee was also given privileges.
As long as the king ruled in Sikkim --- the plains origin people in Sikkim were treated as immigrants along with the vast majority of Nepalese in Sikkim who mostly came from Nepal .So both had equal negative status.
3. Dr. Wangyal is simply wrong to allege that the plainspeople petitioned the king for Sikkim citizenship. In fact "Indians" as they were known were not allowed to apply for citizenship and were not given citizenship except as an exceptional favour by royal decree. Anyway how does Nepalese forsaking Nepalese citizenship translate to loyalty and Marwari's doing ditto with Indian citizenship "disloyalty"?
4. Equating the Marwari's love for accumulating money through business (good and bad practices) as similar to the Nepalese love for money through mercenary soldering (atrocity or legitimate battle) certainly does not do credit to the latter in a comparison.
B
“PARANOID MUNDHRA."
The Gorkhas, famous in battle, have always proved deadly enemies, whether in ruthlessly exterminating freedom fighters on behalf of the British in Jalianwala Bagh or in maintaining British imperialism on Argentinean soil. They have an equally well deserved reputation for putting moral concerns of right and wrong completely aside when delivering services for contracted payment—- very often even with their lives.
In fact they also have more than an equal reputation for single minded tenacity and foolhardy courage in pursuit of ensuring blood payment against their monetary obligations. They are in short the perfect mercenary breed.
"GULCHAY DOCTOR."
A strong mention has been made that the Gorkhas would do almost anything, even to the extent of losing their lives, for the sake of a buck or two…isn't that what exactly P.C.'s glorified 'traders' have always done, are doing and will do, and that includes you too, P.C. bhaiji. Exceptions do occur and it will be a rare event to see a trader leave his green pastures for a lesser lucrative area to express solidarity to his community, district, state or nation in problems. The best perfume, to have and to flaunt, to a trader has always been money, money and more money. The more the merrier. Three cheers to the banks and three, much louder, cheers to the black economy.
COMMENT.
Three cheers indeed and where is the negative in this. I assume that a trader's contribution is to make money for the economy and this is welcome especially when he does do this without sacrificing precious life. How does this become a negative?
More to the point how does it compare to the foolhardy nature of losing your own life for petty money after leaving your home and hearth and nation.
One uses brains the other brawn ----- but both for money. Obviously neither Gorkha soldier nor Marwari trader would leave home for a less lucrative arena. Both go for money and that is the only valid comparison here. At best again both are traders.
The Rajput and Gorkha are both great soldiers as the Newars and Marwaris are great businessmen with positive or negative connotations, as they deserve.
C
“PARANOID MUNDHRA."
Today, they form a forced majority in the Darjeeling hills, and conspire by threat and sheer force to actually constitute a state that compromises India's strategic chicken neck corridor. (In which specific area, ironically they do not actually constitute even a remote majority and the inclusion of which actually deprives the proposed Nepalese State of its very political basis)
So why would they fight for a state where they might be in a minority and who would plan and pay for such a scenario.
Things might become substantially clearer when you apply the likely proviso , that the Bangladeshi element of the population in these plain areas could in conjunction with this hill population decisively out vote the actual inhabitants or Bhumiputras of this region .(Note that there is a pre-independence history of an attempt in both Darjeeling and Islampur to secede to East Pakistan .)
How are immigrants demanding a state?
"GULCHAY DOCTOR."
And in this case let me just tell you about the REAL exception: an absolutely exceptionally exceptional event. Just before our independence the Gorkha Regiments were divided between Britain (2nd, 6th, 7th and 10th Regiments) and India (the rest up to the 10th Gorkhas, the eleventh being a post independence event). The cocksure British wanted to drive home the point that they had been good masters and in an effort to prove it they announced that any of the Gorkhas transferred to the British Regiments (2nd, 6th, 7th and 10th Gorkhas) could voluntarily leave it in favour of the Indian Gorkhas. To the surprise, shock and dismay of the British 90% of the Gorkhas opted to serve under the Indian Gorkhas despite the better salaries, cushy living standards, better food and health care, and fatter pension under the British. (Col. C.L. Proudfoot: Flash of the Khukri, Vision Books, New Delhi, 1984, p. 27) How many traders (cultural ambassadors, did you say!) turn their noses against the smell of crisp sterling pounds in favour or the rupee which is eighty times less the value in the market. But the story has a tail that wags to the discomfort of people like PC. Col. Khanduri recalls that the Gorkhas "were officered exclusively by high grade British officers and the process of 'Indianization' was not allowed to seep in…" (Chandra B. Khanduri: A Re-constructed History of Gorkhas, Gyan Sagar Publication, Delhi, 1992, p. 280) and even then the Gorkhas opted to serve under the Indian Gorkhas. Need anything more be said! Ah! Yes, Khanduri is a Garhwali whose ancestors had been conquered and slain by the Gorkha khukuri during the Nepali expansion under Prithvinarayan Shah and his sons. Khanduri, like a true historian, does not scratch the old wound to make it bleed again.
COMMENT.
Of-course they would opt for India, as it was the better bargain. It was closer to home and India required a bigger numbers of recruits. India offered security of identity and citizenship while the British would pay their servants well, but they would never be awarded equal Status with the British. Similarly Ranks and promotion were restricted in the British army for the mercenary outsider and after service tenure was completed he had to return to Nepal/India. So India was simply the better choice. Also the British atrocities in India by then had created a general revulsion toward that race --- so much so that an army under Netaji with Indian Gorkhas also in tow was fighting against the British.
People are confusing legitimate Indian Gorkhas with the non-Indian immigrants who have obviously to be verified for their integrity along with similar Bangladeshi immigrants to ensure that they are not inimical to Indian interests.
D
"PARANOID MUNDHRA."
In such a scenario, (with the well established proclivity of the Nepalese in the hills to blackmail the ordinary citizen and weak governments into acceding to their every whim by frequent and long bandhs) they could demand any price from an enemy state to rustle up trouble in the new state.
Remember Ghising frequently called bandhs, even for 40 days and he did this every time the tourist season came around so that the suffering of the ordinary people in the plains or in Sikkim could be made to bear on the inevitable government reaction.
This success only made the blackmailers bolder every time they succeeded in getting their impossible and even illegal demands accepted.
Finally ,to their utter astonishment ,when even the illegal 6th schedule constitutional amendment was conceded, it dawned on them that this weak and corrupt governments would knuckle down to every demand right or wrong and so the bold new demand for a state with Siliguri in tow to cut India in two.
"GULCHAY DOCTOR."
Jalianwala Bagh is an unfortunate incident. The Gorkhas just happened to be the right people at the right time for the wrong purpose. 'Right people' because the strongest and therefore the most valued quality in a soldier is to obey a command, even if it means to charge 'into the valley of death' and the Gorkhas would obey any command ( Hukumko jawab chhaina). 'Right time' because it so happened that the Gorkha were garrisoned at that place else it could have been the Sikhs, Marathas, Rajputs etc
COMMENT.
Mundhra's comment about Ghising is unfortunate as portraying a mad man as a representative of a community is unfair. However, obeying illegal commands (British or Ghising ) or putting India's security at stake or making illegal political demands without any sense of constitutional regard or propriety is not what a true Indian would be expected to support.
"Right people" for obeying such terrible orders? Why.
"Right time "? To crush the Indian freedom movement ?
I think the doctor will find from his own quoted sources that the British choice of solders was very specific and not by chance . General Dyer specifically discarded other available solders, as it was perceived that they would surely revolt against such a murderous command.
And doctor where is the honour in obeying an order to shoot helpless children and women to the extent that they were forced by the sheer barbarity of the soldiers to throw themselves into a well where they drowned.
Comparing forcing children to charge into wells in fear to solders with "charging into the valley of death" is going a bit to far. Talk about below the belt arguments.
Doctor declares “nothing more needs to be said about soldering of this kind"
Really should we say nothing about obeying an illegal command to commit murder and for which even the British themselves punished Dyer?? Perhaps the Punjab government should put a stop to the planned observation of the centenary of the ghastly event.
It is difficult for Indians in general to forget and Sikhs in particular not to remember this event? Of course the Sikhs would not have obeyed such an order nor would the Gorkhas against helpless Nepalese women and children.
E
"PARANOID MUNDHRA."
The opposition meanwhile is only too well aware that it has the communists by the hip and true to Gorkha characteristics will press for the kill mercilessly.
This division has the potential to separate the Indian republic from the seven eastern states exactly as Pakistan was rent apart from Bangladesh.
"GULCHAY DOCTOR."
In this regard one must venture back into Indian history and there we find that the British always used the Indian sepoys (sipahi) for the expansion of the British empire. It was the sipahi from a conquered Indian kingdom that was used to conquer another Indian kingdom and from this conquered kingdom more sipahis were recruited to conquer another Indian kingdom or principality. Without the assistance of the Indian sipahis even Clive would have lost Plassey and we would have been spared the drudgery of learning our history punctuated by Governor-Generals, Viceroys, Sirs, Lords, and all that crap. Just prior to the Sepoy Mutiny/Revolt Indian sipahis were used to conquer Punjab . When the sipahi mutiny broke out the British used the Sikhs, who had an axe to grind, to quell the rebellion. Now to whom do we point the accusing index finger to? The Indian sipahis, the Sikhs or the British (the latter didn't care a hoot, anyway, as to who killed whom as long as the job was done). Each of this must be remembered for its tragic consequences but not as a point of argument to pit one against another. Jalianwala Bagh massacre has been fortunately remembered, re-written and recalled by historians for its gross tragedy and its aftermath but not necessarily because the Afghans and Gorkhas pulled the trigger. But P.C. is not a historian, not even by the most generous of concessions, and so he will delight at punching home the point for, unfortunately, the wrong reasons.
COMMENT
History must be remembered not for its tragic consequences but to ensure the mistakes are not repeated to repeat past blunders. (Debacle of Pakistan in Bangladesh or killing of innocents in Jallianwalla Bagh.)
Solder against solder in battle and solder for murdering unarmed and helpless children and women are surely different or am I missing a point.
P.C. is certainly not the Historian but the good Doctor does claim the nomenclature and he will agree that Jallianwalla Bagh is remembered because it was different from all his examples of legitimate battles between soldiers----- and there lies the rub and the difference between atrocity and tragedy.
Methinks even the British punished Dyer for his atrocity and not because of any tragedy associated with the horrendous massacre.
F
"PARANOID MUNDHRA."
Little do the Paper Nepalese Tigers in Sikkim and Darjeeling realize that people like Tiger Bal Thackeray and the North Eastern states like Meghalaya are watching their every move with rapt attention .Should these (RESERVATIONS FOR MAJORITY COMMUNITY )law pass Judicial scrutiny all these governments would quickly pass similar laws and over one Crore Nepalese from Maharashtra alone would be at the receiving end of a law which would have been promoted by their very own Nepalese champions.
Earlier a similar situation in Shillong when the Nepalese were specifically thrown out of the state required much tact, deft handling and effort on the part of the central government to restore the status quo ante. Were such a law to pass in Sikkim they would be one more reciprocal mass Exodus of Nepalese from the North East and they would all flock to Sikkim and Darjeeling.
This area has already seen a huge influx because of the refugees from Bhutan and another influx would create many social tensions in the foothills which would certainly bode ill for the interests of the Government of India.
Of-course the supreme irony of any such law would be that a Nepalese would be responsible for implementing a law that the Nepalese have historically been fighting against literally in every corner of the world that this community has migrated to in search of employment hearth and home.
"GULCHAY DOCTOR."
There are several places where Mundra hits below the belt. (Kina gulchay kheleko!) Where an issue is so encompassing as DARJEELING-–BIMAL GURUNG–SIKKIM–CHAMLING–KOLKATA– DELHI one should not let personal animosity to be one of the operating drive to move an argument.
COMMENT
Mundhra's figures are from his imagination. The total population of Nepalese in India is not more than 30 Lacs and only half of these are in the Darjeeling area. Where does this "One Crore" Nepalese total come from? However Doctor with his obvious animosity towards Marwari's and traders can hardly comment as it would be like the pot calling the kettle black.
G
"PARANOID MUNDHRA."
Instead an impotent central government and its corrupt bureaucracy shares in the institutionalized corruption of Chief Ministers like Pawan Kumar Chamling who is openly pumping in money into this separatist movement.
Chamling has been successfully postponing a well documented corruption case in the Supreme Court and Officers of the Central Government are openly helping him in this exercise. Now the same central governments will send in army and paramilitary forces to die fighting in these same hills pitted against the money and forces provided by this same Chamling under the guise of promoting singers etc.
A classic case of the right hand and the left hand of the same body destroying each other in full public view.
Were this case of misappropriated assets followed up vigorously, one of the main source of finance could at least be stopped from becoming a tool in the hands of India's enemies. Instead Chamling is successfully diverting the attention of the people by pretending to fight a another Nepalese cause so that he can claim political dividends at India's cost and simultaneously he also aims to scare the Judiciary from proceeding against him by projecting a national emergency in the region .
"GULCHAY DOCTOR."
About Chamling amassing ill-gotten wealth, the last word is yet to be said. Till the courts pronounces the verdict any attempt to buttress one's line of reasoning using a pending suit amounts to deception. I could very well file a suit saying P.C. Mundra is an alien and should someone else use the litigation to structure his argument that whatever P.C. is writing is in the interest of aliens would not do fairness to reasonable assertion. The same goes for Mani Kumar Subba's nationality and his supposed guilt of murder. Using unproven matters as proofs takes away any credibility that P.C. might have achieved earlier.
COMMENT
But both these matters are matters that have been discussed in the Supreme Court of India and the Indian Parliament and in the print and televised media. It is even acknowledged in televised sting operations where both parties have spoken in the public domain.
And yet because it is inconvenient the doctor would not allow mention? It is now being said in the public domain that Chamling even holds Nepalese citizenship and so has dual nationality!
H
"PARANOID MUNDHRA."
Remember that this area is of prime importance to
a. The Chinese who apart from wanting to create problems for India see the Rumtek throne as a serious challenge to their authority in Tibet as the Karmapa will certainly in due course replace the Dalai Lama as the chief of the Tibetan movement. b. The Pakistani's to limit the size and strength of India.C. There is no dearth of Chinese and Pakistani agents in the garb of monsters, monks, mullahs and monastery's ready to inundate this area with any amount of money to destabilize India.
"GULCHAY DOCTOR."
A lot of generalizations have been resorted to and any student of debate and logic knows that generalization is one of the biggest and deepest pitfalls in a discussion. Take for example the Jains. Almost all the major financial scams in India were the handiwork of one Jain or the other. Nevertheless, a public debater will invariably and instinctively distance himself a long way off in generalizing that all Jains are scamsters…he would be wary of even saying 'most Jains are scamsters'. Don't let personal dislike cloud your argument and don't generalize to argue a specific point.
COMMENT
How can you bring in a new generalization into an argument yourself and then claim that one should not use a generalization to buttress an argument. Where is the generalization in separating Indian Nepalese from others just as foreign Indians of any tribe are different from their Indian counterparts.
Generalizations about Chinese or Pakistani intent are absolutely in order in view of past experiences.
Specific mention of Chamling not allowed! General mention of Gorkhas not allowed! But the generalization about the Marwari trader and money made earlier on is fair?
Did somebody talk about logic in debate?
J
" PARANOID MUNDHRA."
In fact a chauvinistic Chamling cares little for Indian concerns or the Indian constitution .He recently used his brute majority in the Sikkim assembly to pass a patently illegal act reserving 95% of the jobs in the state .The Governor returned the bill as patently unconstitutional and promptly in defiance of even the Governor's constitutional office Chamling re passed another similar Act, again an illegal bill, this time reserving 80% of the jobs for the majority community.!
It is truly amazing that the Sikkimese Nepalese have forgotten so quickly the discrimination that they suffered for decades under the erstwhile ruler and now actually seek to impose similar discriminatory laws on others in the state.
Supposedly in fulfillment of an apocryphal prophecy the betrayal of the king of Sikkim by the Nepalese apparently forewarned the king of Bhutan. He than supposedly took preventive action and the Government of India also realizing their earlier folly in Sikkim helped the Bhutanese monarch to save both his people and larger Indian interests.
"GULCHAY DOCTOR."
Anyway, there is a point where I find a convergence of view with Mundra. 80% reservation of jobs for a single community is wrong. It will invite judicial enquiry, if it hasn't already. On this matter I P.C. my best wishes.
COMMENT
Yes indeed Doctor you would need to support this because if Bimal Gurung lets out that he plans exactly the same fate for the minority communities that Chamling aims at in Sikkim --Nobody just Nobody from the Doars or the Tibetans or the Bihari's or the Marwari's of Mundhra's tribe or the Bhutia's of Doctors tribe would join the Gorkhaland brigade. The concept would be restricted to the hills where a total of a ridiculous 14 Lacs Nepalese would be demanding a Gorkha state in a huge area which encompasses more non-Gorkhas than Gorkhas.
"PARANOID MUNDHRA."
Simultaneously and shamefully the same rights that Indians doled out without a thought to Nepalese in India, Indians in Nepal , living there for generations, were and are systematically denied —-and our impotent representatives in the Indian Embassy have actually turned their back every time that an insult or injury has been hurled at the Indians in that country.
Any self respecting government would rush to the help of their citizenry. We have seen both British and U.S. government's fight tenaciously for even criminal citizens like Peter Bleach who they have ultimately even repatriated.
The Indian foreign service bred on Nehruian contempt for the trading class has still not realized that the van guard for any propagation of Indian culture, thought ,values and views in any area of the world can only succeed when the Indian trading class in that country succeeds and not because of any supposed promotional efforts of the embassies or government departments.( Today the business community in USA and U.K. for example do much more to promote Indian political interests than any government effort etc)
Unfortunately our foreign service has always held our trading class in contempt and our diplomats would not normally been seen dead in their company in the various countries where they are posted. In fact they treat them as pariahs and actually propagate that Gandhi's tribe are not true representatives of India and Indian ness.
So true to form, a weak central government actually allowed, under Nar Bahadur Bhandari's pressure, 80,000 Nepalese immigrants "citizenship rights" overnight. Under Chamling these very same immigrants now support the separatist movement. Simultaneously the same central government deprives Indian citizens of fiscal benefits, freely given to these recent immigrants, even though the deprived Indians are older residents and have contributed and sacrificed much much more for this region and its development.
Epilogue.
The Madheses of southern Nepal fed up with the age old discrimination and bias of the Nepalese in the North have decided on and are near succeeding in an armed struggle to carve Nepal into two halves.
North : Nepalese.
South : Indian Madesh.
