_Analysis

Seeking the tribeEthno-politics in Darjeeling and Sikkim

by I Sara Shneiderman and Mark Turin

'W e must team how to be tribal. This isdifficult for us, but very, veryimportant," said Mc Mukhia in his

tilting boarding-school English. Wearing thick horn­rimmed glasses, a neatly starched handkerchieffolded into the breast pocket of his tweed jacket, anda bowler hat rocked rakishly 10 one side, the 7D-year­old leader of Darjeeling's Mukhia/Sunuwar Raiethno-political organisation looked more like acolonial caricature than a radical indigenous activistagitating for his people's place as one of India'sScheduled Tribes. While Mukhia cut an amusingfigure, the fight for tribal status in which his group iscurrently engaged - alongside other ethnicorganisations representing Indian citizens of Nepaliorigin in Oarjeeling and Sikkim - is no laughingmatter. The struggle for recognition as a distinct tribalentity, a classification that can entitle a communityto educational and economic benefits from the stateon the basis of their unique cultural history andlanguage, is one of the most critical political issuesin this region today.

In the early 19th century, the British Raj encouragedmigrant labourers from Nepal to cultivate the fertilehills that now make up the slate of Sikkim and theOarjeeling district of West Bengal. Besides workingon tea plantations, the migrants also toiled on road­building projects, in holiday resorts and as menialstaff supporting the colonial administration and itsmilitary. Although some of these labourers quicklyreturned home satisfied with cash in hand - in wavesof seasonal migration that continue to this day ­others chose to settle permanently in this boomingregion, where a level of economic success and socialmobility appeared within reach that would beunimaginable in Nepal's caste-constrained midhills.

Most of the permanent settlers in Oarjeeling andSikkim were members of Nepal's ethnic groups, nowcommonly referred to as jallajati, such as the Curung,Limbu, Magar, Rai, Tamang or Thami. As is often thecase in diaspora situations, these discrete ethnic

54

identities we{e initially subsumed under a bco..der'national' identity. Beginning in the immediateaftermath of Indian Independence, the unifyingstruggle for recognition as Indian citizens of Ncpaliorigin, with full linguistic and clIJhiral rights, reachedits apex in the 1980s with the violent Darjeeling-bnsedCorkhaland movement, which agitated for a separatestate. Led by Subhas Chising, a Tamang, one of themovement's demands was that 'Gorkhaland' berecognised as a tribal state under the Sixth SchPdu1eof the Indian Constitution. Such a move would haveensured tribal benefits for all of Oarjeeling's peopleof Nepali origin, regardless of their specific caste orethnicity. As it was, Gorkhaland never became a state,and in 1989, Ghising settled for chairmanship of theDarjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (OCHC), whichremains under Calcutta's jurisdiction as part ofWest Bengal.

At around the same time, thanks largely to pressurefrom the Mandal Commission, the Indian governmentset about revamping the country's stagnantreservation policy. Released in 1980, B P Mandal'sreport revitalised the practice of setting aside a certainpercentage of government jobs and seats in public

TRIBAL FOLK DANCES or 5IKKJHl.PRESENTC IN HONOUR OF

SHRI p, R. KVNDIAH, lI'ittll r"" tltl\l.lL affAIRS. ooMP AIID 0'""'-" .. ,....•n • n,

'00'"'.

Thaml Welfare Association members perform forthe Union Minister of Tribal Affairs In Gangtok

March·AprlI 2006 I Hlmal Southaslan

!'

f

Hlnall SIJIebHl: .""" " .,,.1estI

Fordie first Ume.belnDl ember of aSc e uledTrl or

Caste could actuallyalterone's

educationalorprofessional

chances IOrdiebener. erace ha

What to call a person from Nepal, or whose origins reachback 10 Nepal? The term 'Nepalese', wIth the anglicised ­ese, has found favour since colonial limes and remains inextensive use, including in the official lltles accepled by thegovernment of Nepal. However, there is also an increasingtrend towards 'Nepali' while writing in English, which Is alsopart 01 Himal Southasian's style. We would be WIlling 10 goalong with 'Nepalese' if there was a hard-and-fast rule 01English grammar that Insisted on -il5e 10 be added 10 Ihename of a coootry Of regkln ning WIth ." But a person fromBengal is not 'BeogaJese', nor is a atizen of Israel 'lsraeIese'.

We believe thai, where pOSSible, the local-language'adjectification' must be preferred when English grammarrules are not clear-cut. Such is the case with 'Nepali', whichis also the proper term used in the parent language 10 refer 10any person or Ihing lrom or of Nepal. There have been attempts

universities for disadvantaged communities. Eventhough sum a system had existed since 1950, onlywhen the government introduced a new benefitschedule in the 19905 did concrete benefits begin totrickle down to those classified as Scheduled Tribes(ST), Scheduled Castes (SC) or Other BackwardsClasses (OBC).

For the first time, being a member of a ScheduledTribe or Caste could actually alter one's educationalor professional chances for the better. The race hadbegun. For many Darjeeling residents of Nepaliancestry, disillusioned with thefailure of the Gorkhaland movementto gain any speCial status for the

epali language and its speakers,the search for classification as aScheduled Tribe presented analternative option for demandingbenefits from New Delhi. But this alsomeant dismantling the saCf(."<t cow ofpan-Nepali identity in favour ofmany discrete 'tribal' identities, andthis presented an obstacle. MostDarjccling citizens who had grown upin the post-Independence era had littleidea of how to be culturally Tamangor to speak Limbu, lor example, muchless how such identities might be 'marketed'.

With the exception of more substantial Bhut-ia andLepcha communities, Sikkim's demography is almostidentical to that of Darjceling. However, the state'sunique political history has led to a greatprioritisation of tribal issues at the policy level. Sikkimremained a sovereign kingdom until 1975, after whichit was incorporated into India as a separate state.Darjeeling. however, is only a provincial district ofthe state of West Bengal. This means that importantdecisions that arc made in Gangtok for 5ikkim by its

Himal Southaslan I March-April 2006

to categonse 'Nepalese' as denoting the people 01 Nepal. todistinguish this from 'Nepali' as a broader descriptive term.But thal would be usage limited to discourse in the Englishlanguage, and hence inadequate.

There is some genuine conlusion when one leaves theborders 01 Nepal, because Indian citizens of NepaH originlace a political problem by being identified as 'Nepali'. Giventhat the term 'Nepail' is not about to change il its reference tothe cl1izens of Nepal, however, the NepaU·speaking Indiancitizens cl the Irdan Northeast, as weI as Oarjeel~,have toed 10 come up with alternative lormulations by whichthey would prefer to be caIed. These ilclude the lerm 'GoMa',propagated by Subhas Ghising 01 Darjeeling, which has nolfound signilicant acceptance elsewhere in India; as well asthe more recent 'Bharpali' and 'Nepamul'. The experimenlcontinues.

local political leadership are made in Calcutta forDarjeeling by largely Bengali politicians. Thesensitive geopolitical location of Sikkim has meantthat it wields a political clout at the national leveldisproportionate to its size and population. Forexample, it was only after concerted politicalpressure from 5ikkim that the Nepali language, alsoknown as Corkhali in India, was admitted as allofficial language to the Eighth Schedule of theConstitution of India.

1.11•••11""".111IIIThe homogenising influence ofNepali diasporic life over twocenturies in Darjeeling meant thatspecific ethnic, linguistic andregional identities were jett-isoned infavour of a common sense ofNepalincss (based primarily on useof the Nepali language). As thecultural capital of tribaldistinctiveness increased in the1990s, however, members ofDarjeeling- and Sikkim·based groupsof epali origin sought to reconnectwith a largely alien ancestral identity.And where better to turn than to

Nepal itself, the very place that their oppressedforefathers had abandoned to try their luck with theRaj? Scouting parties from Darjeeling made foraysinto Nepal's midhills, retracing the steps of theirmigrant ancestors, in the hope of collecting thenecessary culturat ammunition 10 launch successfulcampaigns for tribal status in India.

At the same time, members 01 ethnic organisationsin Darjeeling and Sikkim began connecting withseasonal labourers from their own communities whostill Iraveled back and forth to Nepal. At times, these

ss

Debattle for tribalstalUS rests as muchon agroup's abilitY to

recastcullUralpractices in crowd­

P1easl gIndianpertonnaUyesndesasitdoes on a valleged

In ilIeneitY.

interactions can be almost farcicaLwith cash-strapped janlljllti menand women from Nepal's hillstaking time out from theirportering or dish-washing duties10 perform songs and dances,which their Indian cousins thenrecord on video for evenlualpresentation 10 the Ministry ofTribal Affairs in New Delhi.

At one such event in Canglokin November 2005. members ofethnic organisations in theprocess ofapplying (or tribal statusperfonned 'traditional' dances inhonour of $hri P R Kyndiah, theTribal Affairs minister. In arehearsal before the officialevent, the director of Sikkim'sDepartment of Culture instructed the performingtroupes to smile nicely and exaggerate theirmovements to mimic a Bollywood act. as this wouldincrease their chance of a positive reaction from theaudience. His advice was not misguided: the Magarassociation's presentation of a subUe and slow·moving traditional dance, performed by two old mento the beat of a single mJJdJd was booed, whiie the hip­gyrating antics of Rai and Thami youths sct to Hind.i­inne(:led 'indigenous' pop tunes generatedthunderous applause. From such stage-managedproductions, it becomes clear that the battle for tribalstatus rests as much on a group's ability to recastcultural practices appropriated from the homelandin crowd-pleasing lnman performative styles as itdoes on any alleged indigeneity.

nIIII [Ill 7NIIWhy did this event in honour of the Minister of TribalAffairs take place in Sikkim and not in Darjceling? Interms of tribal policy, not to mention central­government subsidies, Sikkirn is the envy of itsneighbours.. According to official statistics from the2001 Census of milia, of a total population of littlemore than five Iakh,. 20 percent of Sikkim's residentshave secured Scheduled Tribe status. The Lepehas,Siklcim's indigenous ethnic community, and theOhutias, descendants of easternTibetans who settled in Sikk.imbeginning in the 13th century,together form a fairly unified tribalpolitical unit. Popularly known asthe '0-1... Block', they continue toexercise a disproportionate level ofeconomic and political power, evenas their population share drops. lbcreservation of 12 seats in the StateLegislative Assembly for Lepchasand Ohutias is but one example ofthe implementation of Sikkim'stribal poIi<y.

56

A symbiotic. if sometimes tense,relationship exists betweenSikkimese and Darjeeling-basedethna.political organisations. InSikkim, such groups have easieraccess to sympathetic politiciansat the state level. but they representmuch smaller populations thando the Darjeeling associations,and so have less manpowerfor organising large-scaleconventions and demonstrations.In short, while Darjeelingorganisations are eager to pursuetheir agendas through theapparatus of the Sikkimese state­where they have an ally in ChiefMinister Pawan Kumar Chamling- Sikkimese organisations need

the resources and hard-won cultural knowledgeof their Darjeeling counterparts to make acompelling casc.

As much as the 'pro-tribal' policy advanced byChamling in Sikkim pleases those who are included,it can frustrate those who remain on the outside. Withthe acn'SSion of the Tamang and Limbu communitiesof Sikkim to the much-eoveted level of ScheduledTribe in 2002. the remaining numerically dominantand politically active citizens of Nepali ancestry weredeprived of two of their most prominent allies in thestruggle for ethnic recognition. But such is thecurrency of tribalism in India: once a group penetratesthe glass ceiling. it rarely looks back.

From the diverse nature of the campaigns mountedby ethnic communities for recognition as ScheduledTribes over the past decade, it has become dear thatno standardised checklist eXlsts for a successfulapplication. Every state has its own criteria. and NewDelhi appears to judge each case on its own merits.Croups must Hrst be recognised at the state level, withthe state government then forwarding arecommendation to the Centre. Tribal recognition inone state does not guarantee it in other states, nor atthe national level. The Tamang and Limbu, forexample, are still waiting to hear about theiraccession to nationwide tribal status, despite ha\oing

already received it within Sikkimand West Bengal.

While aspiring tribes hope for tipsfrom the recently recognised, theleadership of the groups who havealready attained tribal status arereluctant to divulge their hard-wonstrategies, for fear of furtherweakening an already much­diluted tribal stew. In some cases,members of competing communitieshave even come to blows over accessto political connections ,mdselection criteria. Mter all, the scant

Mardl-April 2006 I Himal Southasian

Littte and lat'9f!: two Thamidictionaries pui)lished in 2004

TIIegrou swho havealreadvattai edtribal stalUS are

reluctant to divulgetheirhard-won

strategles,lor lear 01IUrtherwealleningan alreadV much­dilutedtribal stew.

pickings of reserved seats ingovernmental and educationalinstitutions will only be subject 10more-intense competition as thenumber of Scheduled Tribes grows.

There are several ways ofpotentially minimising these nascentrivalries, and preventing theBalkanisation that many fear. InSikkirn, there is a movement 10 avoidinter-tribal competition by allocatinga specific set of reservations 10 eachtribal group. rather than pooling themall together. In Darjeeling.. a recentlyestablished group calling itself Bharatiya GorkhaJanajati Manyala Samiti has revived the oldGorkhaland platform. but in the new tribal idiom:they argue that all people of Ncpali origin should berecognised by the central government as a ScheduledTribe en massc, rather than as individual groups.Some ethnic activists scoff that this Bahun-Iedorganisation is simply an attempt by those excludedby the definition of jatlajati current in Nepal - namely,Bahuns (hill Brahmins) and Chhetris - to cash in onthe benefits of tribal identification in India. Yet thanksto generations of intermarriage, there is some validityto the argument that no Indian group of Nepaliancestry is more 'tribal' than any other, and that theuneven recognition of individual groups mayeventually lead to a social dissonance far morc violentthan the Gorkhaland agitation.

SlcnMIsc_A curious feature of the tribal discourse in Darjeelingand Sikkim is that aspiring communities areconvinced that their language needs a unique scriptin order to be taken seriously. Anthropologicalevidence from around the world points rather to aninverse correlation between tribe and script; small­scale, kin-based ethnic communities - or 'tribes' inthe most traditional sense - are more likely to begroups without a distinct written tradition. In fact, itis precisely their distance from centres of statelearning and 'civilisation', and their concomitantreliancc on oral cultural transmission, whichhistoricalJy has marked these communities as'tribes". Why, then. are the upwardlymobile ethnic organisations ofDarjeeling and Sikkim so eagerto rediscover their 'lost' scripts?

The answer lies in a clearerunderstanding of the term 'tribal'in the political context of modernIndia. In Darjceling and Sikkim,the claim for a tribal identity hasless to do with primitivism,indigeneity and autochthonythan it does with ethnicdiscreteness and culturaldistinctiveness. A tribe, in

Himal Southaslan I March-April 2006

its politically-charged modernincarnation as used in India, is abounded ethnic community heldtogether by a tidy catalogue ofcultural. dictary, linguistic andreligious habits distinct from thoseheld by its neighbours.

Dictionaries of endangeredlanguages have become valuablccommodities for the ethniccommunities of Darjecling andSikkim, and are frequently used aspolitical tools. Onc of the writers ofthis article, for example, recently

published a word list of Thami, a Tibeto-8urrnanlanguage indigenous to the Himalaya, together witha member of the community from the Nepalihomeland area. Sin~ the aim was to document theendangered native lexicon of this mother tongue, loanwords from Nepali and other languages wereexcluded, resuJting in a thin, pocket-sized volume.While the book is in circulation in Thami villages inNepal, it did not serve the purposes of the expatriateethnic community in India, who found it too smallto help their claims for Scheduled Tribe status. 'Thesame year, in fuct, a more substantial Thami-Englishdictionary was published by a member of the IndianThami community, bolstered by a high number ofNepali loan words. This served the ethno-politicalagenda far better: the more words that could beincluded, the heavier the book, and therefore a moreappropriate component of a tribal portfolio (see pllOto).

While a unique language is a must, a distinctscript is a valuable bonus. A peculiar consequenceof such scriptophilia, compounded by therecognition of tribal tongues as official languages ofstate communication. is that the 5ikkim Haald - theSikkimese government weekly - is published inthirteen official state languages, each in their ownscript (see photo). Whether members of tribal groupscan, and actually do, read the newspaper in theirancestral mother tongue rather than in English orNepali is largely beside the point. Evcn though many'tribal scripts' are of dubious antiquity and

unmistakeably derived from Nagaricharacters also used byNepali. this is no hindranceto the ethno-activist agenda.since their importance ismore symbolic than practical.For the leadership of mostethnic organisations inDarjeeling and Sikkim, then,the primary value of aunique script is its emblematicdistinctiveness; use in schoolsand administration, andwidespread adoption bycommunity members, are onlysecondary concerns.

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The preVlouslvassallable

category 01ScheduledTribe adJustbeenupstaged

with the newcategory 01 MostPrimiUveTri e.

individual must apply for apersonal certificate in order toqualify for special treatment.This process entails presentingone's credentials to the districtmagistrate or block officer, andthen appearing for a one-on-one! hearing in front of a judge whoi assesses the application's--_.I validity. Aspiring individuals

Issues of the Slkklm Herakt In 11 must present an official letterdifferent languages - and scriptsl

from the appropriate ethnicorganisation, attesting to their status as a 'genuine'member of the group in question, as well as referenceletters &om two male relatives of the same groupwho have already obtained the certificate.Depending on the case, school transcripts,employment records or proof of residence may alsobe requested. This lengthy and complicated processmeans that only a small percentage of the populationwho are in theory eligible for ST, se or OBCclassifications have actually applied for andsubsequently received their certificate.

One of the primary problems with the currentcertification procedure is its reliance on patriarchaldefinitions of descent and ethnic identity. A personcan only claim membership of a given ethnicitythrough his or her father. There is no legal way toclaim ethnicity through the mother, nor are femalerelatives accepted as legitimate references. Given thehigh rates of inter-group marriage in Darjceling andSikkim - approximately 75 percent of couples comefrom mixed ethnic backgrounds, according to aninformal survey conducted by the authors - thiscreates problems for people who have been raisedwith their mother's cultural identity and wish toclaim DSC or Sf status through maternal ancestry.Furthermore, the policy of requiring references fromtwo male relatives of tIle S4lme group means that onlypaternal relatives can be called upon. For thosepeople who happen to have no uncles or malecousins on their father's side, or who are not in touchwith their father's family, it is particularly difficultto enter the system. Ultimately, only around half ofthe people with genetic ties to an ethnic group areactually eligible for legal membership in it.

More than anything else, such archaic rules ofreckoning membership demonstrate the

impossibility of claiming ethnic purityin India's melting pot. For the moment,this paradox is overshadowed by thethrill of cultural performances andmass meetings that dominate theregion's day-to-day ethno-politicallife. But the more complicatedrealities of mixed cultural identitieswill continue to pose personal andpolitical ch.1l1enges for the descendantsof those now desperately seekingtribal status. •

..-dIMOn 29 January 2005, the StateCabinet of Sikkim approved aproposal recognising the Lepchacommunity as Sikkim's 'MostPrimitive Tribe' (MPT). In thisanti-caste hierarchy. in whichthe degree of a group'sconnection to the earth raisesrather than lowers its standing.the previously unassailablecategory of Scheduled Tribe hadjust been upstaged with the new category of MostPrimitive Tribe.

Yet even the most disadvantaged Lepchasettlements in 5ikkim maintain a relatively highstandard of Living. Dzongu. an officiaUy demarcatedlepcha reservation in north Sikkim, is remote byIndian standards, but still boasts electrified villages,well-run schools. and Community InformationCentres with battery-powered computers andbroadband satellite connections. Rather fittingly, theIndian reservation system has indeed created a'reservation' - a discrete homeland territory whereonly members of Sikkim's Most Primitive Tribe mayseUle and own land. Indeed, the Lepcha reservationof Dzongu appears to offer a fairly sustainablelivelihood for its inhabitants.

What, then, are the benefits of the existingScheduled Tribe category, and why has it beendeemed I'lCCCSS3ry to create yet another grouping. theMPT? Economically, members of Scheduled Tribesand Castes stand to gain through low-interest loanschemes and reserved posts in government agencies.Educationally, they benefit from a lowering in themarks required to pass their board exams andexclusive access to reserved positions in universitiesand vocational schools. Members of OtherBackwards Oasses have access to a smaUer numberof reserved seats, but do not qualify for the directfinancial support available to Sf and se individuals.This has created a situation where those groupsrurrently classified as OBC - such as the Magar, Raiand Thami - see their position as only a temporarystepping-stone to the more desirable category of Sf.Summing up their frustrations, DSC ethno-activistscommonly use the Nepali phrase: /la jat, PIa Mat - notribe, no rice. Similarly, as more groups penetrate theSf category, its benefits are perceivedto diminish. In turn, Scheduled Tribemay be<'ome just another stepping­stone on the way to the new pinnacleof Most Primitive Tribe.

PlrIIJ"1••1Still, for a sizeable number of peoplethe benefits of the reservation systemremain conceptual, since regardlessof whether their ethnicity is currentlyclassified as DSC, Sf or MYf, each

58 March-April 2006 I Hlmal Southasian