Why in news?
Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) renewed its demand for a separate Gorkhaland state.
What is the reason?
- GJM is a political party which campaigns for the creation of a separate state Gorkhaland within India, out of districts in the north of West Bengal.
- The recent protests started with the suspicion that Bengali would be made mandatory in the hills.
- Later it spiralled into a broad-based ‘indefinite’ agitation with the GJM targeting symbols of the state and ordering closure of all government offices.
- In May, Chief Minister of West Bengal had announced that all students would have to study Bengali from Class I.
- She later clarified that it would not be compulsory in the hill district of Darjeeling.
What should have been done?
- Language has been a fraught issue in the Darjeeling hills for more than a century.
- So the chief minister should have made the announcement without consulting the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA), the semi-autonomous body that runs the affairs of the hill town.
- Though later it was clarified that her government has no intention of making Bengali compulsory in schools in Darjeeling, the damage was done.
Why Bengali should be learnt?
- Identity politics aside, there is something utilitarian about learning a language.
- Learning the language, formally, will only help expand the economic avenues of Nepali-speaking people in the Darjeeling hills in West Bengal.
Source: The Hindu
