We are Indian Gorkhas and our Nepali language is our identity  

Amos Chettri                                                                                                                                                                                                              WB, Kalimpong                                                                                                                                                                                    August 20 is a day of celebration for the Nepali Gurkha community living in India. But it is considered only as a tradition in many places. Let’s organize a grand program on August 20, honor the great people, and forget everything from August 21. Due to the lack of promotion of our language in the family, society and country, we are being cheated from time to time. In South India, as soon as we say Nepali, they think we are foreigners, from Nepal! As soon as we say we are from Darjeeling, Sikkim, they think again we are foreigners. This situation has arisen due to their lack of geographical knowledge, but it is dangerous from another angle.

Another thing is that there are may be a shortage of Gorkhas to promote the language. That is why our language is limited to our family only. If we carry our language in our pockets and never promote it, our language will disappear one day. In that case, we will be limited, no one will listen our voice, we will be oppressed, we will be humiliated. Should we not raise our voice at the national level ? Raising our voice is not about any kind of physical fight, but about reaching out to every corner of the world through social media and various means, saying that we are here and that this is our language. Look at the Marathi language movement in the developed state of India, Maharashtra, remember the Telugu language in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, think about the Tamil language in Tamil Nadu, from time to time, the news about their language reaches the national level, doesn’t it? Whether it is in a good context or a bad one ! But there is a debate on the subject of language. Here, even doing language movement is scary, because our people it’s self suppressing our language.

Now our right hand to upgrade our language is the Constitution of India. The Constitution itself gives us the right to fight. Many Gurkha children have sacrificed and agitated to get their names written in the Constitution. The Indian Gurkha community struggled for many years to get their language recognized in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution and as a result, in 1992, Nepali language was recognized as a prosperous official language of India under the Eighth Schedule of our Constitution. Today, many senior officials holding government positions are ignoring the Gurkha language Nepali, and they do not even have the knowledge or information that Nepali language is one of the 22 Indian languages recognized in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution.

In 1992, the 71st Constitutional Amendment recognized Nepali as a rich Indian language in the Eighth Schedule, and in West Bengal, it has been the official language of the state since 1961. The current confusion over language is not just about the students, teachers, or government officials in schools, colleges, and universities, but also about our language being despised from within, and we, the children of the Gurkhas who make it known to the world, are staying silent. If we do not raise our voices in the face of such a big mess, we are either stupid or we boast that we know everything. If someone attacks our mother tongue, it is a criminal act. Thus, a law has been made to guarantee respect and equal treatment to Indian citizens without discrimination of their ethnicity or mother tongue, if anyone disregards it, it will harm the democratic structure. We need to be vigilant.

Have not our freedom fighters sacrificed for the country? Dambar Gurung, Ari Bahadur Gurung and Jangbir Sapkota of Kalimpong, Pushpa Kumar Ghising of Kharsang, Krishna Bahadur Mukhiya of Mirik, Dal Bahadur Giri of Darjeeling, Helen Lepcha of Kharsang and Sikkim, Gaga Tshering Dukpa of Sukiyapokhari and other many great people of the state earned the name of Gorkha and fought for the country as a victory. Sunil Chhetri, Anju Tamang, Bharat Chhetri, Crispin Chhetri etc. in the form of sports and as a bravery Tenzing Norgay Sherpa and scientist Dr. Eklabya Sharma etc. are contributing to our nation-building every day. With such a great contribution, why is there an audacity to label the children of Gorkhas as foreigners? This question needs to be thought about deeply. We are Indian Gorkhas and our Nepali language is our identity.