Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed…

These lines by W. B. Yeats best describe what is happening to our country. We are as a nation breaking up. Separatist forces want to assert independence, either from the country or from a larger state. We can no longer afford to wish their demands or their struggles away. Boston.com reports of the people of Darjeeling wanting to break away from its parent state, West Bengal. There is one issue which makes this struggle both alluring and yet alarming. The struggle for forming a new Gorkhaland state is interwoven with music. Prashant Tawang, a lad from the hills won the Indian Idol show. The hills rallied behind him and somewhere down the line everything got politicized.The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (Gorkha People’s Liberation Front) used the unity in the hills to build up a popular movement for cessation from West Bengal.

Why is it important for the Gorkhas to have their own state? Their languages, culture, physical builds are all different from the plains’ Indians. In short, they are ethnically unique. Moreover, as local leaders point out; there has been little development in the region in the last quarter of a century. Darjeeling, the scenic British hill resort, is plagued by water scarcity, unemployment and general apathy from the Centre. Tourism is the mainstay of the people living there. Even this lucrative industry is threatened by the frequent curfews and strikes in the region. The charisma of Subhas Ghising has disillusioned the local populace.

Tawang ultimately went on to win the Indian Idol music competition. This has brought back the pride of the people there in themselves. Unfortunately, the Gorkhas are often stereotyped in the larger Indian population as being only fit for low-end jobs. This writer in a year old trip to Lava found young people demoralized. This was before Tawang’s victory. Now the youth of Darjeeling and other adjoining hills know that they too can make a difference if they try hard enough. They see the forming of a new state as the first step in this direction. The only fear which remains is their eagerness to embrace ideologically neutral music as a vehicle for rebellion.
Source: Boston.com

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