Darjeeling History Club

Note: You can read and download the entire magazine at https://darjeelinghistoryclub.in/e-documents/

“Brethren, it is first my pleasant duty to offer you a most cordial welcome today, while thanking you from the core of my heart for the honor you have done me by asking me to preside over today’s deliberations, which, Almighty willing, will revolutionize the entire outlook in the future social life of the Hill people of Darjeeling.

Today is a Red Letter day in the annals of the Hill people of Darjeeling. The trusted representatives of the three important communities of the District – the Nepalese, the Bhutias, and the Lepchas are assembled today in a solemn conclave, animated by one common desire of laying the foundation of lasting camaraderie and brotherhood among these three great Hill communities of the District of Darjeeling.

My heart pulsates with joy to see so many familiar faces present here today. My sense of gratification is especially great to find the large number of young people, the torch bearers of the future, vying with their elders in their duty for the great Hill community. If your presence here today is any indication of the keen interest which you are taking for the future well-being of the community, I feel confident that a great future awaits us.

The ideal of a great Zollverein Union of the Hill people of this district is not of a recent origin and not an aggressive attitude. The three communities of this District, who are the children of this soil, have historically, culturally and ethnologically, some peculiar traits in common, which must strike the casual visitor or observer from outside this District as something unheard of and unseen in other parts of India.

 Recognizing this prime factor that differentiates them from the rest of the communities of this District, The Hillmen’s Association was ushered in Darjeeling to safeguard and advocate the legitimate interests of the Hill people in the sphere of politics.

But man does not live by politics alone. In the formative period of a nation or community, there are other spheres which call for constructive works with their greatest of zeal and patience. And social reformation and reorganization, to my mind calls for united will and concerted action from every well-wisher of a community or nation. A well-ordered and enlightened society is in fact a condition precedent to an all-round progress in the larger and wider sphere of the everyday world. Set your house in order first should be our watchword.

We are living in an age, when reform and change are the order. After the great European War especially, changes of far reaching importance have occurred in the perspection and outlook of mankind as a whole. This change has permeated even the far flung District of Darjeeling and its simple and guileless mountaineers.

The time has therefore come when those among the Hill people who are better placed than their humbler brethren in the sphere of education and enlightenment to come forward and give the right lead to the Hill people as a whole in the great task of shaping the future destiny of the Hill people with discretion, wisdom and foresight. In an adjustment of our social and other relations with the rest of the world the greater restraint, forethought, and understanding will be called forth from the intelligentsia and the leaders of our Community and on this wise and proper adjustment alone will depend the future well-being of our community.

Occupying as we do a place of position and importance in the everyday life of the district and knowing full well that the Great Hill community of Darjeeling has much to contribute towards the moral and material progress of this district, a few of us have felt called upon to issue the Appeal for this meeting, which we hope will be the most momentous one in Darjeeling.

In your presence today I find a generous and spontaneous response. I will now call upon you to conduct this meeting in a spirit of good will, helpfulness and co-operation with a view to find out a formula which will be the best solution for the many ills from which our social body as a whole suffers today.

Brethren, this solution must be broad, based on good will and general agreement of purpose amongst those present today. I know many of us differ on a great many questions of policy and practice in society. I am aware of the many differences that exist between the different elements of Hill communities. Let these differences not daunt us. Because of the existence of these differences, the need for a great social body, like the one proposed to be inaugurated, arises. We want a common platform, a central body coordinating the activities of our people in various spheres of everyday life. And that brings me to the question of the why and wherefore of the proposed Hill people’s Social Union.

Why do we want a Union of this nature? This question naturally arises first of all. Let me once more read out the aims and objects as set forth in this appeal.

1. To foster brotherhood and to augment further the existing tie of social unity among the different Hill people, viz. the Nepalese, the Bhutias and the Lepchas.
2. To promote social intercourse among the different sections of the Hill people, with a view to bring about their general upliftment and to encourage the growth of education among them.
3. To provide facilities for recreation – indoor and outdoor, in the towns in particular and in the district in general.
4. To help the members during difficulties and distress and also, should the occasion arise, to help others in need.
5. To afford shelter and accommodation for members and guests wherever there is a local branch of the Union.
6. To start an Unemployment bureau
7. To educate public opinion among the Hill people to learn to compose their differences among themselves.

As a man who has a fair share experience in public life, I take this opportunity of publicly expressing this opinion today from this platform that the time has come when the Hill people should bury all their differences in the past and should develop that brotherly unity in all matters which alone will help us to stand up and work as a united people and to occupy a place of esteem and influence in the life of this District.

We live under the aegis of the benign British Government. Our relation with other communities of Darjeeling and with our neighbors, are in a footing of excellent amity and happy co-operation. This District is happily free from communal squabbles and bickerings. In this atmosphere of general good will and understanding, let us therefore help to build a Hill people’s structure which will, for years to come, be a lasting edifice of peace, harmony and good will in this District.

I take this opportunity to warn you, brethren, from taking any false step towards aggressive communalism. I sound a note of warning to those who think that the interests of a community can be safeguarded and promoted at the cost of those of the other communities. This is the most foolish and dangerous of all doctrines. Selfishness, whether in a man or in a community invariably leads to ruination.

I also reiterate publicly that the step that we are about to take today has for its purpose not only the objective of unifying the different folds of the Hill community but also of further augmenting the existing happy relations with the rest of the communities living in Darjeeling.

Now, brethren, I shall not take your time much longer. There will be other speakers from different towns, villages and tea gardens, etc. of the district after me who will have a good deal to say about the proposed inauguration of the Union. Before I resume my seat, let me therefore recapitulate the points that I have sought to make out.

Firstly then, I ask you to consider the many knotty differences that exist among our people today. And why ? The answer is because we have allowed ourselves to seclude in narrow water tight social bodies.  

Secondly, realizing that this separatist policy has done us immense harm, what remedies must be applied.  And the answer is that our people must have a common platform for joint deliberations. And that a body like the one proposed to be inaugurated today is alone capable of providing us with this common platform.

If therefore, brethren, you think and decide that the need for such an organization is there and that the time has come for its inauguration, I call upon you to come forward and co-operate with the organizers in this great cause.

I shall strive to guide your deliberations with the best of sympathies and good will today and I am sure this meeting of the best elements of the three great communities will carry on its deliberations with restraint, patience and above all with dignity.

With these few words and thanking you once again, I now resume my seat.”

By,

S. K. Ghising.

Source

1. NEBULA Magazine, 1st March issue, 1935.