ABSTRACT
India is the world’s largest multilingual and multiethnic state where most of the ethnolingual communities live contiguously in distinct regions. After independence, efforts towards fulfilling the aspirations of these heterogeneous societies were made and could not satisfy the diverse ethnic communities. Consequently, the Indian state has been witnessing erosion of authority and stability, owing to the existence of a host of factors like the perceptions of socio-cultural alienation and deprivation. The situation has culminated in the eruption and proliferation of movements with the pronounced aims of expressing dissent from conditions of powerlessness, deprivation, injustice, or operational imbalances in society; a sense of otherisation and loss of identity; and seeking various remedial empowerments and entitlements. One of those ethnic minority communities in India, who feel deprived, insecure, rejected, and marginalised, are the Gorkhas, the majority of whom reside in the hills of Darjeeling, the northernmost districts of the state of West Bengal. This study purports to project the issues of deprivation and marginalisation in the context of the hills of Darjeeling.
