Gorkhaland movement

Women supporting Gorkhaland marching with torchlights, Darjeeling, 2013 .
Flag often used by Gorkhaland supporters
Gorkhaland Territorial Administration
Proposed Gorkhaland state

The Gorkhaland movement is a campaign to create a separate state within India in the Gorkhaland region of West Bengal for the Nepali-speaking Indians. The proposed state includes the hill regions of the Darjeeling district, Kalimpong district and Dooars regions that include Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar and parts of Cooch behar districts. A demand for a separate administrative unit in Darjeeling has existed since 1909, when the Hillmen's Association of Darjeeling submitted a memorandum to Minto-Morley Reforms demanding a separate administrative setup.[1]

The proposed Gorkhaland will have an area of over 7,500 sq km and it would be bigger than the Indian states of Goa and Sikkim. Its population is four million roughly equal to the population of Manipur and Tripura. However the proposed state doesn't have a Gorkha majority. Gorkhas constitute only around 35 per cent of the total population in the proposed state (In the Darjeeling district, Nepali is spoken by 40% of the population,[2] While in the Kalimpong district, It is spoken by 51% of the population.[2] Around 15–20 % in the Dooars and Terai regions) have stated Nepali as their mother tongue. The rest of the population would be Rajbongshis (25%), Adivasis (20%), Bengalis (15%) and around 5% others (Totos, Mechs and Biharis).[3]

  1. ^ "The Parliament is the supreme and ultimate authority of India". Darjeeling Times. 23 November 2010. Archived from the original on 1 November 2013. Retrieved 20 March 2012.
  2. ^ a b "C-16 Population By Mother Tongue". censusindia.gov.in. Archived from the original on 9 April 2022. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
  3. ^ Aishik Chanda (27 June 2016). "What kind of a state would Gorkhaland be?". New Indian Express. Archived from the original on 4 December 2017. Retrieved 1 March 2021.