Scheduled Tribes Regional Identity of All Darjeeling Hill Peoples


BY DARJ MAN

The entire feature of the interim arrangement addressed to the Home Minister, P.Chidambaram by Roshan Giri, General Secretary GJMM is based on the ethnological history of Darjeeling District and the draft proposal tabled on the Tripartite meeting on 18 March 2010 is the step in the right direction.

To refer the Darjeeling hill peoples back to Census 1931 status identifying the entire population 3,19,635 (Area 1164 sq.miles) were ‘All Tribes’ as compared to Census 1941 total population 3,76,369 out of which only 1,41,301 (37.54%) retained tribal status whereas 2,35,068 (62.46%) were seemingly delisted for simply the latter population having declared their mother tongue as Nepali (originating from Sanskrit an Indo Aryan language considered spoken by the majority ethnic Indian community and accordingly considered a language of India than ethnic Nepal). According to United Nations recognition of country wise ethnic languages it is interesting to recall it is Newari script and language that is recognized and not Nepali.

It therefore follows from the above contention of thinking that the delisting of 62.46% of the Darjeeling hill peoples tribal identity was withdrawn simply because of the fact that Nepali was mentioned as the mother tongue. Based on this assumption it is only proper and justified that the wrong done then requires to be undone in relisting the Darjeeling hill peoples back to the tribal status as of Census 1931. So the conception of declaring All the Gorkhas as Scheduled Tribes as a precondition mentioned in the interim arrangement is not only necessary but an injustice carried on past 79 years. This is a very important issue relevant and connected to state formations considering the fact the right to self determination, as understood by the provisions of the Constitution, if at all the Govt. of India Act 1935 is to be considered the benchmark for state formations, seems the indigenous national minorities (ST) only has the right to statehood.

This being the Constitutional provision for state formation, Darjeeling District and its entire inhabitants have been described as “Backward Tracts” (now meaning ST) since the Scheduled Districts Act 1874, Govt. of India Act 1919 and eventually the Backward Tract designation changed to mean ‘Excluded and Partially Excluded Areas’. The former is said to have contained more than 60% ST population whereas the latter a minimum of 25%, on basis of which the Govt. of India Act 1935 prevailed. The inhabitants of such designated areas were administered as if it was a British dominion under the Crown than British Indian provinces.

The delisting of the majority Darjeeling hill tribes to non-tribes was significant and damaging to the political history of the District in the sense, the withdrawal of a large tribal population from the tribal list to non-tribals diminished the “actual” ‘Excluded’ features of the hill tribes to a ‘Partially Excluded’ disadvantageous climb-down adversely affecting the contents of the indigenous national minorities thereby marginalizing the aspects of self determination, to mean state formation, to a veritable large degree.

Another important aspect which requires enquiry and investigation is the fact, that the all tribal status of Census 1931 was reduced marginally, though unjustifiably in Census 1941 only. However what requires to be examined is, at the time the Govt. of India Act 1935 implied by the Govt. of India Order 1936 came into force, the Darjeeling hill peoples were already effected by the change of status of a major population on basis of which, the status of Darjeeling District had already undergone a change from ‘Backward Tracts’ (All Tribes) to mean fully ‘Excluded’ relegated to ‘Partially Excluded’. This is another damaging feature adversely affecting the fundamental rights of Darjeeling hill peoples to imply the right to self determination in demanding a state post the promulgation of the Constitution in 1950.

Had the 1935 Act contained Darjeeling District as an Excluded Area, based on Census 1931 and not on Census 1941, but on the estimated, with a majority reduced tribal population in 1935, is itself an issue which requires to be explained by the concerned Census authority. The idea to imagine is, had Census 1931 was taken into consideration in formulating the Govt. of India Act 1935 and Order 1936, Darjeeling District would rightly have been an Excluded Area and not Partially Excluded as was designated in the aforesaid Act and Order which markedly infringed the right of the Darjeeling hill peoples to a constitutional disadvantage unjustifiably.

The overall effect of the perceived discrimination was that the constitutional status of Darjeeling District instead of being incorporated in the Fifth Schedule (Scheduled Areas and Scheduled Tribes) was marginalized to the Sixth Schedule (restricted to Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram) on basis of which in 2005 the Bill on Gorkha Hill Council Darjeeling in West Bengal remains pending in the Rajya Sabha as amended by the Parliamentary Standing Committee in 2007.

The drawback of the Bill is the territorial contents of the area, containing only the three subdivisions of the District in which Siliguri subdivision has been fragmented to exclude areas of Darjeeling District (Siliguri Municipal Corporation under the Siliguri District Parishad [Mahakuma] with all development projects contained in Siliguri Jalpaiguri Development Corporation). Darjeeling District if at all the constitution is to be effectively implemented, cannot be fragmented from its area content, because in effect, which the ordinary ethnic majority community of the state is unable to accept the fact constitutionally Darjeeling District as a territorial area has never been part of erstwhile Bengal nor West Bengal State.

Hence the charge the statehood demand of the Darjeeling hill peoples will bifurcate West Bengal does not hold any water. On the contrary West Bengal should be grateful to the Darjeeling hill people for having allowed exploitation of resources to the coffers of Bengal since Darjeeling District was formed in 1866 partly out of Sikkim and Bhutan.

source:
THE HIMALAYAN BEACON [BEACON ONLINE]