The themes and contents of regionalism include the protracted trials and tribulations of tea workers in the Darjeeling tea industry, the contributions in the agriculture/dairy sector by the Gorkha farmers in Assam, and the political movements against the feudal system in Sikkim. Themes like historical deprivation and political alienation of the Gorkhas and cultural diversity within the Gorkha community bring so much life and variety to the theme of regionalism. The geographical context and blending with other majority communities like the Khasis in Meghalaya, and the Garhwalis and Kumaoni in Uttarakhand are conspicuous. Lagan (1955) by Achha Rai Rasik, Basain (1957) by Lilbahadur Chettri, and Niyati (1982) by Indra Sundas are superb and fascinating depictions of these connections between nationalism and regionalism.
The evolution of Dorjayling
Asit Rai’s Sahitya Akademi awarded volume Naya Khsitijko Khoj (In search of a new horizon, 1980) has been a dynamic representation of ‘regionness’. With a strong content of history, the narration brings in an ‘international’ perspective when it recollects how Prithvi Narayan Shah brought unparalleled unification in Nepal and fought a war with the British. It also enters into the discourse the exploitative practices of the British India Government as a continuum of what is ‘national’. In the preface, Rai writes, “This Darjeeling was only forest, this Darjeeling of Sikkim, this Darjeeling of Bhutan, this Darjeeling of Nepal was only forest and soil. Then again this forest became Dorjayling. This evergreen Darjeeling of Tea! My ancestors’ Darjeeling lived in the form of immortal tea bushes, the crushed ways of Nepali lives represent the beauty of Darjeeling, the dream and fame of India. We always lived for others, always laughed for others but were never able to live and laugh for ourselves.”
He starts with punchy recollections of anecdotes from his great-great-grandfather in the 1790s and ends with ever-capturing enigmas faced by his grandchild in post-independence India. He goes back to the first settlements in Darjeeling, with the arrival of the Rongs (Lepchas) prior to the settlements of the Gorkhas who came with herds of sheep traversing difficult terrain and torrential rivers like the Teesta, Rangeet and Mechi-Balasan. These Gorkhas were the well-built and rugged-faced Lamichhane Gurungs and Panchthare Limbus. They all knew that only years ago, Prithvi Narayan Shah’s brave Gorkha soldiers had usurped power to rule over this region. They decided not to return to the hills and started cutting down the forest, making shelters for themselves and their live-stock, diverted the nearby rivulets in the vertically halved bamboo channels for drinking water, started sowing millets and created a new, promising society. They were soon followed by hordes of Tamangs, Mangars, Khas and Kirats with respective cultural imports.
By the year 1829, Captain Lloyd and GW Grant had already stepped into this otherwise virgin land. Their arrival was not taken easily by the Gorkhas as the ‘whites’ were widely considered as cow-eaters. This led to a fierce societal protest. This intrusion may have been prompted by the constant fracas between Sikkim and Nepal. The former wanted protection and decided to give Darjeeling to the British rulers in 1835. The people reacted bitterly to this decision. “Look, Darjeeling now belongs to Company Sarkar, the place of Gorkhas is also of the Company, now we will be evicted, the cowsheds will be pulled down, the Company forces will be stationed and they will soon open markets here!”
Thus ran the mood and fear among the Gorkhas. Naturally, when he was asked to remove his old big cowsheds from the Gundri Bazaar, old Khadga Baje experienced a chain of sleepless nights. He quit Darjeeling along with his 40-50 cows and reached Sukia but could not settle there due to the incessant snowfall. Most of his cows died; his helplessness one day took him to Surgeon Major Archibald Campbell who had by then assumed the charge of Resident in Nepal. He appointed Khadga as a Sardar for arranging and bringing coolies from Nepal for the massive construction that was going on in Darjeeling.
Built on hardships
The author gives a vivid picture of the hard but dignified life of the people engaged in sawing, rock-cutting, etc. amidst cultural bondage and natural calamities. The superstition that was rampant among the ignorant Gorkhas, attacks on calves by fierce hill-leopards, the frightening howling of hapsilos (a kind of fox) and the master-servant attitude of the British rulers have been remarkably recorded. After the first batch of tea seedlings was planted in the Alebung area, the process of deforestation picked up, the demand for coolies increased by leaps and bounds, and land became more valuable and inaccessible. Tea plantations soon became a commercial venture and the mode of exploitation deepened. There came moneylenders like Kalua Modi and cloth merchants like Shyam Sunder ‘enticing his customers with a mug of oil in his mouth’.
Soon ‘there spread the news that the Bhutias have again declared a war and have crossed the Teesta.’ It was the year 1862 when Bhutan attacked Dorjayling to demand its return from the British.
The caning of the coolies by their Sardars engaged in the construction of the road between Darjeeling and the plains, particularly in the most rugged terrain of Gidhhe Pahar, the introduction of Toy Train in 1881 amidst the creaking sound of bullock-carts, the arrival of missionaries and the cautiousness in accepting Christianity in the schools are very realistically depicted. The Toy Train was welcomed by everyone with slogans of the victory of Queen Victoria, Lord Lytton and the Viceroy. However, the novelist laments, ‘after working for the whole day in the tea garden one earns six paise, and who could afford the rail ride for a fare of six paise? Instead, on a Sunday, with a basket on the back, one would prefer to walk a distance of 10-15 miles through the shortcuts amidst jungles to reach Gundri Bazaar, now Chowk bazaar, in Darjeeling. It was more satisfying to have one paise worth of jaar (locally fermented alcohol like liquid) and another paise worth of snacks. ‘This is where his accounts of great-grandfather to grandfather ends’. The arrival of the first car in Darjeeling in 1902 gives a new turn to this historical novel.
The heart-rending scene of the devastation caused by the 1946 landslides, the bravery displayed by the Gorkha recruits of Darjeeling in the World War and the increasing highhandedness of the Sahebs in the tea gardens and the administration, moves the author to the core. In one instance, the Saheb was very angry and shouted at Sunman Chettri, “You are standing in front of me with your shoes on, don’t you feel ashamed, you rascal?”
Lama presently a High End Expert in Institute of South Asian Studies, Sichuan University in China, has been a jury member for the prestigious Sahitya Academy Award in India
No comments:
Post a Comment