Having lived in Darjeeling for over a year, I have observed the way Nepali people are treated at the hands of Bengalis. The regular protests and the inhuman conditions in the tea-plantations in siliguri-darjeeling area are a testimony for this. The Nepali people in Darjeeling have been forced to adopt the kind of Gorkhaland nationalism they emulate, as this is the only way of living a life of dignity and safety for them. I donot advocate the use of local land armies by a few power-crazy dictator type individuals who would want to enforce a sort of regional preference, but the conditions overruling darjeeling makes it imperative for people to choose an atonomous form of rule. Bengali babus, as they are supposed to be called, have single-handedly caused strife and discord in east and north-eastern states; this I state as a Non-Bengali, Non-NE indian. The treatment meted out to the people of North-east over and over again in the past many decades has paved way for the never ending unrest. There cannot be any 'ethnic-cleansing' or forced-indianisation as a method to merge the people of NE into Indian mainstream. You cannot walk upto some tribal woman and tell her that her dress is immodest and vulgar and she should instead drape herself in a white cotton saree as a part of integrating with our great Indian union. Conversely, people of NE must not seclude themselves and forever be trapped in a mesh of suspicion cynicism and alienation.
