Darjeeling
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see Darjeeling (disambiguation).
| Darjeeling | |
| — town — | |
 | |
| Coordinates | 27.03°N 88.16°ECoordinates: 27.03°N 88.16°E |
| Country |  India |
| State | West Bengal |
| District(s) | Darjeeling |
| Parliamentary constituency | Darjeeling |
| Assembly constituency | Darjeeling |
| Population • Density | 107,530 (2001) • 8,548 /km2 (22,139 /sq mi) |
| Time zone | IST (UTC+5:30) |
| Area | 10.57 square kilometres (4.08 sq mi) • 2,050 metres (6,730 ft)[1] |
Darjeeling (Bengali: দার্জিলিং, Nepali: 
दार्जीलिंग (help·info)), a town in the Indian state ofWest Bengal, is internationally renowned for its teaindustry and the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, aUNESCO World Heritage Site. It is the headquarters ofDarjeeling district, located in the Mahabharat Range orLesser Himalaya at an average elevation of 6,710 ft (2,050 m).
दार्जीलिंग (help·info)), a town in the Indian state ofWest Bengal, is internationally renowned for its teaindustry and the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, aUNESCO World Heritage Site. It is the headquarters ofDarjeeling district, located in the Mahabharat Range orLesser Himalaya at an average elevation of 6,710 ft (2,050 m).Development of the town dates back to the mid-19th century, when the British set up a sanatorium and a military depot. Subsequently, extensive tea plantations were established in the region, and tea growers developed distinctive hybrids of black tea and created new fermenting techniques. The resultant distinctive Darjeeling tea is internationally recognised and ranks among the most popular of the black teas.[2] The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway connects the town with the plains and has one of the few steam locomotivesstill in service in India. Darjeeling also has several British-style public schools, which attract students from throughout India and neighbouring countries. The town, with its neighbour Kalimpong, was a center for the demand of the Gorkhaland movement in the 1980s. In recent years the town's fragile ecology has been threatened by a rising demand for environmental resources, stemming from growing tourist traffic and poorly-planned urbanisation.
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[edit]History
Main article: History of Darjeeling
The history of Darjeeling is intertwined with that of Bengal, Bhutan, Sikkim and Nepal. Until the early 19th century, the hilly area around Darjeeling was historically controlled by the kingdoms of Bhutan and Sikkim, while the plains around Siliguri were intermittently occupied by the kingdom of Nepal,[3]with settlement consisting of a few households of Lepcha people.[4] In 1828, a delegation of BritishEast India Company officials on its way to Sikkim stayed in Darjeeling and decided that the region was a suitable site for a sanatorium for British soldiers.[5][6] The Company negotiated a lease of the area west of the Mahananda River from the Chogyal of Sikkim in 1835.[7] In 1849 British East India Company (BEIC) director Arthur Campbell and the explorer and botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker were imprisoned in the region; the East India Company sent a force to free them. Continued friction between the BEIC and the Sikkim authorities resulted in the annexation of 640 square miles (1,700 km2) of territory in 1850. In 1864, the Bhutanese rulers and the British signed a treaty that ceded the passes leading through the hills and Kalimpong to the British.[8] The continuing discord between Sikkim and the British resulted in a war, culminating in the signing of a treaty and the annexation by the British of the area east of the Teesta River in 1865.[9] By 1866, Darjeeling District had assumed its current shape and size, covering an area of 1,234 square miles (3,200 km2).[8]
During the British Raj, Darjeeling's temperate climate led to its development as a hill station for British residents seeking to escape the summer heat of the plains, and its becoming the informal summer capital of the Bengal Presidency in 1840,[10] a practice that was formalised after 1864.[11]
The development of Darjeeling as a sanatorium and health resort proceeded briskly.[4] Arthur Campbell, a surgeon with the Company, and Lieutenant Robert Napier were responsible for establishing a hill station there. Campbell's efforts to develop the station, attract immigrants to cultivate the slopes and stimulate trade resulted in a hundredfold increase in the population of Darjeeling between 1835 and 1849.[8][12] The first road connecting the town with the plains was constructed between 1839 and 1842.[4][12] In 1848, a military depot was set up for British soldiers, and the town became a municipality in 1850.[12] Commercial cultivation of tea in the district began in 1856, and induced a number of British planters to settle there.[5] Scottish missionaries undertook the construction of schools and welfare centres for the British residents, laying the foundation for Darjeeling's notability as a centre of education. The opening of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway in 1881 further hastened the development of the region.[13] In 1899, Darjeeling was rocked by major landslides that caused severe damage to the town and the native population.[14]
Under British rule, the Darjeeling area was initially a Non-Regulation District, a scheme of administration applicable to economically less advanced districts in the British Raj, and acts and regulations of the British Raj did not automatically apply to the district in line with rest of the country. In 1919, the area was declared a "backward tract".[15] During the Indian independence movement, theNon-cooperation Movement spread through the tea estates of Darjeeling.[16] There was also a failed assassination attempt by revolutionaries on Sir John Anderson, theGovernor of Bengal in 1934.[17] Subsequently, during the 1940s, Communist activists continued the nationalist movement against the British by mobilising the plantation workers and the peasants of the district.[18]
Socio-economic problems of the region that had not been addressed during British rule continued to linger and were reflected in a representation made to the Constituent Assembly of India in 1947, which highlighted the issues of regional autonomy and Nepali nationality in Darjeeling and adjacent areas.[18] After the independence of India in 1947, Darjeeling was merged with the state of West Bengal. A separate district of Darjeeling was established consisting of the hill towns of Darjeeling, Kurseong, Kalimpong and some parts of the Terai region. While the hill population included mainly of ethnic Nepalis who had migrated there during British rule, the plains harboured a large ethnic Bengali population who were refugees from the Partition of India.[19]A cautious and non-receptive response by the West Bengal government to most demands of the ethnic Nepali population led to increased calls, in the 1950s and 1960s, for Darjeeling's autonomy and for the recognition of the Nepali language; the state government acceded to the latter demand in 1961.[20]
The creation of a new state of Sikkim in 1975, along with the reluctance of the Government of India to recognise Nepali as an official language under the Constitution of India, brought the issue of a separate state of Gorkhaland to the forefront.[21] Agitation for a separate state continued through the 1980s,[22]included violent protests during the 1986–88 period. The agitation ceased only after an agreement between the government and the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF), resulting in the establishment of an elected body in 1988 called the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC), which received autonomy to govern the district. Though Darjeeling is now peaceful, the issue of a separate state still lingers, fueled in part by the lack of comprehensive economic development in the region even after the formation of the DGHC.[23] New protests erupted in 2008–09, but both the Union and State governments rejected Gorkha Janmukti Morcha's demand for a separate state.[24]
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