Part
I
T.K. Das
If one lives in the vicinity of the housing
complex of central government in Tollygunge, Kolkata, he would little bit be
surprised to see some faded posters depicting the bust of an unknown recusant,
King Pano Gaeboo Achyok. It also contained a call for a show of unity among the
Lepchas through celebration of 20th December birth
anniversary of the King at Kalimpong. Almost the same posters I have found in
the Lepcha villages situated faraway even from Kalimpong. Have you ever thought
of the spatial distance lying in between the two sets of posters? Perhaps not.
My long stint with the Lepchas and their affectionate gesture
allure me to go deep into probing of the community outside the Mayel-lyang.
So, I question the spatiality: its historical and causal dimensions, which I
hope would enrich many of us. However, one has to start from a scratch as no
such precise and informative write-up is found for our avail. Besides, it is
said that the Lepchas are homesick and have phobia of roads or say mobility and
so you cannot find them in a city of roads. The Lepchas are not so stereotyped
nowadays but what they did in 19th century Calcutta is an enigma. This is my
second question.
In 1767, Clive got the Diwani (an equivalent to post of the
minister-in-chief) of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa and within a short period the
East India Company promoted its trading interests around a group of villages by
the river Ganges: Gobindapur, Sutanuti and Kalkatta. Later, these three
villages transformed into the city of Calcutta. Decades later, in the first
quarter of the 19th century Calcutta became an attractive place of
emigration for trade and growing urban character. On the one side, the native
Indians from different states assembled for livelihood and, on the other side,
foreigners from all over the globe came and settled for political interests,
missionary works and business. I found none of Lepcha origin there. It looks
absurd indeed to expect some of them but, no way, the process of colonial
migration has forced me to sense at least the thermal existence of the Lepchas
in colonial Calcutta. If one thinks of the hasty process of colonial
consolidation in Bengal he must agree that this process requires displacement
of population, forced or otherwise, for building a colonial space for British
rulers nurturing in a land situated thousand miles away for home. Some
displaced Lepchas could be driven to Calcutta in this process. I shall later
explain it elaborately with reference to the causes of migration.
In 1835, Darjeeling was colonized by the British agents.
Kalimpong followed the suit in 1865. The old literature on Darjeeling profusely
described the pace and character of colony-building in the hills and it
essentially required manpower. British agents not only employed people for infrastructure
building and defence but also engaged in producing skilled manpower for
maintenance and preservation of colonial rule (e.g., teachers, doctors, nurses
and workers for Christian missions). There was a third almost invisible sector,
the domestic space, where natives were engaged in English households (e.g., as
gardeners, ayahs, servants and maid servants and bearers).
It is difficult to cite the proper chronology of migration of
the Lepchas to Kolkata. I assume I will find the Lepchas in these second and
third sectors visited or migrated to Calcutta for survival and good living. I
have first found them in the private records of the early 20th century. However, when I
chance upon some other data sources, to my delight, I have identified one mission
worker in Calcutta as early as last decade
of 19th century. Later, few more have reached Calcutta
either for mission works or for medical training. Whatever the profession, it
is certain that colonial masters brought them to the capital. Many of them later
returned to Darjeeling hills. There was another section of the Lepchas, who
stayed in the twilight of turbulent Calcutta transforming from villages to
colonial city of concrete, crime, babus, baijis, banias and downtrodden.
I still cannot identify this hazy population and it is an unfortunate legacy:
even in the 21st century I fail to reveal who they, the
thriving Lepchas of Kolkata were/are. It is also not known to me the ethnic
identity and fate of the 36 hill coolies who are sent to a Calcutta shipping
agency, the Gillanders, Arthbuthnot & Company, for dispatching to distant
land as bonded labours for work in tea-coffee-sugar plantations. So, the Lepcha
community has an urban history of more than hundred years in Kolkata.
I
The population count (the number of people
and speakers) of the government agency first reported of the Lepchas in the
first decade of 1900. The total number did not cross double digits even in the
next decade and none of them was female. In 1930s, it meagerly crossed three
digits and the Lepcha women surfaced in the city of Calcutta. However, the
count was not of continuous series. No data was found available in 1940s, 1990s
and 2000s. Till 1980s, it remained again within single-double perimeter. So,
the trend of Lepcha population was disheartening and it was difficult to
produce a holistic picture of presence of Lepcha population in Kolkata. It also
exposed the negligence of the colonial state which otherwise fanned with their
anthropologists to generate knowledge about its subject population. There was
only one silver-line beyond that gloomy picture. Since 1950s, the surrounding
districts of Calcutta showed increasing trend in Lepcha population in
comparison to the Calcutta proper. Although, the numbers were still vacillating
between single and double digit mark, it could be significant with reference to
spatial distribution of the population. True to the fact, only three districts
out of 11 did not have any Lepcha population but the Lepchas had spread over
eight districts including Calcutta within a short span of time after
independence. However, while only the districts of Hooghly and 24 Parganas
showed double-digit presence of the Lepchas, Calcutta remained within single
digit number. At present, out of 141 wards of the Calcutta Municipal
Corporation 6 have no scheduled tribe population and 31 wards have 100-628 scheduled
tribe population. However, it is not known how many of them the Lepchas are. I
can only produce the fact that three Lepcha females and four Lepcha males are
found in wards xvii, xxii and xxxii of the Calcutta Corporation in 1950s.
For the present, I have tried to collect
views of the Lepcha insiders for preparing a balanced datasheet on the Lepchas
of Kolkata. It is interesting but unfortunate that, quite like its Kalimpong
Headquarters, no such categorical information is kept by the Indigenous Lepcha
Tribal Association (ILTA) of Kolkata Unit. Hence, I assume, keeping in mind the
opinions of the office-bearers, about 500 Lepchas are living in and around
Kolkata including the number of the floating Lepcha population coming and going
for education, government service and private jobs. To some knowledgeable
Lepchas, it is indeed hard to count the number of urban Lepchas. This inability
again drives me to observe that Lepchas of Kolkata is devoid of close community
network as found in some other ethnic groups living in Kolkata. There are many
others, who in spite of their microscopic existence eagerly maintain the link
with the other members through various communication networks. In such a vast
urban space like a megalopolis Kolkata, it is really difficult but not
impossible to maintain interactions. In the age communication, such
communication failure is not at all conducive to their survival as “decentered”
existence always encroaches upon cultural edifice of the community. Moreover,
the causes of concentration of the Lepchas in a particular place like rural
areas of the district of Hooghly are beyond my knowledge. So, the ‘spatial
dimension — physical location of members and relations among them’ not only
define its character but also its effectiveness to survive as a community.
II
Migration
of people and communities is the most primal phenomenon of human history. It is
universally the most stressful act destined for the human beings as well.
Reasons are varied: natural calamities, painful expelling, persecution, job
seeking and so on. In case of the Lepchas, apparently, seeking employment and
related training had been the causes of migration. However, making of a colony
in Darjeeling hill areas was the primary concern of the colonial rulers and the
Lepchas and other hill communities had to follow process. For instance, the
educated Lepchas of Darjeeling and Kalimpong had been trained in Calcutta for
recruitment in professions like, doctors, nurses, teachers, clerks and clergies
in the hills and plains of colonial India. Beside this service sector, I assume
that migration of the Lepchas as servants and maids of the colonial masters
cannot be ruled out. According to some scholars, ‘after settlement of the
colonizers, the first wave of migrants to the city did not come to work in
factories, but to service the lavish lifestyles of the Europeans, namely, the
British. As domestic services were needed from early morning to late night, the
poorest migrants found jobs easily in the colonial city, namely, in the area,
known as ‘White Town’, the area of European settlement. The migrants from the
nearly suburbs and provinces settled in hovels growing like mushrooms within
the walking distance of the most luxurious areas of the city. Most of these
migrants found jobs as gatekeepers, cleaners, gardeners, cooks, washer-men etc
and a large number of natives of adjacent districts also found employment in
Calcutta as shopkeepers and clerks.’ The reports and other write-ups of the
Englishmen often regarded the Lepchas fittest for such menial jobs, especially
as ayahs and gardeners. So, the identity and existence of Lepchas of Calcutta
initially owed to this colonial rule. Later, they had also been engaged in
white colour profession. This trend has been continuing even after independence.
The Lepchas come to Kolkata for jobs, for education and for training. And in many cases, the families follow; their
children get acclimatized with the speed of the city-life and buy space for
living. A different and recent explanation has been put forward that
ethno-political turmoil in Darjeeling hills may indeed be a justified reason of
migration. Political crisis, which is really unbearable for the marginal Lepcha
community, in the homeland, therefore, encourages migration.
III
An
economic advantage often induces migration. The migration of the Lepchas to
Kolkata was primarily fallout of many events. Series of colonial invasions in
their homeland severely disturbed their pristine society. Migration of the
Lepchas in successive decades to different places was an attempt for survival.
The thwarted process of economic development in the hills, a corollary to
general misrule was the secondary cause of migration. However, nowadays the
Lepchas of Kolkata positioned in different rungs of the urban economy is now a
little advanced warrior struggling for better livelihood. In the early days of
their city life, they had been mostly engaged in menial jobs. The government
reports of the first half of the 20th century showed that
Lepcha menial workers of various types lived in Calcutta and its surrounding
areas. Among them, menial workers were the majority (64%) and very few of them
(6%) belonged to the white colour professions. There was no doubt that the
early Lepcha inhabitants of Calcutta stood at the lowest strata of economic
hierarchy. The literacy rate among the Lepchas of Kolkata, in the early years
of same century, also supported the view that they could not go beyond menial
jobs for poor literacy rate. Most of them (97.87%) were illiterate.
Later, they joined in service sectors and
became professional and trainee (doctor, for example) ‘clerks, teachers, nurses
and dispensers in British India’. So, we have found an occupational shift from
menial to mental or white colour profession. Presently, they are either
employees of private and public institutions or engaged in business. Some of
them work in the police or EFR or in defence establishment. A section of Lepcha
youth come to the city for education and other job related training. No data on
the Lepcha land ownership, except awfully few, in the city have been found
available for study till date. The nature of jobs also determines the locale of
the Lepchas of Kolkata. To some Lepchas, the nature of spatial concentration
has really been regulated by functional or professional categories. According
to a knowledgeable Lepcha, the nature of service determines the place of Lepcha
residence in Kolkata. For instance, those Lepchas engage in police service or
armed forces usually live at Barrackpur; those who are at EFR stay at West
Midnapur and some of them reside in the Defence Estates like Dum Dum and
Ichhapur. The Lepchas of Kolkata proper mostly engage in government jobs. Few
have non-government assignment as well. Above all, it is a movement for survival
by adopting different occupations as and when possible.
IV
Religious identity of the Lepchas of
Kolkata is an interesting object of study for various reasons. Like any other
ethnic community, the Lepchas are religious in their own way. However, colonial
subjugation under different rules has changed their religious mosaic into the
Animist, the Buddhist and the Christian schools. In many cases, a critical
combination of all three schools or at least of two can also be felt thriving
among them. Besides, in some cases, the government records have further
categorized the Lepchas as “Hindu”, which is indeed a contested category.
Perhaps they belonged to animist or Buddhist religion and the onus of such
fault might have gone to the Lepcha psyche of self-denial and negligence of the
government officials. Unfortunately, available data of the later days said
nothing about them and their religious denominations.
Available information on the Lepchas of Kolkata suggested that
Christian Lepchas came to this city at the onset and the Buddhists set foot
later. Possibility of visiting the plains even before the British arrival
cannot be ignored. The trade links of the bygone days, for example the Silk
Route, between hills and the plains including sea-port, pulsated by caravans
and trade exchange. The Greater Sikkim of the past, primarily the land of the
Lepchas, had been one of the busy trade-posts along this route. So, I think,
the chance of Lepchas’ visit to the Gangetic plains could not be ruled out.
Later, they came to Kolkata under the pressure of the colonial rule, which
might be their second arrival to this region. Anyway, around the second half of
1800, those who first visited Calcutta were mostly Christians. I have already
mentioned their purpose of visit and their professional category. Visit of the
Christians of Lepcha origin to Calcutta was a church (Church of Scotland)
sponsored movement for the Christian converts. The Buddhist Lepchas had no
place in such movement. To take care and control the converts, the Calcutta
Hill Council Church was formed around 1915. It should also be kept in mind that
the Baptist Mission Press of Calcutta published a Lepcha translation of the
‘Book of Genesis and Part of Exodus’ under the supervision of one Christian
Padre C.G. Niebel in as early as 1849. St. Andrew’s Kirk, a main place of
congregation and communication for the Lepchas of the city till date, was meant
for the ‘marginalized’ people. According to one scholar, ‘about the same time,
2461 Buddhists and 67Animists were living in Kolkata and its suburbs; half of
the Buddhists were Chinese and the remainder consisted of a miscellany of
races, such as, Tibetans and other Himalayan races.’ So, possibly, some
Buddhist Lepchas, took shelter in the then Calcutta under a very vague term
‘other Himalayan races’.
At present, the Lepchas of Kolkata are mostly the Christian
converts. The prominent Lepchas, like the doctors, church father, legal
professionals, teachers, insurance agents, police, and of course the
service-holder, mostly belong to Christian community. They run their
organization and represent the Lepchas of Kolkata. The present Lepcha
leadership acknowledges that among the Lepcha residents of Kolkata very few are
the Buddhists residing near Park Circus-E.M. Bypass connector. Above all, the
city of Kolkata experiences a close interaction among the Buddhist and
Christian Lepcha converts in recent times for greater interests of the
community.
V
So, the Lepchas of Kolkata has a long
history of city-dwelling started since the early days of the colonial rule in
Bengal. In spite of their primal habit of secluded living away from the
roadways, the networks of city life have absorbed them to a great degree. In
practice, crises of existence have forced them to move along routes for one
goal – survival with honour. However, the points of negation are many. No
doubt, they are numerically weak in comparison to different communities living
in the city. Correct Lepcha population count is still an unfulfilled task and
the ILTA, its Headquarters and the Kolkata Unit, is no less incapable in
maintaining such records. It is also observed that they are dispersed over the
large areas of the greater Kolkata. Ghettoization is not justifiable but
maximum dispersal is also not conducive for just living. With very low literacy
rate and absence of skilled craftsmanship they initially engaged in blue colour
jobs that entailed marginal economic status. However, now a clear evidence of
occupational shift — from manual to mental labour – is visible. Most of them
are engaged in white colour jobs – in public and private sectors. Hence, they
are standing at the crossover with certain positive and negative pointers as
they do in their own homeland. As they are walking along this line, my question
is: Do they have any interest in preserving their Rong identity beyond their
constitutionally granted scheduled benefits?
I express my sincere gratitude to all of my Lepcha mentors and
friends of Kalimpong and Kolkata for their unending support during my sabbatical
engagement for this work.
(Footnotes)
*
I wish to divide this article into two interrelated parts in terms
of the basic issues that I want to submit before the general readers. In the
first part under the above title, my intention is to present a cryptic history
of episodic arrival of the Lepchas in the city of Calcutta/Kolkata and its
different dimensions. Further, I have interchangeably used both ‘Calcutta’ and
‘Kolkata’ to preserve the flavor of colonial and post-colonial era of the great
city.
