Darjeeling History Club

Background –

The relationship between Dorjeling and Bengal came about due to the English East India Company’s strategic interests in the Indian subcontinent. Dorjeling was part of the Kingdom of Sikkim until 1835, when the region (that is Dorjeling) was gifted to the English East India Company. The year 1757 is important as it laid the foundation of British Empire in India under the English East India Company. Prior to the English, there were other companies in the subcontinent as well, such as the Dutch East India Company, whose primary interest lay in commercial transactions only. Due to growing political interests in the Indian subcontinent as well as in securing their monopoly on certain commodities, with high revenue outcomes such as opium, the Company began developing strong territorial ambitions.

In the year 1757, with the defeat of Siraj ud daulah at Plassey, the English East India Company secured the foundation of the Empire in Bengal, which was to rule the subcontinent for the next 200 years. The shift in power became visible with the growing importance of Calcutta as the administrative headquarters of the English East India Company in India, and the rapid decline of Murshidabad, the chair of the erstwhile Nawabs of Bengal.

Growing interests in Tibet –

The Bengal famine of 1770 affected the English East India Company financially. In order to cope with this financial distress, the Company planned to acquire more territories in order to export their finished products (of commodities) from England. Tibet was fairly known in Europe. Father Antonio de Andrade had travelled to what was then known as the Third Tibet (Leh/Ladakh region) in 1624 from Portugal. His letters were widely translated in Europe. But these travels were informal in nature. The first diplomatic mission between the English East India Company and the Tashi Lama of Tibet was established in the year 1774, with the commencement of the George Bogle mission. The Kingdom of Nepal was important in the context of the Indo Tibetan interactions. But, due to the developing political scenarios in Nepal, the access to Tibet through Nepal became more and more difficult in the 19th century.

The Eastern Himalayan region gave hope to the English. As a result, the Kingdom of Sikkim, Bhutan and Koch Behar, became important strategic allies of the English East India Company in the 19th century. Dorjeling was strategically located enroute to Tibet, therefore the acquisition of Dorjeling was of great strategic importance. The popular notion that Dorjeling was to be a sanitarium was propounded by the Company officials so as to not arouse the suspicions of the Chogyal of Sikkim, whose then kingdom was a feudatory state of Tibet.

Notes –

*Dorjeling – The origin of the name Darjeeling comes from the word Dorjeling-pa, a Lama. For more, https://darjeelinghistoryclub.in/2022/12/16/the-origin-of-darjeeling-an-analysis-of-laden-las-report-of-1912/

*Chogyal – a title, a monarch.

By,

Suditya Kant Ghising

Note: This is just a brief history, and not an extensive history. For more queries, you can mail us or follow us on Instagram and Facebook at Darjeeling History Club.