the hills are alive with the sounds of bandh. a bandh is a favorite indian political pass-time. and indian politics is nothing if not confusing, corrupt, conflictive and criminal. right now the darjeeling hills finds itself ripe for the latter two to manifest, with the former easy enough without some history.
darjeeling is part of west bengal state. it is a very small slice at its northern boundary. however, darjeeling has as much in common with bengal and bengalis as it has in relation to their comparative sizes. as such it has been generally ignored and given little money or resources by the state government. this lead to what is referred to as 'the agitation' of the late '80's. this was a widely supported guerrilla uprising by the hills to create the state of gorkhaland. what resulted was not a state, but, a semi autonomous region that receives money from the national government. it was to have a regionally elected council, the 'darjeeling gorkha hill council', that functioned as local authority. in india there is the way things are suppose to be, by law, agreements, tellings, etc., and there is the way things are. the money that was allocated for the hills still passed through west bengal state budget where mysterious and unknown occurrences happen along the lines of the bermuda triangle. the council elections were never held (i'm unsure what the stated reasons were) and a single man politically maneuvered to become, basically, a dictator, 'the man'. and so it has remained since. anyone that began to politically oppose 'the man' received a late night visit with talk. if they still persisted, well nothing beens proven, but one or two mysterious deaths are only superficially so. it is this way in indian politics. there are much more than several convicted felons in parliament, more than one of them for murder. when you get to the state level, well.........
today serious opposition has emerged. this sadly and perfectly grew out of the Indian Idol tv competition. i say sadly because of the millions of rupees that went to large corporations and that it required this commercial exploitive manipulation for a population to realize its unity. this is what happened. the young man who won was a local boy. the final weeks saw this community, from nepal to sikkim to the Diaspora spread throughout india and the world, unite to send sms's (each one costing rupees) to vote for him. on the final night, dragged out for maximum commercial income, when he won the euphoria lasted over a week. and within a very short time. a man left 'the man's' political party (GNLF) to form his own new one (GJMM). with the new unity and high spirits this party has had many people joining and supporting it. this is particularly true in the urban centers and with the youth. it is not overwhelming so, with many rural ares still backing 'the man'. with this a late night visit is no longer possible. a mysterious happening would only draw much attention. a martyr is not what ' the man' wants. what is to happen?
what is to happen?
yes, this is the question that is jumping around the hills like a fat ankle in a rattlesnake pit. (to be aptly descriptively if culturally out of place) you see there is not a functioning system by which this new party can challenge 'the man'. elections have not happened in almost 30 years. there is no elected council. added to this is the situation of the sixth schedule. (we've covered everything else so we're building up the confusion)
o.k. the sixth schedule. this is the amendment or process within the indian constitution that became necessary for the nat'l gov't to appease it's vast and diverse populations of tribals. it recognizes their traditional ways and allows them some political self determination and structure. there's more involved, but for our little conversation this sets the mood. in the darjeeling hills there are several groups of tribals. these are the lepchas, tamangs, and limboos, which, by the way, already have the sixth schedule. the majority in the hills are nepali.
and guess what. the stage is set with the parliament voting soon on giving all the people in these hills the sixth schedule. good? maybe? doubtful? the thing is that the nepali do not consider themselves tribal. they do not have any of the political structures nor the sense of separateness from the mainstream that is an aspect of the tribals here. the people here who this applies to already have it. but, the GNLF and its supporters want the sixth schedule. the GJMM do not. they want gorkhaland. the parliament will decide within a couple of weeks. and either way it goes will probably cause trouble.
a bandh. that's where we started. to understand a bandh you need a bit to hold onto. a bandh is a strike. it is different than a strike in u.s. where a section, usually labour, stops work. india is nothing if not full blown (goes with previous 4 c's). when a strike is called here, usually by a political party, the whole town, region, or state closes down. stores, schools, factories, day laborers, trains, trucks, cars, business, restaurants, etc., etc., etc,....... i once was on a train that stopped from 6am to 6pm in a podunk village because of a state wide bandh. to not close down or to even be seen driving about can lead to broken windows, broken bones, burnt vehicles and businesses. bandhs will vary in size and intensities, and they are not things to be misjudged. they can last hours or weeks. during the agitation there was a 40 day bandh. as you can see, this can cause serious challenge to income and sustenance.
six days ago i was sitting in sonam's kitchen (a restaurant) enjoying my morning filter coffee when suddenly all the metal roll up store coverings were being pulled down. it happened that a GNLF leader, not "the man", was attacked with a kukuri, the traditional nepali knife/machete. word spread very quickly and down came the protection. tension was flitting about, with everyone wondering what was going to happen. the man turned out to be not that badly injured, but, wanting to capitalize on the situation, GNLF moved him to a nursing home in the plains as if it was a much more serious thing. they also called an indefinite bandh until his opponent and 20 of the top GJMM leaders were arrested. so darjeeling was closed down til today. yesterday there was a large peace march to demand a more civilized process and an end to the bandh. over 9,000 people marched. that's from a population of 50,000. pretty good numbers. and it seems the politicians are listening. for now. today there was a semblance of day to day life. but it will not stay this way. everything is conspiring otherwise.
all that was to say i've been unable to get on line. tomorrow i go to a busty for a 3 day farmer training. when i get back i hope to put some photos up of the peace march.
if there isn't a bandh.
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