A sketchy history of Darjeeling from a skewed view point

Writes: Sachin Bahadur

In the Interim Report of the Excluded and Partially Excluded Areas (other than Assam) Sub-committee of the Advisory Committee (Constituent Assembly of India) dated 18th August 1947, Shri AV Thakkar, Chairman, Excluded & Partially Excluded areas (other than Assam) Sub-Committee, New Delhi had these comments on Darjeeling.

1876 map showing Darjeeling and Sikkim

1. The partially excluded areas of Bengal consist of the District of Darjeeling and certain police station areas in the Mymensingh district which border on the Garo Hills of Assam.
2. The Gurkhas are not recognized as a backward tribe and the thirteenth schedule to the Govt. of India (Legislative Assemblies) Order does not include Gurkhas.
3. The partial exclusion of Darjeeling was recommended by the Govt. of Bengal not because it was considered as a backward area but because it was felt that safeguards were necessary in the interests of the hill people. 

Then after the Absorbed Areas (Laws) Act, 1954, Schedule V, West Bengal officially put the “innocent lamb and a rapacious wolf into the same cage” though the Foreigners (Restricted Areas) Order 1963 was not lifted till 1990 (Govt. of India No. 15011/6/89-F.I.).

Point three creates confusion. Darjeeling is not a backward area but safeguards were necessary in the interests of the hill people. Were not the Scheduled Districts Act, Excluded Areas and Partially Excluded Areas passed to protect the “people in an imperfect state of being civilized”, to insulate them from the rest of the country which was comparatively advanced. And a not backward area will have a not backward population so the rationale of necessary safeguards does not arise. Secondly ‘tribe’ in the second comment becomes ‘people’ in the third comment. ‘Tribe’ and ‘people’ are not synonymous. Had it been a conversation the terms would have been synonymous but then it was a report.

Now, if the arms of history were rewound, it was the Britishers who first identified tribals in the Indian social structure and discussed and devised methods to ‘cause them to be civilised’ for to them tribes were people in an “imperfect state of being civilized”.

The debates of the British Parliament provide us with a rich insight into how tribes were thought of when the first laws to regulate their lives were passed for the colonies.

In 1874 an Act called the “Scheduled Districts Act” was passed by the British Parliament which identified areas where the general laws for India would not operate. These areas were placed directly under the personal control of the Governor of the province rather than under any regular governmental or judicial administration. Accordingly Darjeeling [Subs. By Act12 of 1891, for “Divisions”]. Darjeeling District was placed under the “Scheduled Districts Act” thereby cutting it from the Bengal frame work.

This was supported by the Montagu-Chelmsford Report of 1918 which stated that these areas were inhabited by primitive peoples and not suitable for founding political institutions. The Government of India Act of 1919 divided these areas into two parts, namely, the wholly excluded areas which would be administered by the Governor, and the partly excluded areas which would have representatives in the Provincial Legislature.

The Simon Commission of 1930 criticized the notion of excluded areas as it took the view that the Government for India was shirking its duty. They believed that such a system would deprive these areas of opportunities if it was left to Provincial Governments and missionaries and not tackled at the Central level. To do so, however, would be an expensive affair.

So instead of adopting this suggestion, an order was passed in 1936 called the Excluded and Partly Excluded Areas Order under the Government of India Act, 1935 which made this existing classification uniformly applicable across the country. Areas along the national borders were classified as “tribal areas” and the Backward Tribes Order of 1936 was passed to ensure that additional protection was provided to some of the tribal groups living in these regions. It was on the basis of this Order that much of the post-independence recognition of tribes was to be made. 

Accordingly Darjeeling District was classified as a Partially Excluded Area. [The Government of India (Excluded and Partially Excluded Areas) Order, 1936, No.166]

With the changing of British fortunes following the Second World War, India was destined to become an independent nation. However, the British Parliament expressed concern over the future of the tribal groups in India. They believed that to do away with the framework which they had created would be to put an “innocent lamb and a rapacious wolf into the same cage.” Thus, the task was then entrusted to the Indian Constituent Assembly which was to frame the Constitution of India to look into the welfare of Scheduled Tribes.

Unfortunately as put at the very beginning of this observation a grave injustice was done by the observation of Shri A.V. Thakkar which flatly put that Darjeeling district (which under the purview of Scheduled Districts Act 1874, Excluded Area and then Partially Excluded) was not actually a backward area thereby paving its way into the arms of West Bengal.

Thus a simplistic and backward tribe and the highly cultivated, educated and sophisticated majority were put under one common umbrella; it was if to quote the Britishers akin to putting an “innocent lamb and a rapacious wolf into the same cage.”

Again returning to the Absorbed Area (Laws Act) Act 1954, I quote from Mr. Karma T. Pempahisey’s seminal and utterly informative Roadmap on the Trail to Gorkhaland “it details Darjeeling District as a Partially Excluded Area transferred to West Bengal for administrative purposes perceivably under the provisions of the Fifth Schedule without the Scheduled Area (second part of Fifth Schedule) aspects simply as Scheduled Tribes (first part of Fifth Schedule). This was an instruction by the President of India on basis of which the Governor of the State instructed the State Government to form a Tribes Advisory Council during the period 1952-56 vide Notification No. 1280 under rule 4 of the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution of India. Such a council still exists in the State. It is this Fifth Schedule perspective which is seen to have allowed Darjeeling District to form the Darjeeling Hill Council in 1978, Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council 1988 and Gorkhaland Territorial Administration 2011. It therefore stands to reason that these bodies were various aspects of the Tribes Advisory Council and therefore perceived as tribes based in general context. In support of this confirmation it is realized, there are no reservation of seats for the national minorities inclusively”.

Now any individual, or a group or groups from Darjeeling in pursuant of Scheduled Tribe Status would do well if the provisions of the Constitutions were to be delved deeply rather than hitting at the all unifying and religious festivals like Dasai or making shamans dance on the streets. 

Via TheDC

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