Buenos Aires, 2012
Apéndice 2. Petrología y Petrografía
2.2. Destape Palo Blanco
4.1(i) Social and Political History
In 2007 the Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha (GJM, Gorkha Peoples Liberation Front) declared the renewal of the demand for a separate state for Nepalis living in India. Their immediate demand was the separation of Darjeeling District and parts of the Duars in the Jalpaiguri District from West Bengal and the formation of Gorkhaland on the basis of Article 3 of the Indian Constitution.
The booklet ‘Why Gorkhaland’ published in 2009 by the GJM states,
‘the demand for Gorkhaland is basically a question of the Gorkha Indian political identity ... as the spectre of “alien-ness”, “foreigners” and “evictions” continues to hunt (sic) the Indian Gorkhas even today. Why is there this ‘identity crisis’ for the Gorkhas despite their being Indian citizens for centuries, having either come with the territory that became British India under various treaties or as a part of the population movement over the centuries? Why is the Indian-Gorkha-ness so loosely received across the country that they have to emphasize their nationality by compounding their identity with their nationality? The Gorkhas must be recognised as equal stake-holders in the governance of the country and its future. Recognition of the Gorkha identity will signify their assimilation into the mainstream of Indian life and thereby further the process of nation building. A separate state will reiterate their “Indian political identity” and their Indianess.’
The excerpt above highlights a complex interaction of cultural identity, citizenship, discrimination, power and the desire for its final resolution through a separate administrative setup for a ‘homeland’. In addition, the Darjeeling hills have also become representative of the plight of the Nepalis of India112 in general, carrying the onus of discrimination, identity crisis
and therefore leading the cause for its resolution through Gorkhaland.113
112 In a recent unpublished paper T.B.Subba makes a useful distinction between Nepalis of India, who are born in
India and are Indian citizens and Nepalis in India who usually migrate to India for employment or education.
113The primary intention of my fieldwork in the Darjeeling hills and the Duars was to try and understand the
Gorkha and the multiple interpretations of that identity. I was aware of the stories and the stereotypes surrounding the Gorkha and was interested in understanding how they had been imbibed by a community as a source of political inspiration. This made it important to understand the physical, social and economic space (without any romanticism) in which the bir Gorkha existed.
Darjeeling is a colonized space where deprivation and discrimination have a historical precedent in the plantation estates that were established in the hills and the plains of north-east India. From a sparsely populated hillock occupied by local Lepcha, Magar and Limbu villages to one of the famous hills stations in India, Darjeeling’s origins are steeped in the history of the British Raj. It was initially developed as a sanatorium in 1837, a respite from the heat and dust of the Indian plains but suitable climate and geographical relief quickly led to it being exploited for commercial tea plantations. With the expansion and diversification of British trade in the late 18th century, tea from India became one of the most profitable trading commodities. Thus,
after the initial establishment of tea plantations in Assam, the successful British experiment with tea encouraged extensive venture capital and the development of the tea industry, especially after 1856 when new varieties of tea started thriving and could be grown on a commercial scale.114 The tea industry is one of the largest employers in the state and is based on a very high fixed land-labour ratio, with 3.5 workers per hectare which implies intensive farming of land and provides employment for approximately seventy percent of the total population of Darjeeling, directly as well as indirectly (Datta, 2010:145).115
Plantation agriculture, although a representation of modernity and western industrialization, was and still is labour intensive. Since the ideal locations for these plantations were heavily forested and scantily inhabited areas, recruitment of low paid migrant labour became a characteristic feature of plantation agriculture.116 The wages of the labourers known
114 By the end of 1866, there were about 39 gardens with 10,000 acres under cultivation which expanded to 18,888
acres and 156 gardens and by 1914 there were 156 gardens employing over 30,000 permanent workers and 12,141 temporary workers (Sarkar and Lama, 1984:88; Griffiths, 1967:88). Presently there are eighty-seven functional tea gardens in the Darjeeling hills alone, majority of which are owned by private companies and a few by the West Bengal Tea Development Board.
115 According to the Economic Review (2011-12: 112) published by the Finance Department, Government of
West Bengal, a large percentage of the working population (75.20 percent) in Darjeeling district is engaged in non-agricultural work (including tea-estate workers) while only 14.59 percent of the working population are engaged as cultivators while an even lower percentage (10.21 percent) were working as agricultural labourers. Also see Dekens (2005:83, 84).
116 Labourers for tea plantations in Darjeeling, Terai and the Duars areas of present day North Bengal were
recruited from eastern Nepal and tribal areas of Jharkhand by sardars, who received commission upon successful recruitment and establishment of the labourers in different dhuras/blocks (Sharma, 1997:5).
as ‘coolies’ or ‘mazdoor’ was lower than the wages of other agricultural labourers 117 and this
acted as a major disincentive for the local agriculturists to join the plantation which prompted the recruitment of labour from other areas. The wage structure which had been introduced in 1891 had remained intact till independence (Xaxa, 1985: 1662). Living inside barricaded enclosures, usually in rows of poorly constructed quarters called coolie lines, every action of the laborer was monitored by the plantation police. Forcible capture of absconding coolies and corporal punishment were seen as the right of the sahib planters, while flogging and other kinds of coercion were considered the most effective ways of dealing with the recalcitrant labor (Gupta, 1992:182). The North Bengal Mounted Rifles maintained discipline in the Darjeeling plantations and it was only in 1947 that it was officially disbanded. Another form of control over the labourers was through land. In order to supplement their cripplingly low wages, the labourers were allotted plots of land, but with no tenancy rights. Working also as subsistence agriculturists, the laborers relied on the mercy and goodwill of the managers as they could be evicted anytime and under any trivial pretext. The land constrained the freedom and movement of the laborers and was thus the invisible shackles that bound the laborer to the plantation (Gupta, 1985:2). Representing a capitalist mode of production, there was segregation on the basis of class which also corresponded to difference in ethnic attributes. Managers and assistants were Europeans and Anglo-Indians, skilled workers were Bengalis and unskilled workers were either tribals from Jharkhand or different ethnic groups from eastern Nepal (Xaxa, 1985:1659).
Racial hierarchy was visible in the administrative structure and was strictly enforced. On one side were the Managers (burra/ big) sahib and the assistant managers/ chota (small) sahib and on the other were the large number of plantation workers, collectively known as coolies but divided into marad (man), aurat (woman) and chokra (adolescent) on the basis of the work done in the factory (ibid). The colonial plantations had legal and extra-legal sanctions and given the support of the colonial state, the class of burra sahib and his assistants (usually Bengalis) were laws unto themselves. The captive, uneducated labor living in isolation and in the absence of any legal protection was placed in a position of total dependence on the plantation, which fostered disempowerment and the establishment of a patron-client, mai-baap (mother-father) (Bhowmik, 1980:1525; Chatterjee, 2001: 5) relationship with the plantation managers.
117 The 1906 Labour Investigation Committee conceded that labourers earned insufficient wages but it was argued
that insufficiency had no relation to the wage rate or the wage system but it was rather the fault of the labourer who spent it frivolously (Gupta, 1985:4).
This had a major impact on the world-view of generations of those living in the plantations and is reflected even today in the despondent attitude of plantation workers like Vishu Bhujel118 a bagan (garden) worker in the Duncan TE, Duars. He calls the plantation life a daas-pratha (slavery) and that the plantations as one of the most backward places, kept deliberately so in order to retain the labourers in the garden as no educated person, aware of their rights would ever engage in plantation labour. This sense of injustice and helplessness can also be attributed to the hierarchical class system which has been inherited and internalized by generations of workers. Historically, hierarchy at the work place coincided with the social world. Difference in physical features of the British planters, the Bengali administrators and the multi-ethnic, Mongoloid group was used successfully to homogenize different ethnic groups into different classes. However, this very segregation was successful in the eventual construction of a meta-identity of the Gorkha.
The position of the plantation workers in the socio-economic hierarchy has a direct implication for the quality of life of the labourers and their dependents. Walking around plantation estates both in the hills as well as in Darjeeling, what struck me the most was how congested the living areas in the estates were, with houses adjacent to one another and small vegetable patches next to tea bushes. While workers in the hills had small plots for vegetable gardens, workers in the Duars lived in congested spaces with their Adivasi neighbours. However in both the areas, the plot of land on which they lived was not theirs to own. Even in the Cinchona plantations in Mungpoo, despite the relatively large cultivation areas that were available to the factory workers, they still had no ownership of the land which was a major source of anxiety for them.
Interaction with Bishnu Prasad Sharma,119 one of the labourers at the Duncan TE
revealed a palpable sense of insecurity which I had also heard and seen in other estates. Bishnu Prasad was nervous about his impending retirement as that would mean eviction from the estate where he has lived all his life. In spite of having worked in the bagan for thirty seven years, his economic insecurity loomed large. He said, ‘the day I retire I will get a letter from the manager saying thank you for working so hard for us but please evacuate the quarter in six months. I have given my sweat and blood to this bagan but I have nothing. Where will I go?
118 Worker at Duncan TE and an active member of the Labour Union, interviewed by the author on 13th January,
2011, Bagrakot, West Bengal.
119 Plantation worker, interviewed by the author on 13th January, 2011, Duncan Tea Estate, Bagrakot, West
Describing his life of poverty Bishnu Prasad said that life on the plantation reflects the Nepali proverb kuti lyayo, bhuti khayo (thresh the wheat and eat it immediately), basically to earn only enough to eat, lead a hand to mouth existence as minimum government assistance has left them at the mercy of the tea estates. These people faced existential issues that really affected every single aspect of their lives. Economic problems were severe, real and seemed to be a cycle that the workers could not break away from.
Living in Happy Valley Estate, Darjeeling
Bishnu Prasad’s insecurity is further exacerbated by the unstable status of the Indian-Nepalis and the fear of being evicted like the Lhotsampas. Citing lack of political agency of those attached to plantation he said, ‘we are territorially bound to the plantation and thus our politics is limited and because we are in Bengal, very little of our grievances are heard. This is Bengal and there will be Bengali-ism, isn’t it? Our mano-bal (mental strength) has been weakened considerably. It is only when a person is educated and strong mentally as well as physically that he can think of doing anything but here we are weak and feel inferior.’ Bishnu Prasad’s statement is loaded with references to the different types of constraints that are preventing the economic and political development of the Nepalis living in the hills and terai of West Bengal. While forces of capitalism have reduced them to powerless labourers, the state and its ethnic biases have made them politically inconsequential thereby leading to a decline in their mano- bal.
Daily life in Bagrakot and Banarhat, West Bengal
Apart from class hierarchy and economic subservience, dependency on the tea estates can also be deemed as one of the important factors that has had a serious impact on the worldview of those living on the plantations. After the exit of the British planters in 1947 the tea plantations were taken over by their Indian counterparts and the years following Independence saw a decline in tea production owing to a number of factors, of which constant changes in the management and excessive trade-unionism were primary. This led to factory lock downs, exposing the dependency and poverty of the labourers as they were completely dependent on the tea factories not just for their livelihoods but even the provision of basic necessities. This was due to the Plantation Labour Act, 1951120 which holds the tea companies responsible for the welfare of the labourers and their dependents.
In spite of the guidelines provided by the Act a comparative study conducted in 1996 on the tea growing states of Assam, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu revealed that housing facilities in West Bengal tea estates were either inadequate or sub-standard (twenty-five percent of the houses were temporary (kuttcha) made of bamboo and mud and the roofs made of thatch) and that the sanitary facilities were deplorable along with inadequate water supplies (Bhowmik in Bhowmik et al 1996: 54-55). Except for Makaibari TE, most of the plantations are owned by absentee landlords and the gardens often change hands between different companies who are more interested in the extraction of profit over a short period of time (Tirkey, 2005). This
120 The Plantation Labour Act, 1951 was enacted to provide for the welfare of the labour and to regulate the
conditions of work in plantations. It came to force in 1954 and has been amended four times, the last being in 1986. In principle the tea companies are supposed to provide a wide range of facilities to the labourers, ranging from health, education, ration etc. However, education, housing, ration, firewood all comprise a consolidated wage and therefore helps sustain the argument of low monetary wage in the tea estates. For detailed description of the provisions under this Act, see
dependency on the tea estates has led to what Naren Chettri121 calls a ‘culture of poverty and dependency’ in the estates owing to the lack of human, social and economic capital, a trend that extends beyond the boundaries of the tea gardens and spreads across the Darjeeling hills. According to Naren Chettri, land is either leased by the government to private tea companies, owned by the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway Private (at least the stretch from Siliguri to Darjeeling) or is under the West Bengal Forest Department. Thus, ownership of non-estate land is highly rare in the District especially in Darjeeling and Kurseong sub-districts which have major tea and cinchona plantations.122 This dependency on the tea estate is matched by their
inability to exercise their rights as workers, which abets further frustration and helplessness. Workers of the Happy Valley TE123 complained, ‘the malik (owner) is taking advantage. If we
go on a strike demanding pay revision, he can shut the factory down for the week and we lose all our wages or he can shut the factory down completely. They even deliberately declare a garden sick so that we are paid lower bonuses and increments. There are hardly any general or educational facilities provided.’ Some like Mahesh Kumar Pradhan124 even look at the British
era favourably saying, ‘according to the agreement with the trade union they are supposed to give us blankets, slippers, firewood but they don’t even give ration on time. The malik these days act as if they wished they didn’t have to pay us…in certain bagans some of the things that the British used to give, they have not been able to give us even that much. Thus, if there is a Gorkhaland tomorrow we will establish exemplary standards in the tea gardens within Gorkhaland’.
However, tea garden closures and lower tea production means that gardens are unable to generate additional employment.125 In an uncanny similarity to what was practiced during
121 Social entrepreneur and activist interviewed by the author on 30th December, 2011, Kalimpong, West Bengal. 122 Kalimpong sub-division on the other hand could not be developed as a plantation due to the inability of
connecting it on the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway line, which facilitated the private ownership of land. This has enabled the locals to engage in agriculture, floriculture who thus represent an amorphous and varied class rather than a homogenous class of plantation workers.
123 Group interview conducted by the author on 22nd December, 2010, Darjeeling, West Bengal.
124 Former employee at the Duncan TE, interviewed by the author on 13th January, 2011, Duncan T.E. Bagrakot,
West Bengal.
125 According to the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation Annual Report (2009-10) the tea industry
in West Bengal is going through a crisis due to lack of investment in the maintenance of gardens, rising costs of inputs, lower yield rate and fall in prices. The report attributes the present crisis mainly to the negligence of the
the colonial era, all the tea grown in Darjeeling or Duars is taken to auction houses in Calcutta where it is branded, auctioned and sold leaving the tea labourers as mere mazdoors (labourers) with no stake in any other level of tea production apart from plucking and processing the leaves in the factories. With limited chances of growth, the labourer can play no other role in tea production in the capitalist enterprise that began with the British Raj. The tea gardens which are managed by the West Bengal Tea Development Corporation have become leading examples in the denial of the statutory rights of the workers and of non-compliance of the provisions of the Plantation Labour Act and therefore a model for private tea companies (Bomjan, 2008:21). Thus, economic deprivation has become a way of life and can be attributed to neo-capitalistic structures that are at work in Darjeeling.
The continuing discrimination and neglect of the labourers has also been well described by Bomjan (2008:20). He writes, ‘the incident126 and occurrence of the suicide and lock out of
Orange Valley tea garden was carried out by the daily newspapers of Nepali language only. The daily papers except one in other language published from the district of Darjeeling did not consider the happenings worth reporting. But on the same day the death of six pigeons and approaching monsoon and clearing of drains by Siliguri Municipal Corporation had four column(s) of news in the national dailies published from the region.’ The state of neglect that