Until the beginning of the
18th century, the area between the present borders of Sikkim
and the plains of Bengal, including Darjeeling and Kalimpong,
belonged to the kings of Sikkim. In 1706 the king lost Kalimpong
to the Bhutanese.
And control of the remainder was wrested
from them by the Gurkhas who invaded Sikkim in 1780, following
consolidation of the latter's rule in Nepal.
 These
annexations by the Gurkhas, however, brought them into conflict
with the British. A series of wars followed, eventually leading
to the defeat of the Gurkhas and the ceding of all the land
they had taken from the Sikkimese to the British. Part of
this territory was restored to the king of Sikkim and the
country's sovereignty guaranteed by the British in return
for British control over any disputes which arose with neighboring
states.
One such dispute in 1828 led to the dispatch
of two British officers to this area, and it was during their
fact-finding tour that they spent some time at Darjeeling.
The officers were quick to appreciate Darjeeling's value as
a site for a sanatorium and hill station, and as the key to
a pass into Nepal and Tibet. The officers' observations were
reported to the authorities in Calcutta and a pretext was
eventually found to pressure the king into granting the site
to the British.
The transfer, however, rankled with the Tibetans who regarded
Sikkim as a vassal state. Darjeeling's rapid development as
a trading centre and tea-growing area in a key position along
the trade route leading from Sikkim to the plains of India
began to make a considerable impact on the fortunes of the
lamas and leading merchants of Sikkim. Tensions arose and
eventually the British annexed the whole of the land between
the present borders of Sikkim and the Bengal plains, and withdrew
the Raja's annual stipend.
These annexations brought about a significant change in Darjeeling's
status. Previously it had been an enclave within Sikkimese
territory, and to reach it the British had to pass through
a country ruled by an independent king. After the takeover,
Darjeeling became contiguous with British territory further
south and Sikkim was cut off from access to the plains except
through British territory. This eventually led to the invasion
of Sikkim by the Tibetans and the British military expedition
to Lhasa.
When the British first arrived in Darjeeling
it was almost completely forested and virtually uninhabited,
though it had once been a sizeable village before the wars
with Bhutan and Nepal.
Development was rapid and by 1840 a road
had been constructed, numerous houses and a sanatorium built
and a hotel opened. By 1857 Darjeeling had a population of
some 10,000.
The population increase was due mainly to
the recruitment of Nepalese laborers to work the tea plantations
established in the early 1840s by the British. Even today,
the vast majority of people speak Nepali as a first language
and the name Darjeeling continues to be synonymous with tea.
The immigration of Nepali-speaking peoples, mainly Gurkhas,
into the mountainous areas of West Bengal, eventually led
to political problems in the mid-1980s. Resentment had been
growing among the Gurkhas over what they felt was discrimination
against them by the government of West Bengal. Their language
was not recognized by the Indian constitution and government
jobs were thus only open to those who could speak Bengali.
The tensions finally came to a head in widespread
riots throughout the hill country which continued for several
years, and in which hundreds of people lost their lives and
thousands were mode homeless. Tourism came to a grinding halt.
The movement was lead by the Gorkha National Liberation Front
(GNLF), led by Subash Ghising, which demanded a separate state
to be known as Gorkhaland.
A compromise was eventually hammered out in late 1988 whereby
the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) was given a large
measure of autonomy from the state government and fresh elections
to the council were held. Darjeeling remains part of West
Bengal but now has greater control over its own affairs. |
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