The huge contribution of Gorkhas towards liberation from the colonial rulers, its development and National security is known by each and every Inian.
The East India Company and the Govt of Nepal with the King as the constitutional head fought war for almost three years. The company people having realized that Gorkhas are not an easy nut to crake the Company forced Nepal to reach an agreement in 1916 at a place called singauli. That treaty was known as the treaty of singauli. But for this Nepal had to surrender more than one third of its territory to the East India Company. though East India Company respected the sovernnity and Integrity of Nepal as an Independent Nation but the amount of geographical area that Nepal surrendered to the Company was huge almost double the size of present Nepal. The area include (1), Kumao region (2) Simla (3) Garhwal ( 4) The terrain region or the plain area extending upto Siwan of present Bihar state of India . Siwan means the border between the then Nepal and India. (5)Darjeeling (6) kharsiyang (7) Doars (8) Siliguri (9) Nainital (10) Missori (11) Gadwal and (12 ) Ranikhet not forgetting Dehradun, The land was annexed along with the Nepali/Gorkhas living there so they automatically became Indian citizens The agreement of annexation was uch that the East India Company need not pay any tax to Nepal nor it seems that there was any understanding that annexed land will be returned once the Company left India or it was manipulated nobody knows , The Rana rulers of Nepal were basically Indian origin people and the sahas were said to be from Macedonia or Mesopotamia Its all a history now.
After India became an Independent Nation in 1947 the then Govt of Nepal did not demand back the annexed land from the outgoing Colonial rulers or the English rulers, because the King of that time was afraid that if those Nepalese who were under the English rulers were highly educated in the western System of education and if they come back to Nepal the kings throne may be uprooted and the people will demand restoration of Democracy if that happened than the king will be no where he could not sacrifice the luxury he was enjoying at the cost of people and land. Its good the Modern King was dethroned. Though Nepal may not get back the annexed land from mighty India.
Talking about the Nepalese of Assam in the context of present NRC controversy its worth mentioning the write up of Prof. Dr, Anirudh in his article “ The Nepalese of Assam and the Assamese” he wrote (sic) Though Nepal is a foreign Country an Independent Nation but Nepalese here cannot be and are never considered as foreigners.
According to the modified Indo-Nepal Friendship Treaty of 1950 (The treaty modified and signed after India became an Independent Nation) and the trilateral agreement of 1951 at Delhi and 1969 modified treaty of Indo-Nepal friendship no visa or passport or for that matter no document is necessary for Nepalese to come to India and vice versa for Indian citizens. Not only that the citizens of both countries can enjoy the democratic right in each others country. Neither Nepal can term any Indian as migrants or foreigners nor India can say so to any Nepali Nagarik. Above all India and Nepal have an emotional relationship which is known as in hindi “Beti aur Roti ka rista”
Now according to my limited knowledge I hope I am able to clarify why Nepalese/Gorkhas should not be labeled as foreigner or illegal immigrants if such wards are applied to the Gorkhas/Nepalese it will have negative effect to those Indians who are settled in Nepal also those who have even occupied the highest constitutional post there and may even do so in the coming days also.
The controversial attitude of the Govt in the process of granting Citizenship to the Nepali speaking Gorkhas of Assam by the concerned authority is really a matter of concern not only for the Nepalese of Assam but for the whole of not only N.E but the entire Bharat. Because the process of NRC is being started from Assam only gradually it may be carried out in other States also and if the same formula is applied then where will the Nepalese/Gorkhas go ?
It is a known fact that though Nepalese were settled in Assam or other NE states for more than 200 years but many will not have documentary proof because Nepalese were not much educated and therefore were not aware of . They never might have thought that such time will come, life was going on peacefully and it will go on like that . That is what they might have been thinking. But now the situation is different because of drastic increase in population, employment problem and rise in anti-social elements, But one cannot be denied his or her right on the ground of not having certain documents, we have to look back to the contribution and sacrifice that Nepalese have given to Mother India.
Many Nepalese / Gorkhas are the direct descendent of British India Army personals and Post Independent India Army personals, and many shifted to other parts of India from the annexed land so each and every Nepali will never be in a position to proof his/her claim unless otherwise,. today with the advancement in technology and the information they get from different media they have learnt many things hope from now onward they will preserve all the documents. Any discrimination meted out to Nepalese is really a matter of great concern in whichever part of India it may will definitely hurt the sentiment of entire Indian Gorkhas, Hope with all these facts it may not be a problem for the BJP Govt in Assam to declare all the Gorkhas as Original Indians or (OI) lets wait and see as the process is still under process.
It may also be mention that one can be a citizen (1) By birth (2) Through the evidence of predecessor (3) Through registration (4) Through marriage (4) Creation of new province , and of course through constitutional modification etc.
Some of the historical facts were taken from “Deshbarta Nepali weekly published from Tejpur Assam Page 3 of 10th August.2016.
Prakash Poudel
