ESSAY: Cry freedom


It remains a riddle why India’s Nepali community, celebrated for its spirit of loyalty and sacrifice, was left out in the cold when the rest of the country was aroused from a century-long slumber of self-oblivion, writes Romit Bagchi

A CHARGE is often made against India’s Gorkha community that it took no remarkable part in the country’s freedom movement. Such a summary dismissal of a community as regards its loyalty to the nation has assumed serious undertones in the context of the Gorkhaland agitation that continues in the Darjeeling hills. To repudiate the charges, the Gokha leadership in the hills takes recourse to a few names like Dal Bahadur Giri, Durga Malla, Ram Singh Thakuri and others. This has been continuing for years and in this process a serious aspect remains ignored.

Did the national leadership spearheading the anti-colonial struggle make any worthwhile effort to involve the community in the national mainstream? There are possibilities that the casually hurled insinuation against the community will lose much of its force if a serious attempt were made to answer the question.

History, of course, bears witness to the fact that the Gorkha regiment served as cannon fodder for British forces during World Wars I and II. The Punjab regiment also played the same role. Yet the common people of Punjab participated in India’s struggle for freedom even if the Gorkha community remained largely conspicuous by its irresponsiveness to the anti-colonial upsurge.

Rather, a few organisations like the Hillmen’s Association chose a subservient role towards the British regime. They never tired of debunking the nationalist fervour gripping the country, the objective being to curry favour with the imperial government. Even the literary movement launched principally by Parasmani Pradhan remained engrossed in developing the Nepalese culture and language. And the first political outfit in the hills, the All India Gorkha League, also steered clear of the freedom struggle and concentrated instead on the interests of the community.

The loyalty of a large section of the upper middle class and middle class in the hills towards the British crown was evident beyond any question during the times when the freedom struggle in Bengal was showing an extremist penchant. The oppression of the colonial government in course of the Civil Disobedience Movement provoked some Bengali youths associated with a secret society known as the Dhaka Anusilan Samity to make an attempt on the life of the former governor of Bengal, Sir John Anderson, during his stay in Darjeeling, the summer capital of the imperial government, in May 1934. The attempt was, however, unsuccessful.

But before the governor’s arrival and the consequent Lebong Race Course shooting incident, Darjeeling’s local elite presented an address to Anderson assuring him of full loyalty against the tide of extremist forms of nationalism. “We are sure your Excellency will find a congenial atmosphere in the bracing climate of these hills and your Excellency will undoubtedly feel a happy change here, especially after the heated political controversies which characterise life in the plains below. We are not so ambitious as our brethren of the extremist political party in the plains. We assure your Excellency of our readiness to respond to any call on our people at all times and in any emergency,” ran the address.

With the preponderant mood of the elite strongly inclined to the imperial power and the level of the political consciousness of the common people, principally comprising tea plantation labourers and recruits for the military regiments, remaining abysmally undeveloped, it was but natural that the appeal of nationalism was weak in the hills. Some isolated sparks of ascendant nationalism were found here and there, though.

Way back in 1906-07, when the representatives of the hills were busy appealing to the British regime to carve out a separate administrative unit for the Darjeeling hill areas, a few Indian Nepalis participated in the Swadeshi movement, having a connection with the extremist groups in lower Bengal. Even a journal, Gorkha Sathi, was published from Calcutta to spread nationalistic ideas among the Neapli populace. The government later banned it.

When Mahatma Gandhi launched the non-cooperation movement in 1918-19, a galaxy of nationalist figures emerged on the hill horizon. Apart from Dal Bahadur Giri, there were Bhaktavir Lama, popularly known as “Asahayogi Lama”, Agam Singh Giri, Ramchandra Giri, Khargabahadur Bista and Dharanidhar Koirala, who took charge of the anti-colonial movement in the hills.

Two women, Helen Ahmed, a Christian Lepcha from Kurseong, and Mahadevi Chettri, a Nepalese, participated in the national struggle for independence under Gandhi’s leadership.

The national leadership, however, did not take much of an initiative to involve the common people in the nationalist struggle. Some who became leaders came into close contact with the national leadership and tried their best, despite the limited resources, to arouse the nascent spirit of nationalism in the local populace. But the Darjeeling hills were more or less kept out of the tempo of the anti-colonial movement, with the leadership displaying rather inexplicable lethargy in seizing the initiative from the pro-colonial elitists as regards mobilising public opinion in the nationalist direction. No conscious efforts were made to link the anti-colonial struggle with the day-to-day problems of the populace, though grievances were mounting, particularly among the plantation labourers against their exploitation.

Later, the Communist Party of India tapped the fount of grievances with immense dividends.

Things, however, started changing somewhat with the election of Subhas Chandra Bose as president of the Indian National Congress in 1938-39. He appealed to Indian Nepalis in the Darjeeling hills to join him at a meeting of the Bengal Provincial Congress held in Jalpaiguri in 1939. Responding to the appeal, an estimated 1,000 people from remote hill areas enrolled.

That the spirit of nationalism was latent in the subjective world of Indian Nepalis awaiting initiation became evident when the Indian National Army came into being with its appeal to Indian prisoners of war to join the fight for independence. During World War II, when British rule collapsed in Singapore and Burma and the Japanese took control, a large number of the POWs were recruited in the INA and these recruits comprised several Indian Nepali soldiers.

Captain Durga Malla and Major Dal Bahadur Thapa, both from Kalimpong sub-division, were captured, court martialled and then hanged for their participation in the war against the British in Southeast Asia under the INA and its leader, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. Malla was hanged on 29 August 1944 and Thapa on 9 March 1945, a few months before the historic INA trial started in the Red Fort.

Apart from these two martyrs, there were several Indian Nepali soldiers from Darjeeling, Assam and Dehra Dun who were recruited as INA officers and fought for the country valiantly, like Colonel Dilman Singh Thapa, Dal Singh Rana, Major Puran Singh Khawas and Captain Ram Singh Thakuri.

Special mention must be made of Captain Ram Singh Thakuri, who remains immortal as the military musician for the Azad Hind government-in-exile because of the tunes he set to the INA’s marching songs. These tunes are time- transcending in their electrifying appeal.

Corkha National Liberation Front chief Subash Ghisingh made a significant comment during the nationwide celebration of Subhash Chandra Bose’s centenary in 1997. He said in public that the Indian Gorkha community could forget everything, but would always remember Bose’s peerless struggle for India’s independence.

This outburst of emotion for the revolutionary leader made one thing clear: that if ignited with loving sincerity, the patriotic fervour smouldering in the Indian Gorkha community would have consumed pro-British elitist leanings. It remains a riddle why the community, celebrated for its spirit of loyalty and sacrifice, was left out in the cold when the rest of the country was aroused from the century-long slumber of self-oblivion.

source: Statesman/ Shri Barun Roy