Murder in the Mountains

These were the headlines we woke up to on Saturday morning. Madan Tamang, a leader of the All India Gorkha League (a pro-Gorkhaland political party), was hacked to death by kukris, long knives, in broad daylight (8:30am) the previous morning by members of an opposing pro-Gorkhaland party (the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha)....two blocks away from our hotel.

We were totally unaware of the incident because we were fast asleep -- having woken up at 4am to see the sunrise from Tiger Hill, we were back in the hotel resting up for the rest of the day.

Map of Gorkhaland

I can't claim to fully understand the nuances of the Gorkhaland movement, but in essence it is a struggle by a cultural and linguistic minority in West Bengal for an independent state within India (one of many such struggles). Somewhat surprisingly, Wikipedia says little on the subject, the best link would be the GJM link above.

I'm finding it difficult to write this post... there is a lot I want to say about this man's assassination and how it was tied up with our own experience of Darjeeling. I don't want to be flippant... it sounds debasing of this man's life work to be focusing on how all the pro-Gorkhaland tensions in Darjeeling over the last week were annoying for tourists ... but the thing is no one was really explicitly talking about what was going on --- until the assassination, that is. In the week leading up to the murder, we, as outsiders, could feel that that attitude was off: people weren't very friendly or forthcoming, everyone looked nervous, and no one was really smiling. We left the same day as the news of what happened on Fridays morning broke, so we don't have any real idea of what the situation is like right now ...

... but a group of 100 armed men, from an opposing but similarly oriented party, killed this man in cold-blood in broad daylight. I mean, what better indication does one have for how high the stakes are for this community of pro-Gorkhaland supporters... that they could be willing to go to such extremes? I'm not condoning their action - just reflecting on how by passing through we just barely brushed touched the surface of the tensions that were boiling over in this city.

(sigh) It feels rather foolish that before this trip we were so focused on potential Naxalite unrest in Sikkim that we didn't bother --- we had no reason --- to check if there was unrest in West Bengal.

Here's what I'm able to piece together of what we saw leading up to the assassination:

Preparing for the strike

Friday May 14th - We got to Darjeeling in the afternoon the night before the two day bundh, which we were mistakenly told would just affect transport. There was a lot of activity in the main baazar area, but we didn't realize that much of the comings-and-goings was related to preparations for a full shut-down of the city.

Closed for Gorkhaland

Saturday May 15th and Sunday May 16th - The entire city shuts down in protest of an anti-Gorkhaland bundh that had happened in Siliguri the previous week. We're told that the central government gets a lot of money in tax revenue from this region because of tourism (May is the height of the tourist season).... and both strikes were intended to demonstrate that they have enough "force" to hurt the central government in the purse strings.......... I think*

Monday May 17th - Wednesday May 19th - We went on our ill-fated trek

Thursday May 20th - We go out briefly, so that I can tell the Trek Mate office manager what I really think of the services he provided (see above link). While out we see an all-female GJM protest march going through town.

(boh! I'm unable to upload any of the video I took!) UPDATED (06/17/10)

The march ended in the main baazar area and we could hear them (though not understand them because they were speaking in Gorkha or Nepali) all afternoon. They sounded very VERY angry.

Friday May 21st - Here I'm a little sketchy on the details. There were two protests scheduled for that day, one from the AIGL and one from the GJM. The GJM took the main baazar area again. Tamang was quoted in the papers as saying, shortly before his death, (to paraphrase) that he outsmarted the GJM by finding a centrally located space for his own rally despite the GJM having got the choice spot of location.

As I said above, we had gone out very early in the morning to see the sunrise, so when we got back to our hotel at 7am, we went down for the count.... but even at that early hour, people could already be seen going about their day. We had sightseeing planned for the rest of the day, so we had arranged for the driver to pick us up at 9am. He wasn't able to reach us until around 10:30am.... he said he had got stuck in a jam because of a rally (which was easy for us to understand since we had seen one the previous day) .......... at this point, from what I could tell, none of us really knew what had happened that morning.

We went about our sightseeing during the rest of the day .... each time we got back into the car there were fewer people out, fewer shops open.

We got news through our driver in bits and pieces as he was picking it up from other drivers all over town. By the time we returned to our hotel, the news had spread throughout town and everything was closed, just like it had been during the strike. But instead of the closures being in solidarity towards the Gorkha cause, shops were closed and people were hiding indoors because they were afraid of retaliatory violence.

I just feel an incredible amount of shock even writing this email. Shock at the horrific way this leader died. Shock at the intensity of the emotions we witnessed. Shock at the depth of our ignorance and how close we were to serious trouble. Shock that the pro-Gorkha cause has been brought to the national stage in such a violent manner - and shock at the knowledge that this incident can be the harbinger of no good.

I read this morning that 45 people have been detained in connection with Tamang's murder, which they are calling "premediated". Locals are dennouncing the act, saying it is the "death of democracy" .... Their outrage is understandable .... but... how could this happen in the first place?

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* I don't really get it because I feel like they are hurting themselves economically instead --- especially if all the unrest keeps the tourists away.