“Mero Bhasha Gorkhali Nepali Ho; I’m as Much an Indian as You”

(This piece was first published on 15 August 2017 and is being republished in light of recent calls for ‘One Nation, One Language’.)

Isn't it an irony that my language Nepali instigated the very Gorkhaland movement today? Needless to say, how much the Gorkhali Nepali bhasha means to us Gorkhalis in India.

There's a reason why we use Gorkhali when we can simply say that we're a Nepali speaking community. The same reason why we don't want to be merged with Nepal, or dislike being asked if we are migrants from Nepal. To keep the story short and save you from repeating historical accounts, it is simply because our Nepali is different from that of Nepal's.

Ours is a different dialect that we somehow came to be with, as being a part of India. My Nepali is crude yet mystical; rough yet polite, brash yet friendly and welcoming. You could say a bit like how North Indian Hindi, like Delhi, is different from Hindi spoken in Varanasi or a Lucknow.

Nepali in Nepal is like Urdu, always so polite, even when angry. They speak with a slow tone, and use respectable words frequently, sabkay saath 'aap'. My bhasha Nepali on the other hand, is spoken with quite a pace and will use a collection of expressions that could complete sentences instead. Sometimes we eat up our words too!

But this dialect is the reason why I love my bhasha, the reason why I have an identity of my own, that I can feel a sense of belonging and pride with. Our younger generation tend to use a lot of English, Hinglish words along with Nepali these days, and it makes me worry where our language might be headed – another dialect perhaps?

Songs composed and sung in my dialect mean more to me than a Nepali song sung in Nepal, because I would miss the straight-forwardness and rough mithaas of my bhasha‘s dialect. And it is this very dialect that helps us differentiate between tourists and locals alike in the two neighbouring countries.

Most friends initially would always think that my bhasha would also have a script that looked like Chinese, just because 'they think' we have similar features, but good Lord no! Nepali was very much derived from the Devanagari script and is so similar to Hindi, you wouldn't even know it’s Nepali for most words.

There have been many non-Nepali singers who have sung songs in our language, including Mohit Chauhan and Gaurav Dagaonkar in recent times. It is one of the official constitutional languages of India; you’ll find us on all Indian currency notes too. Quite easy to learn and understand, accept and fall in love with, just as with any other language in our country.

I invite my fellow Indians to understand how my bhasha Nepali only adds to India's diversity, learn and educate yourself about us and accept us Nepali-speaking Indians as your kin.

It certainly hurts to be saying this, pleading for acceptance, yet to create awareness of the Nepali language and Gorkhalis, even in 71 years of India's Independence, when the fact is that me, my people and our bhasha has been here for as long as you and your bhasha has. Unlike in certain cases in the world, when India became independent, we were given the freedom to continue our language for generations to come, for which we are grateful. Even though the country hasn't been fair to me or my people and our bhasha, we choose to love India and live as Indians because bhai, mera bharat toh mahaan hai!

To all the languages and their people, Happy Independence Day! Bol India!

(This article was sent to The Quint by Anjalina Pradhan for our campaign, BOL – Love your Bhasha. Anjalina is a Gorkhali, Nepali speaking Indian who loves India as much as you do.