SUNA SAYS Let me ask you this: why are you insisting this will happen??
Here are the recent incidents which lead me to jump on that conclusion.
Casting ethnic slur on Nepalis
PURAN P BISTA
- Meghalaya, carved out of Assam in the early 1970s, is one of the Indian states where a large number of Nepalis continue to live there. The Nepalis have contributed a lot to the state?s economic development. They cleared rainforest jungles, built roads and even taught the local tribal communities how to irrigate land.
Shillong?s Gorkhapathshala set up in 1878 still stands as an academic monument. This was the first the Nepali-run community school in India.
The first Nepali settlement dates back to 1824 when the British-Gurkhas moved to Shillong from Cherapunji, Assam. And Gurkhas began to join the British army after the 1816 Sugauli Treaty. Until 1947, the Nepalis were in majority in Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya. Those who were recruited in the British army did not return to Nepal after their retirement. They preferred Shillong and other parts of Meghalaya to Nepal.
However, after India?s independence in 1947, the federal government introduced acts, which gradually uprooted the Nepali settlements in Northeast India. The 1963 Land Ceiling Act was the first tool used for evicting millions of Nepalis out of several Northeast Indian states.
Nepalis cannot buy land in any tribal state, nor are they eligible for state services without domicile certificates. Nagaland, Meghalaya, outer Manipur, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh are tribal states in Northeast India. Until 1961, the Nepalis were in majority in Kohima, the capital of Nagaland. But India?s Land Ceiling Act reduced them to minority. Except Kohima?s Chanmari where over 100 Nepali families still live, the state government gradually evicted the Nepali settlements from other parts of Kohima, saying that the land occupied by them was illegal.
Similarly, in Meghalaya, the Nepalis cannot own land except in the British restricted zones in Shillong. The land they had once owned was disowned by the state government after the Land Ceiling Act.
Clearly, the Nepalis in Northeast India do not enjoy rights outlined in the 1950 Peace and Friendship Treaty between Nepal and India. The land act introduced by the federal government stands against the letter and spirit of the 1950 Treaty. This apart, the 1987 Assam Accord too was signed against the letter and spirit of the 1950 Treaty. A Nepali, who has been there after 1971, is treated as a foreigner in Assam. The state government deters Nepal nationals from visiting the Northeast Indian states.
When the federal government signs accords that flout the 1950 Treaty, can the state governments let the Nepali minority enjoy the rights outlined in the treaty? There are many Modis in Northeast India. Indians from West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and other Indian states have often provoked them to unleash terror on the Nepali minority.
In 1987, the Bengali community of Shillong provoked the Khasi Students Union led by Bull Lyndoh, saying that the Nepalis of Meghalaya would soon begin to demand for a separate state. Later, the students union branded the Nepali minority as foreigners and evicted them out of the state. Many Nepalis living there for centuries were forced to leave the state. Children of Nepali parents still do not get admission in Christian and government-run colleges.
Until 1987, the Nepali population in Meghalaya stood little over 135,000. They included both floating and non-floating populations. They were floating because though they lived there for centuries, they did not have any documents to prove their settlement as they neither cast their vote nor did they remain in the same place. There were herders who moved from one village to another.
In Jawai a large number of Nepali laborers working in coal-mines were killed by the Jayantis. The sectarian violence rendered half of the Nepali people who lived there for centuries homeless. And thousands of floating population left the state after the 1987 sectarian violence. These Nepalis, who returned to Nepal, are still stateless.
It is surprising that, despite such atrocities meted on the Nepali community, Nepal has not taken up the issue with its Indian counterpart. Rather Nepal has succumbed to Indian pressure. The Indian state governments have openly targeted at Nepali settlements in Northeast India. For instance, two villages in Manipur state were torched at midnight by the state security force in 1980. The federal government did not even bother to probe the incident though a team of Nepali delegates met then Indian Prime Minister Mrs Indira Gandhi and briefed her on the state atrocity against the Nepalis. Such incidents regularly feature but they have not drawn New Delhi?s attention yet.
In practice, India has not honored the 1950 Treaty. Nor has Nepal raised the issue of Indian violation of the Treaty. But the Indian Nepalis have opposed the treaty on the ground of reciprocal treatment, which treats them as Nepalis which is taken as an ethnic slur by many Indians. Because this Indians? ethnic slur has uprooted the Nepalis settled in Northeast Indian states instead of ensuring them to enjoy the rights outlined in the 1950 Treaty.
Suna guess how lucky u are cuz u are from Darjeeling unlike those other nepali origin ppl from above mentioned states
