Gorkhaland Blues (Satis Shroff)

(pic) Satis Shroff tands below Nepalese National Poet, translator of Ramayan, Sri Bhanubhakta Acharya

GORKHALAND BLUES (Satis Shroff)

Early in the misty monsoon morning

A Gorkhali meets a Bengali

Below the statue of Bhanubhakta Acharya,

At Darjeeling’s Chowrasta.

The Bengali doesn’t like the  Adi Kavi

The prime poet of the Gorkhalis there.

Why do you have your poet here,

Why not also Tagore?

The Gorkhali says,’ Tagore belongs to Shantiniketan.’

East Bengal belonged to ancient Bengal.

But it turned into East Bengal overnight in 1947.

You Bengalis had nothing in common with the Muslims of East Pakistan.

Freedom from Pakistan let to Bangladesh.

We in the hills of Darjeeling,

Want freedom from Bengal.

We want our own Gorkhaland.

‘But Gorkhaland lies in Bengal, ‘ says the Bengali.

What do you have in common with us Gorkhalis?

The Bengali replies: ‘We have the same religion.’

Ah, but nothing else. You eat fish, we eat dal-bhat-shikar.

We fought for our Nepali language.

It has been recognised as one of the languages of India.

The Bengali retorts with gleaming eyes:

 ‘Tagore got the Nobel Prize.’

We are fighting for our Gorkhali identity.

Neither do you speak our tongue nor do you read Nepali literature.

You read your own books and watch your own Bengali films.

We read Bhanubhakta, Lainsingh Bangdel and Devkota.

You have usurped our land,

And have become rich and arrogant in the process.

The monoculture Thea sinensis was planted

By the Nepalese migrants under the British Raj.

The plantations are not owned by Gorkhalis but Bengalis.

The migrants from Bengal have done in Darjeeling,

What the Han Chinese have done in Lhasa.

You have taken our jobs away: the teaching profession,

Administrative jobs all run by brown Bengali babus.

‘We are better qualified, perhaps, ‘ says the Bengali.

Qualification takes time and money.

The only legacy and pride left to us is our brawn,

As soldiers under foreign flags and India’s Gorkha regiments.

Where is the liberty, equality and fraternity

Guaranteed by the biggest democracy in the world?

Had Darjeeling been reverted to Sikkim we’d be well off,

As the Sikkimese are today under Central rule.

What have you Bengalis brought to us besides poverty and misery?

The railway and telecommunications were introduced by the Brits,

The three leaves and a bud were planted by the English.

The entire administrative jobs were kept by the Bengalis.

The Gorkhalis transferred to jobs in the plains.

How can you say Darjeeling belongs to Bengal?

Please read the history of Sikkim and Darjeeling.

We never belonged to Bengal in history.

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