Gorkhaland Diaries Author: SatyadeepS Chettri

PANKAJ GIRI

Gorkhaland Diaries is one of the few novels to be based on the Gorkhaland movement in the Darjeeling district of West Bengal. It claims to be the first English novel to capture the Gorkhaland movement in its entirety, and to a great extent, I feel it has succeeded in doing so.

The story is primarily based on two characters Rajen and Bijay and their different yet related quests for the fabled state of Gorkhaland within West Bengal. Rajen is the son of an army officer, and the novel begins by tracing his experiences as a college student while the Gorkhaland movement reaches a peak in 1986. Bijay, on the other hand, is a timid Nepali boy raised by a tea estate owner. The story shows how their lives change amidst the local people’s surge for identity and the search for a homeland.

The novel manages to cover almost all phases of the Gorkhaland movement, right from the disturbing events of the 1986 movement – the undisclosed deaths and molestation inflicted by the CRPF – to the formation of the Gorkha Hill Council, and to the Indian Idol’s second season in 2007 which influenced a change in the leadership in Darjeeling. It also covers the complex political environment changes in between, like the formation of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) until the movement again reached a crescendo in 2017.

It was horrifying to learn about the deaths and molestation and the arduous life that the people from Darjeeling had to face in the past. However, despite that, the quest for a separate state remains to date.

The characters are well-etched and relatable. You feel like rooting for them, even though Mr.Chettri goes for more telling than showing sometimes, somewhat diluting the readers’ attachment with the characters. However, the characters are likable enough. I appreciate the fact that even the secondary characters have been given ample space to develop. I particularly loved the interactions between Bijay and Burra Sahib, Bijay’s tea estate owner. Those scenes were beautifully executed. BireyDaju is another lovable character.

The ending is also decent; all loose ends are tied up satisfactorily.

The descriptions of the ethereal beauty of Darjeeling along with the dreadful incidents of the violence are done with equal expertise. I loved them.

The language, despite its simplicity, is classy. Mr.Chettri has a rich vocabulary and employs it skilfully in the novel. There are not too many big words, but even avid readers won’t be able to label the language as colloquial. It is perfect for this book. However, there are some minor grammatical – mostly punctuation errors – in the edition of the book I read, but I have heard that most of them have been rectified in the latest edition of the book.

Overall, I must say that Gorkhaland Diaries is a great piece of fiction. It is not easy to cover a thirty-year-old movement in its entirety and yet make the book sufficiently light with relatable characters. It is a must-read not only for people from outside the region who want to know about the Gorkhaland movement but also for local readers, especially the youngsters who have just heard about the movement in fragments and don’t know about the horrors that people from our neighbouring hills had to go through.