We the Indian Gorkhas and the so called Greater Nepal Theory

I was just going through my regular dose of surfing the net today, thats when one of my dear friend Arnav, whom we fondly call BBG ("Bengaluru ko Bimal Gurung" for his deeds on working for the welfare of Gorkhas in Bangalore), pointed me to support him in refuting a serious allegation made in a particular forum by a poster who had posted his logic on The Greater Nepal theory. According to the author of that thread, he alleged that many parts of India including Sikkim and Darjeeling were parts of Greater Nepal, and should be returned back to them. He further went on to claim that people leaving in these regions supported his claim. We, Arnav and me being residents of both Sikkim and Darjeeling on behalf of all us Indian Gorkhas immediately refuted his claim. At this juncture in India, where we are fighting for a separate state for the Gorkha population of Darjeeling, when one of our most respected political leaders in Sikkim, have been branded a foreigner, some nobody propping up from some foreign land and spreading these weird and false rumors to shake up the very sovereignty of our beloved country is totally unacceptable. To top that, claiming he has the support of us Indian Gorkhas shows us totally in a bad light. I as a sane Indian had to refute it in all possible way.

To start with, this whole Greater Nepal theory is nothing but a fallacy of great proportions, which has been brought up by people who have nothing else to do but fantasize about the past. These are people who live in a very hypothetical world. To understand this we need to notice the basic fact. Nepal and India are two separate countries today, one (India) is an aspiring economic and military power in the world, the other (Nepal) is an economically impoverished and politically on the brink of a failed state. The comparison between the two is totally asymmetric. And to profess a theory where the former will cede to the later a significant part of its territory on the basis of some weird historical logic is nothing but day dreaming. Everybody has to understand hundreds of years ago, there was no Nepal or India, there were hundreds of princely states which were later unified together under a single political entity of Nepal and India by their respective rulers, that was a process and not the end, what we have today is the final border and territories based on those unification process, these process involved wars, fighting over territories and winning and losing battles. What happened happened, and because of what happened then, today we have what we have, nobody can change this. India inherited all its territory which was part of British India at the time of Independence, and which had not been transfered to Pakistan. Unless, ofcourse Nepal wants to wrest those territories from us like Pakistan or China, there is no other way that it can be done. As for the Sugauli treaty, it's better to accept the fact that Nepal had signed the treaty when they lost a war, they should be grateful the British didn't annex their country like they did with the rest of India, had they done that, which they infact could have done, Nepal would have been a state of India. So it's time people stopped living in a dream world and stop cooking up weird logics. The politicians in Nepal should first deal with those parts of their country which they have; establish a good state, with a strong economy, and a happy and satisfied population. It’s an irony that the leaders there are barely able to lead their own country and yet they want what’s ours.

As for some people arguing that the large segment of Nepali speaking people in India want to join Nepal, well it’s a falsehood of the greatest kind. We are Indians, we are one of the 2nd largest developing economies of the world, and our country is an aspiring military power. We live in a democracy, where even though things take a longer time to happen, the truth and the people do always win. Ours is the largest democracy in the world and our values in upholding that democracy is second to none. Yes, we have a rich cultural exchange between Nepal, and India, and both have mutually benefited as a result of this exchange. While we in India, value the yet prevalent rich cultural heritage of Nepal, people in Nepal benefit from the great talents that Indian Nepalis have brought to Nepal, (even their former Royal was educated in Darjeeling). But then cultural ties are a different issue and political reality a different one. We are Indians, and nothing else, no further argument is necessitated after this, what language we speak or what ethnicity we belong to is a matter among us Indians, and none of any business for foreigners. Yes, a lunatic of an Indian Nepali politician might have written to one of their kings or whatever, but that was for his own political mileage, and perhaps our generation has learnt, the outcomes of such futile exercises. We have our politicians who are able to stand up for us and that’s that. We have no desire to be part of any failed state, our argument has been simple right from the beginning, we are Indians, and not Nepalese, as made out to be, and as claimed by the likes of these Nepalese politicians. We are Indians, our ancestors have given their blood and sweat to make this country what it is today, and we want to be there to reap the benefits of the fruits. Nobody from any foreign country can stand in our way, just because some lunatic people staying in some other country, fantasizes about his own so called interpretation of history.