Morcha tugs at GNLF name claim - Giri says Birtish officer, not Ghisingh, first used the word Gurkha-land to describe hills

Vivek Chhetri, TT, Darjeeling, April 13: Roshan Giri, a senior Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leader, today waved a book by a British officer written before India's Independence and said the term "Gorkhaland", contrary to popular belief, was not used by Subash Ghisingh first, but by Major W. Brook Northey.

Giri, at a seminar organised by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha's Study Forum, said: "Everyone thinks it was Subash Ghisingh who coined the word but this is not the truth. The word was coined by W. Brook Northey in his book The Land of the Gurkhas in 1937."

Giri's assertion comes days after Mann Ghisingh, the younger son of the late GNLF chief Subash Ghisingh, hinted that the party would have no option but to demand statehood if its Sixth Schedule demand was not met by the Centre. If the GNLF now gives a call for statehood, it will be realigning its campaign to suit the popular sentiment in the hills.

By mentioning the book, Giri's tired to burn a hole into the GNLF's claim that their late leader had coined the term "Gorkhaland", honouring which Subash Ghisingh's party also observed Gorkhaland Namakaran Diwas - a Gorkhaland Naming Day - on its founding day, April 5.

The full title of the book mentioned by Giri is The Land of the Gurkhas or the Himalayan Kingdom of Nepal.

The British always wrote Gurkhas, not Gorkhas. Major Northey served in the 1st Gurkha Rifles.

Giri, while waving the book at the audience, said: "This book should dispel all false claims."

Metro managed to get a copy of the book that Giri had waved at the audience at Gorkha Rangamanch Bhavan in Darjeeling today.

Page 201 of Chapter XX - titled The Eastern Border - in the book reads as follows: "Although a visit to Nepal, or even crossing the Nepalese frontier, may not be possible for everyone, it may be of interest to note for the benefit of those desirous of learning more of the Gurkha's cheerful and engaging personality that in Darjeeling there is what may be termed an Indian Gurkha-land, where he can be studied at first hand without let or hindrance."

Roshan Giri at the seminar in Darjeeling on
Monday.Picture by Suman Tamang

On page 221 of the book, in the chapter Darjeeling Today (Chapter XXII), Northey wrote: "Less vividly attired but hardly less picturesque are the Nepalese women, for Darjeeling bazaar is the Bond Street of Gurkha-land, and here the shawls and veils which the women wear over the heads, Italian-fashion, are of a texture and a colour rarely seen in Nepal proper, to which high-heeled shoes will possibly be added in due course."

The seminar at which Giri was speaking today is titled Gorkhaland 2015: Creation of smaller states and the demand for Gorkhaland as well as relevance of Gorkhaland to the Indian Gorkha identity.

Mann, when told about the usage of Gurkha-land before his father, said today: "We will have to see and find out."

From the preface of Northey's book it is clear that he had worked with the Gurkha Regiment for 20 years, which included training the Nepal Escort in Kathmandu in 1910, service with the Nepalese Contingent on the Indian frontier during the World War I and in the post of recruiting officer for five years.

The book is largely on Nepal and Northey, while explaining his work, states in the preface: "In writing this book, undertaken at the suggestion of many friends, I have tried to steer a middle course between those accounts of Nepal, inevitably cursory and incomplete, that are to be found in ordinary works of travel whose authors have paid merely brief visits to that little-known country, and the more elaborate and exhaustive works written by those who from their close connection, official or non-official, with the country, can claim to be actual experts on the subject."

According to the book, Northey was also conferred with the Order of the Star of Nepal title.

Even though the demand for a separate administrative unit for the Darjeeling hills was raised in 1907, post-Independence, Ghisingh was the first to use the term after the GNLF was formed on April 5, 1980.