Darjeeling District in Bengal or Bengal in Darjeeling District ?

KalimNews, Kalimpong, 5 September 2013(Hillman): Devadeep Purohit in the Telegraph of 4th September 2013 indicated of suggesting Ms. Banerjee played the Lepcha card in the hills to upset the division of West Bengal is more acceptable than claiming it as ‘further’ is inapplicable in a sense of understanding, that the Province of Bengal was not divided at all as normally understood on the basis of religion, is in fact a misnomer which requires to be set right. Though even in historical reference it is claimed as such which really is not? 

Whereas in actual fact the two Provinces said to have been created in the name of the Province Bengal is constitutionally true and proper, based on the aspect of the Act of 1935 where the hill peoples of Darjeeling District was considered as a separate unit for administration, as a Partially Excluded Area (PEA) outside British India. Whereas at the same time, the Chakma and other tribes of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) of the Province , as Excluded Area also provided a separate administration outside India. It is the distinction of the true aspects which is responsible in legal terms, in allowing the creation of the Province of West Bengal as the legality provided by the Partially Excluded Area (administrative unit outside British India) of Darjeeling District and, the Excluded Area of CHT which allowed the formalisation of the Province of East Bengal (now Bangladesh). 

Therefore to consider that the Province of Bengal was divided in 1947 by the Radcliffe Boundary Commission is not a justifiable proposition but only an allusion created by those in power to consider as the division of Provincial Bengal. This ethnical aspect in a sense is true in the wider implications of the concerned only, and which had no actual bearing in the legality which is the more critical factor in dividing the Province – unknown to almost all concerned, is the factor just stated, i.e. the legal aspects of Partially Excluded Area of Darjeeling Dist and the Excluded Area of CHT which formed the legal basis for partition. That is to say, had Darjeeling Dist and CHT were not declared as ‘excluded territories’ the division of Bengal was nigh impossible.

In a similar stance for the creation of West Pakistan though the scheme undertaken is based on religion, although this is only part of the truth and not the whole truth. Initially West and East Punjab were created wherein the former on the basis of Excluded Area of North West Frontier Provinces and the latter with Spiti & Lahual in the Kangra District, Excluded Area created East Punjab prior to creation of West Pakistan out of West Punjab. East Punjab remained within India, although the formal division accounted for in terms of religious divide was a disastrous event in the history of modern India. Should the history of the division of India be restructured on its founding pillars a lot of skeleton will emerge out of the cupboard relating a different story altogether. However at one time or another the truth has to come out and which realisation probably will settle the remaining differences between India and Pakistan which still exists on account of the division of Kashmir as it stands now, tipped with the fuse which can be ignited at the drop of a feather. 

In light of the above exposition a question is to be asked as to which came out first, the chicken or the egg in reference to Darjeeling District in Bengal or Bengal in Darjeeling District is rhetoric in perception. The proper answer to the question will tell it all. It is the importance of this equation to be completed which has led leaders in the State to comment such versions as quote, there will be no division, no separation of Bengal, the Chief Minister summed up, unquote. Will someone more intelligent advise her to the actual aspects of Darjeeling District merged with West Bengal under the Govt. of India Absorbed Area (Laws) Act 1954. The explanation of which will speak the fact of the matter, than the matter of the fact, both of which implies Darjeeling Dist as a PEA was merged with West Bengal for an interim period only and legally it does not form a historical territory of the Province of Bengal let alone being a territory within the State. The very logic of the Commissionership in West Bengal indicates not only Darjeeling District but the entire North Bengal Districts require to be visioned in a legal aspect than common nomenclature as being within the State. Many such areas under the Absorbed Area Act eventually were created into new states under the provisions of the Fifth Schedule with Scheduled Areas. If this applies to rest of India surely it cannot afford not to be applied to the North Bengal Districts, let alone Darjeeling & Jalpaiguri District which perceptually speaking has the right to demand a state whenever they are designated as Scheduled Areas. 

Considering the above aspects are legally binding and within the constitutional domain in understanding, it would be more proper if the CM of a State refrains from subtle utterances and innuendoes, and instead comes out transparently clear talking about the issue and not the dividing lines which will further complicate the matters without any benefit for either. After all state formations have taken place all the while after the first Parliament of India came into existence and which authority is now designated to put in place, all the Excluded and Partially Excluded Areas within the union of India in a democratic manner, and not otherwise, at the earliest place of time. 

Darjeeling District (and the Dooars) is probably the last of these areas to be inserted into the empty space already reserved for it to be occupied for a permanent basis, than as the moment, placed in West Bengal without its consent. If the people of Darjeeling District lived in West Bengal for at least over six decades, surely allowing it to grow under its turf is not asking for the sky to fall on the head.

No doubt politics has its own equations but at times it is safer to play the Constitution role as an elder statesman, than running a race which has no bounds. The demand for the state within the provisions of the Fifth & Sixth Schedules has no boundaries. In the words of the Vice President of India late Mr. Hidayatullah, an eminent jurist, has declared that the provisions of the Fifth & Sixth Schedules are wider than the Constitution of India.

(The writer Hillman-the analyst alias Karma T. Pempahishey is the author of “Roadmap on the Trail to Gorkhaland (Partially Excluded Area -The Constitutional Guarantee)”