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It is strange that despite past examples of the incendiary potential of linguistic chauvinism, politicians still pursue the same fateful path.
The latest instance of such short-sighted policies is West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's decision to make Bengali a compulsory subject from classes I to X in the state. The disastrous fallout of such myopia can be seen in Darjeeling where it has led to the renewal of the demand for a separate state, viz Gorkhaland, by the Nepali-speaking population of the region.
Although after the agitation began, the chief minister expressed her willingness not to make the subject compulsory, she did not want to give a written commitment. As a result, the agitation has led to a virtual shutdown of Darjeeling and adjacent areas, including the tea gardens.
The best course for her would have been to assure the ethnic Nepalis that no language will be imposed on anyone just as Jawaharlal Nehru and Lal Bahadur Shastri assured the Tamilians opposed to Hindi in the 1960s that English will continue as the link language as long as the non-Hindi-speaking people wanted it.
In any event, her decision to play the Bengali card was based on the fear about the inroads, which the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is supposedly making in West Bengal because of the belief that the CM is far too indulgent towards the Muslims. Her show of parochialism was aimed, therefore, at retaining her middle class base. But she evidently did not factor in the impact on Darjeeling.
It is obvious that the West Bengal government should have handled the language issue with greater care especially when the demand for a separate administrative unit in the Darjeeling area is an old one.
The demand can be traced back to 1907 when a hill-men's association wanted it as a part of the Morley-Minto reforms and raised it again with the Simon Commission in 1930.
In more recent times, the issue came to the fore in the mid-1980s when the demand for a separate state was raised by Subhash Ghisingh, but the then Chief Minister Jyoti Basu, managed to defuse the situation by forming an autonomous Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council.
However, after Ghisingh faded away from the scene, a new party, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) under his former lieutenant, Bimal Gurung, gained prominence and is currently directing the agitation.
No government or party can accept it.
But statesmanship of high calibre is needed for a solution of a centuries-old demand, which has simmered in an area with Nepali populations constituting the majority in both the Darjeeling area and Sikkim.
The Centre's fear is that conceding Gorkhaland will have a ripple effect with similar other demands such as for Bodoland raising their heads. The case for smaller states may also be reiterated elsewhere in India.
However, the agitators are not on as strong a wicket as they think. Although the GJM has joined hands with what remains of Ghisingh's Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF), no one in the hills is unaware of their bitter relations in the past.
Only a few weeks ago, the GNLF was an ally of the Trinamool Congress and has now sided with the GJM so as not to let the latter run away with the Gorkhaland demand.
The state government is apparently waiting for the agitation to fizzle out because continued disruption of normal life will hurt the region's economy based on tea and tourism.
Sikkim has already expressed its unhappiness over the adverse impact of the agitation on their landlocked state. In the meantime, an assurance on letting the schools in the region choose a language of their choice will help.
(This article was published in arrangement with IANS. The author Amulya Ganguli is a political analyst and can be reached at amulyaganguli@gmail.com. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)
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