NRC) a Catalyst in Historical Marginalization of Gorkhas in Assam?

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International Journal of Advanced Research | Volume – 10 | Issue – 1 | 2020 February | ISSN 2278-7275

Research Wing Confederation of Kerala College Teachers C.H. Building, Red Cross Road, Calicut Kerala, India IJAR International Journal of Advanced Research ISSN 2278-7275

IJAR www.ijar.net International Journal of Advanced Research | Volume – 10 | Issue – 1 | 2020 February | ISSN 2278-7275

IJAR International Journal of Advanced Research ISSN 2278-7275

Is National Register of Citizens (NRC) a Catalyst in Historical Marginalization of Gorkhas in Assam?

Co-authors Hena Bari Ph. D in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Email: [email protected] Md. Najibullah Singakhongbam Ph.D in JNU Email: [email protected]

Abstract

The Gorkhas or Nepalis in India who experienced discrimination and marginalization from within the community itself and other mainstream communities can be traced back to the colonial period. The existing of identity crisis and genuine claim of Gorkhas Nationality in India had been more intensified in diluting it by the signing of Indo- Nepal Treaty of Peace and Friendship, 1950 that promotes free flow of people from Nepal. The Nepalis in Assam, integrated with the Asamiya nationality and preferred themselves as ‘Nepali Asamiya’, have suffered from the twin issue of ‘foreigners‘and ‘displacement’. The Assam movement of 1970s and 1980s along with Bodoland movement in mid-1990s witnessed perpetrated massacres, ethnic cleansing, victimization and displacement. Nepalis, treated often as illegal foreigners, in spite of residing in India for centuries, are seen as threats to the socio-cultural and political identity of the Asamiyas in their traditional homeland. The reasons for exclusion of reported one Lakh Gorkhas out of 25 lakhs Gorkhas in Assam in the published final NRC list by August 31, 2019 could be varied ranging from clerical mistakes or inability to produce documents as per cut off year of 1971 or failure to establish family relationships. Gorkha community also observes this exclusion as resulting from the ignorance of their deep –rooted and complex history of Gorkhas in India and the determinants of Indo-Nepal Treaty 1950. The recent Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 is also perceived to be less viable option for registering the excluded Nepalis as citizens of India. Therefore, this paper attempts to analyze the marginalization of Gorkhas in India particularly in Assam, their social inclusion threat in the mainstream society and the effects on their existence after the implementation of NRC and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019. Keywords

Gorkhas, Marginalization, Illegal foreigners, National Register of Citizens.

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Introduction

Gorkhas or Nepalis popularly known as Indian Gorkhas are predominantly concentrated in Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalayas and a small population is diversely distributed in other parts of India including Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir and North East region. The Gorkhas took part in the process of nation building endeavors through serving the nation in military, agrarian belts, plantation frontiers and service sectors. About one crore Gorkha population are living in India without any state of their own. However, Gorkhas undergo the intra-community marginalization as well as inter-community marginalization processes. The process of marginalization has led to the emergence of inter-ethnic rifts and struggle for political and other human and social rights that finally sparked the demand for a separate state for Nepali speaking Indians called Gorkhaland in West Bengal in early 1980s. Formation of a Gorkhaland state is viewed as panacea in dwindling the process of marginalization from dominated mainstream communities. This paper, in the following sections, brings into brief description of history of Gorkhas in India and Assam. It analyses how marginalization of Gorkhas are executed in Bengal and Assam in different manners and also how the Assam movements had victimized and treated Gorkhas in exercising their social and political rights. The last section of the paper brings into analysis on how the exercise of National Register of Citizens would determine the status of Gorkha community and what implications could be faced by the Gorkha in Assam.

Immigration of Gorkhas in India and Assam Gorkhas or Nepalis immigrated to the Eastern Himalayas consisting of Darjeeling, Sikkim and Bhutan. In 1652 CE, Chogyal dynasty while ruling in Sikkim invited few Newars (goldsmiths) to mint coins and they started settlement and initiated terrace cultivation who are only exponent of this cultivation in a sustainable nature (Sharma and Das 5). The history of Gorkha immigration to the then undivided Assam is found to be the history of five hundred long years when Ahom Kings used to rule there. The terrace cultivation along with Gai Goth (cow sheds) as well as animal husbandry of the Gorkhas attracted the Ahom kings as it used to yield good revenue to the government of Ahom kings. And British while ruling in India realized the fighting spirit of the Gorkhas with their Khukuris, discerned their ability and attitude clearly and employed them in the armed force services of British.

Marginalization of Gorkhas in India. The Gorkhas experienced marginalization from both within the respective community and from other mainstream communities of the country. The formation of Darjeeling District in 1886 and treating it non- regulated district by British had affected the existing communities of Darjeeling and created the space to push the Gorkhas at the periphery position. The Indo-Nepal Treaty of Peace and Friendship 1950 that promotes free flow of people from Nepal had brought disadvantage in diluting Indian Gorkha‘s identity and nationality because

IJAR International Journal of Advanced Research ISSN 2278-7275 of the presence of the people with similar culture and language (Lama 26). Identity crisis between Indian Gorkhas and Nepalese of Nepal started manifesting in social, political, economic and cultural spheres. This issue of confusion and dilution of political identity of the Indian Gorkhas was at the heart of the Gorkhaland movement of the 1980s in Darjeeling (27). Besides the identity crisis, “Indian Gorkhas remained political docile, economically exploited and educationally backward. Pursuing to distinguish their identity from the Nepalese nationals of Nepal became challenging as they are a floating population and have no political, social, constitutional and legal affinity with the Indian Gorkhas” (32).

i) In Assam

Gorkhas or Nepalis initially came as construction workers, tea and mining laborers and military personnel and started to fit into the colonial designs of the British. In Tribal belts and blocks and Autonomous Councils of Assam like Bodo, Rabha, Missing and Lalung, the Nepalis face the problem of land ownership, education, employment and voting right ( Bhandari 122). The apprehensive of Assamese for their alleged threat to their identity made Nepalis vulnerable to various kinds of violence, conflict and displacement. They are “assimilated into the host society and contributed to the social, economic, and political development of the state” (Nath 208). They prefer to call themselves as ‘Nepali Asamiya’. However, they were treated as illegal foreigners or infiltrators and demanded to get them ouster from Assam during the ‘the Assam Movement of the 1970s and 1980s ignoring deliberately the Indo-Nepal Friendship Treaty of 1950 which allowed the free movement of Indian and Nepali nationals on reciprocal basis. Article 6 of the treaty states that each Government undertakes, in token of the neighborly friendship between India and Nepal, has to give to the nationals of the other, in its territory, national treatment with regard to participation in industrial and economic development of such territory and to the grant of concessions and contracts relating to such development. And Article 7 provides that the Governments of India and Nepal agree to grant, on reciprocal basis, to the nationals of one country in the territories of the other the same privileges in the matter of residence, ownership of property, participation in trade and commerce, movement and other privileges of a similar nature. And during the Bodoland movement in mid-1990s, perpetrated massacres, even the ethnic cleansing was done to displace and compel a large number of Nepalis to live in the relief camps. The development of past twenty years has shown that the Nepalis are very backward, treated partially and suffer from a sense of deprivation, discrimination and insecurity (209).

Assam Movement (1979-85) and its Effects on the Assamese Gorkha

The Assam movement targeted not only the illegal immigrants from Bangladesh but also the Nepali immigrants to Assam. They became unwanted foreigners and dangerous to Asamiya in their traditional homeland. The demand for removing the names of the Nepalis from the electoral rolls, deporting them from Assam and categorizing them indiscriminately as foreigners profoundly affected them (215). Therefore, Assam Gorkha organizations demanded the demand for the abrogation of the Article 7 of the Indo-Nepal Friendship treaty of 4

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1950. However, the Nepalese community in Assam has today suffered from the twin issue of ‘foreigners’ and ‘displacement’. While the Nepalis are suffering from under-development, deprivation, insecurity and lack of proper facilities, they are facing for the resurgence of the Nepali identity under various organizations.

National Register of Citizens (NRC)

National Register of Citizens (NRC) is an exercise to identify list of Indian citizens in a state of Assam, located in north-eastern part of India. It was prepared in 1951 after conducting the census of 1951. For making entry into the list, the people have to find existence of their names in the legacy data which is the collective list of the NRC data of 1951 and electoral rolls entered up to midnight of 24 March, 1971. NRC had intensely triggered political discourse and mobilization since 2014 which was further being fueled by the passing of The Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019, or CAA. The CAA, 2019 seeks to provide citizenship to illegal migrants of six communities (Hindu, Christian, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, and Parsi) from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan entering into India on or before December 31, 2014. The process of NRC update was initiated in 2013 after the Supreme Court ordered the Assam state and central governments to update the NRC by adhering to the Citizenship Act, 1955 and the Citizenship Rules (amended), 2003. Following this, two rounds of publication were released; a partial draft of register on Dec 31, 2017 and a final draft on July 30, 2018. And the final list of NRC was published on August 31, 2019. NRC has polarized public opinion, questioning norms and rules of citizenship and some advocacy groups in Assam observe it as a much needed solution for long drawn issue of immigration particularly from neighboring Bangladesh ( Barbora 4).

Outcomes of NRC Related to Assam Gorkhas

At the time of publishing final NRC list by 31st August, 2019, out of the 3.3 crore applicants, of which over 19 lakhs (1.9 million people), were excluded from final NRC list. Although the official record of the excluded Gorkhas from the NRC list is not available, some media reports claimed that about one lakh Gorkhas failed to make it in the NRC final list. Assam State Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangha ‘s President Nityananda Upadhyay mentions that 20,000 to 25,000 Gorkhas have been marked as D-voters. He asserts that “neither the border police nor the foreigners tribunal has issued any D-voter notification to the people but their names have been excluded from the NRC for having the D-tag behind their names in voters list”(Zaman). Re-verification of the NRC list was asked to identify the authenticity and genuineness on updating of NRC list. He further reiterates that “ the whole NRC process seems to be defective one. It needs scrutiny and review must be done. A document accepted by one district was simply rejected by another district,” (Zaman). The exact reason behind the exposure of this grave error could not be ascertained but simply it would have been clerical mistakes in producing documents as demanded by the cut off year for the update of NRC list. On the other hand, it can also be manifested from the family’s inability to trace back their family tree or relationship despite residing in India for centuries. Some instances of grave mistakes can be cited here. A retired defence personnel Bir Bahadur Thappa from

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Morigaon District was, despite submitting all documents including army documents, excluded from NRC final list that could let him and others move finally to the Supreme Court of India to draw attention for addressing the matter (Tripathi and Saha). Another man, Chabindra Sarma, who served in the Indian Air Force for thirty eight years, was found to miss his name only in his family in the NRC list. These instances are clear enough pictures to conclude that updating of NRC list in Assam to identify infiltrators from Bangladesh after the Bangladesh Liberation War, 1971 would have not executed carefully and transparently.

Reactions from the Gorkha Community

The Gorkha community and organizations reacting and stoking fear, anger and disappointment over the NRC process, had decided a firm stand that the excluded Gorkhas of Assam will refuse to move to the foreigners’ tribunals for proving their citizenship. “Gorkha being tried in the foreigners’ tribunal” marks an insult after being Indians, as told by Sukhman Moktan, national president of Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangha, the only registered national organization of Indian Gorkhas. It is also claimed that NRC cannot be applied on Nepali Nationals from Nepal in India and should not be muddled with Indian Gorkhas. Indo-Nepal Treaty of Peace and Friendship 1950 ensures that Nepali citizens from Nepal entering in India after 1950 are legal migrants not infiltrators. Therefore, NRC cannot be designed to assign them as illegal infiltrators or migrants. Moreover, with official notification and recognition on August 23, 1998 by Ministry of Home Affairs, India Government, Gorkhas resided or domiciled in India from “commencement of the Constitution, i.e., as from 26th January,1950, born in the territory of India, either of whose parents was born in the territory of India,” are treated as Indian citizens. Now after the demonstrations and protests by Gorkha organizations in view of fearing for Nepalis or Gorkhas being tried in Foreigners’ tribunal, it has prompted the Home Ministry of India to release a clarification for the Gorkhas in Assam. The Home Ministry quoting the Foreigners Act (1946) and the 1950 Indo-Nepal Treaty stated that Gorkhas cannot be referred to Foreigners’ tribunals covering both Indian and Nepali citizens. It stated that “any member of the Gorkha community holding Nepalese nationality and who has arrived in India by land or air over the Nepal border even without a passport or visa and staying in India for any length of time” shall not be treated as an illegal migrant if he or she has documents such as a Nepalese passport, Nepalese citizenship certificate, Nepalese voter card and others (Tripathi and Saha).

Conclusion: Implications of NRC on Gorkhas of Assam Gorkhas residing in India experiencing discrimination and marginalization are ranging from social, economic and political spheres and they are always set to counter all these form of disabilities within themselves and from other mainstream people. The inter-ethnic conflicts along with their witnessing of social and political rights violation are deepened by lack of strong counter force emerging amongst their community as they live economically exploited and educationally backward. Their existence and identity was again threatened and diluted by the 1950 Indo-Nepal treaty as they have similar culture, language and physical structure with Indian

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Nepalis. Following this, Assam movements in 1980s and Bodoland movement in 1990s pushed them into periphery of their life by executing perpetrated massacres and ethnic cleansing. They were being targeted for treating them as illegal migrants or infiltrators disregarding their deep-rooted history and Indo-Nepal treaty. Assimilation and integration into Indian society had become sometimes insurmountable task to assert their identity. Demarcating Nepali nationals and Indian Gorkhas tends to become blurred or deliberately ignored on the views of non-Gorkha to restrict the Assam resources distribution to only major community population communities. Some of them would feel a sense of deprivation and insecurity living in the society.

The exercise of NRC in Assam has evoked mixed reactions; some thought that it would clearly strengthen establishing their national identity and some others reacted that this NRC is designed to eliminate Gorkhas from Assam by excluding a chunk of their population from the final NRC list. The original Assamese Gorkhas in Assam who are socially, financially and economically backward cannot be always expected from them to furnish their documents to prove their ancestry. Forgetting about them, even the educated people and Gorkha servicemen who worked in India government and who have not been found in NRC list have manifested with a clear picture that NRC exercise had discrepancies or inadequacies and also affected the social and economic backward people. The conduct of NRC exercise under the watch of Supreme Court has made us pose some relevant questions. In the view of identifying infiltrators particular from Bangladesh, is the government institution trying to deliberately reduce minority community population to assert maximized population of Assamese identity with major community? Has the exclusion of a large chunk of Gorkhas population from final NRC list exposed and reiterated the view of Nepalis as ‘outsiders’ in the larger Indian context? Has the government designed its plan to restrict the Assam’s resource distribution to only major community population by diminishing the legal Gorkha population and depriving their rights?

The exercise of NRC once again denotes in a manner that the historical marginalization and victimization of Gorkhas in Assam since decades are perhaps justified as they are often perceived to be ‘outsiders’ and not Assamese people. The assertion of their identity and assimilated into society as ‘Assamese Nepali’ may be determined by NRC exercise in one way but the excluded Gorkhas from the NRC list would generate uneasiness as it may result conflicts, violence, competition in tapping existing resources and finally marginalizing amongst Gorkha community themselves and with other communities before these excluded Gorkhas are being sent to detention camps or determined their citizenship. And even these excluded Gorkhas have also no optimistic view from Citizenship (Amendment Act) 2019 as this act grants citizenship only to non-Muslim illegal migrants from Pakistan , Bangladesh and Afghanistan, while, the excluded Nepalis from NRC list are considered to be mostly from Nepal in which the CAA does not bestow any scope for ensuring their citizenship. This again put the fate of Gorkhas in Assam who lost citizenship in uncertainty and apprehension state. Finally it may be concluded that NRC exercise along with CAA could be employed as catalyst in dispensing the scope of more potential

IJAR International Journal of Advanced Research ISSN 2278-7275 marginalization by excluding large population of Gorkhas and dwindling them into a state of depleted minority community in Assam.

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