Why in news?

Recently, the govt constituted a high-level committee following a key meeting between Gorkha leaders, Union Home Minister, and West Bengal government representatives in Siliguri.

The committee has been tasked with preparing a framework for a "permanent political solution" to the Gorkha issue — a demand whose roots stretch back over a century.

What’s in Today’s Article?

• Roots of the Gorkha Demand
• Early Political History (1907-1947)
• The Gorkhaland Movement: Post-Independence Escalation
• The 2017 Crisis: Longest Period of Unrest
• Mandate of the New Committee

Roots of the Gorkha Demand

• The Gorkha movement for a separate administrative identity is among the oldest such movements in India.
• Darjeeling and its adjoining areas — Kalimpong, Kurseong, the Terai, and the Dooars — are culturally, ethnically, and linguistically distinct from the rest of West Bengal.
• Because the region's population predominantly speaks Nepali and has distinct physical features, residents frequently face racial profiling and are mistakenly identified as citizens of Nepal or China.
• This persistent alienation has fuelled a deep identity crisis, driving demands for a separate state to affirm their Indian citizenship.

Early Political History (1907-1947)

• The movement formally began in 1907, when the Darjeeling Hillmen's Association, led by Sonam Wangel Laden La, submitted a petition to the Minto-Morley Reforms Committee seeking to separate Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri from Bengal.
• Over subsequent decades, other groups joined the cause — the Gorkha Officers' Association and the Kurseong Gorkha Library among them.
• They presented their case before the Simon Commission (1929) and British officials Sir Samuel Hoare and Lord Pethick-Lawrence, proposing alternative governance arrangements such as a Chief Commissioner's Province for direct rule.
• By 1947, the undivided Communist Party of India (CPI) formally submitted a memorandum demanding a separate "Gorkhasthan" to interim leaders Jawaharlal Nehru and Liaquat Ali Khan.

The Gorkhaland Movement: Post-Independence Escalation

• The demand took a violent, high-profile turn in the 1980s under Subhas Ghising, founder of the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF), who coined the term "Gorkhaland."
• The resulting unrest led to the creation of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) in 1988 — a semi-autonomous body that governed the hills for 23 years.
• In 2007, Bimal Gurung formed the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), reviving the statehood demand and leading to the establishment of the Gorkha Territorial Administration (GTA) in 2011, replacing the DGHC.
• Agitations flared again in 2013 after the Centre's decision to carve Telangana out of Andhra Pradesh, triggering fresh strikes and central security deployment in the hills.

The 2017 Crisis: Longest Period of Unrest

• The Darjeeling hills witnessed their most intense unrest in 2017, sparked by the West Bengal government's decision to make Bengali a mandatory language in state-run schools across the region.
• GJM supporters clashed with security forces, burning outposts and prompting military intervention.
• The agitation lasted 104 days, resulting in 11 protestor deaths, bomb blasts in Darjeeling and Kalimpong (killing a civic volunteer), and a complete collapse of the region's tourism economy.

Mandate of the New Committee

• The newly formed committee will examine all dimensions of the Gorkha issue within the framework of the Indian Constitution.
• Beyond structural governance, the panel will also assess financial assistance for the region and review a roadmap to grant Scheduled Tribe (ST) status to 11 key Gorkha communities.

Conclusion

The Gorkha statehood demand represents one of India's oldest sub-regional political movements, evolving from a constitutional petition in 1907 into a decades-long struggle marked by both peaceful advocacy and violent agitation.

While repeated administrative arrangements — the DGHC and GTA — have offered partial autonomy, the underlying demand for identity recognition remains unresolved.

The Centre's new committee, with its constitutional mandate and focus on ST status and financial support, signals a fresh attempt at a lasting political settlement, though its success will depend on balancing Gorkha aspirations with West Bengal's territorial integrity.