Nepalis’ Search For Distict Identity In Sikkim

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Communities choose their identities over time with distinct objectives in mind. Nepalis IN Sikkim and Darjeeling  had to struggle at various periods in the last 150 years as ‘Paharias’, ‘Nepalese(of Sikkim)’, and ‘General (common) citizen of India’ for their citizenship, political rights and recognition of Nepali language as an Indian language. The year 1990 turned out to be critical for them like of the other Nepalese communities. The democratic movement in Nepal let loose a movement of ‘janajati’, an under- current that also spread in east of Nepal in India. The movement received a momentum after the Government of India accepted the recommendations of the Backward Commission that had termed most of the Sikkimese Nepalis as the ‘OBC’- (Other Backward Classes). When pressed for the implementation of the above decision of the Government of India in Sikkim, the Chhetri Chief Minister of the state ruled out such a possibility, and lost the support of the majority in the State Assembly. Within the next few weeks his successor government promptly extended the ‘OBC’ status to as many as eight Nepali communities and provided them with all the contingent constitutional facilities. Some years after that event, two of the OBCs, Limbus and Tamangs, were declared to be the ‘Scheduled Tribes” by the Government of India with a number of constitutionally approved privileges. This has resulted in to a mad rush among the rest of the ‘OBCs’ to clamour for ‘scheduled tribe’ status and as many as eight of them approached the State Government with their ‘ethnic reports’. These Reports identify existence of myths, clothing, food habits, languages, architect, arts and crafts and other cultural traits distinguishing each of them distinct communities, disclaiming a common cultural tradition of a Nepalese people. The State is encouraging this trend with a distinct goal in view. Though the Government of India has not accorded approval to the deman , the State stands determined to pursue the matter with its all resources. This process of tribalization of the communities from within the Nepali   fold has serious conceptual and sociological implications, which we propose to uncover in the present paper.