The indefinite strike (bandh) in the Darjeeling hills, called by Gorkha Janamukti Morcha who are pressing for more autonomy, has been suspended pending the outcome of negotiations with the Government. The GNM have given a new deadline of 5th July.
At the request of the Maoist dominated Constituent Assembly, King Gyanendra and his family have left the royal palace and given up the trappings of kingship. He will live in Kathmandu as an ordinary tax-paying citizen. Nepal is now, for the first time in its history, a republic, and the palace will be turned into a museum. The ending of the monarchy, the only Hindu monarchy in the world, is largely unmourned.
The Nepali speaking districts of Darjeeling and Kalimpong, which belong to the Indian state of West Bengal, are currently being threatened with an indefinite strike (bandh) by the recently formed Gorkha Mukti Morcha party which has revived a long standing demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland. The GMM has asked tourists to leave the district, and our volunteers have felt obliged to leave too. A previous campaign in the ’80s led to the setting up of the Gorkha Hill Council, with limited autonomy for the region. Although it is unlikely that they will achieve an independent state, a greater degree of autonomy is a possibility.
On my trek in Ladakh last September, I joined a group of villagers having a tea-break in the fields where they had been harvesting the wheat. They were debating whether to buy a tractor or not. Some argued that it didn’t make sense because they already had cattle which could be used to do the threshing in the traditional way for no extra cost. The tractor not only costs money to buy, but you also need to buy petrol. One of the older men said that he would love to use a tractor before he died!
Another issue was how to respond to a letter received from a tourist agency inviting the villagers to serve as porters for foreign trekkers. Some of the younger men were keen to go to earn some cash, but others argued that it was harvest time, and the women couldn’t do it on their own. In the end, the decision was to stay and do the harvesting. There was, in fact, no great urgency to leave the village since my guide informed me that the villagers get paid (by an NGO I believe) to stay put and help preserve the environment for the endangered snow leopards.
If you would like to add a comment, please feel free to do so. You may have listened into a similar debate, or have views about the impact of new technolgies on traditional cultures.
The dates of Hindu holidays of Dussera and Diwali in 2008 are as follows:
Dussera: 6-10 October
Diwali: 28-31 October
Most schools in India and Nepal will be closed at these times.
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