The origin of Darjeeling

Dr. PK CHHETRI

The hill-station of Darjeeling owes its origin, like other hill stations such as Shimla, Musoorie, Dalhousie etc., to the necessity that exists in India, of providing places where the health of Europeans may be taken care of by a more temperate climate. Though Sikkim was proved an eligible place for such an establishment, yet Darjeeling was considered more suitable owing to its proximity to Calcutta, which lies only 370 miles (695 kms in today's reckoning) southward as Calcutta was the headquarters of the British establishment, so Darjeeling was the nearest compared with north-west stations, which were upwards of thousands kilometres from that city. Darjeeling ridge varies in height from 6500 to 7500 feet above the level of the sea. The mean temperature at an elevation of 8000 feet most nearly coincides with that of London, viz., 50* F. Therefore, the present army cantonment is still perched at that height in Jalapahar.
Besides Darjeeling, Sikkim was the only available spot for a sanatorium throughout the whole range of the Himalayas. Sikkim was a protected state, owing no allegiance, except to the British government, which had happened when the Raja was reinstated on the throne and guaranteed his sovereignty after the Gorkhas had overran the country in 1817 and had him driven out. The main objective of the British was to retain Sikkim as a barrier between Nepal and Bhutan. But for this policy the aggressive Gorkhas would have taken into possession Sikkim, Bhutan and the whole Himalayas, eastwards to the borders of Myanmar and turned into an outlying province of Nepal.
Between 1817 and 1828, nothing much had happened in Sikkim until a frontier dispute occurred between the Lepchas and Nepalese. While peace was being restored, Darjeeling was visited by an English gentleman of high scientific achievements, J.W.Grant, who pointed out to Lord Bentinck, then Governor-General, the eligibility of Darjeeling to select it as a site for a sanatorium, especially for it's cool climate, proximity to Calcutta, and easy accessibility, and for its central position between Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal and British India. This suggestion was readily accepted and for further survey on its viability, Major Herbert (Deputy Surveyor-General of India) and Grant were employed. The next step was taken to request the Raja of Sikkim to cede a tract of country, which should include Darjeeling, for equivalent in money or land.
At first he was reluctant, but later he surrendered Darjeeling unconditionally, and in return a sum of Rs.3000 per annum was granted to him as an equivalent for what was then uninhabited and jungle infested mountain. In 1840 Dr.Campbell, who was so long a political representative in Nepal, was removed and appointed as superintendent of the new station, and was entrusted with the task of maintaining political relations between the British and Sikkim government.
Once established, Darjeeling rapidly expanded. For its development, the allotments of lands were purchased by Europeans for a throwaway sum of money for building dwelling-houses; barracks and a bazaar were also formed. A few official residents, civil and military, also sprung up and formed as a nucleus of a community, which was gradually increased by retired officers and their families, and by temporary visitors in search of health and recuperation, or the luxury of a cool climate and active exercise. Moreover, plenty of games and wild animals including boars and deer were available in the vicinity, which was also a subject of attraction for the British, who were by nature born hunters and adventurers. This author many years ago had come across in Darjeeling DM's office archive three hand written volumes of Dr.Campbell's invaluable diary, which was a mine of information of early Darjeeling, its people, and flora and fauna, unfortunately when I was posted in Darjeeling as Additional District Magistrate later and searched for those three volumes in the archive to be donated to the Darjeeling district library for safe keeping for posterity, I found none. I informed the DM also, it was of no avail, and those invaluable pieces of information on Darjeeling could nowhere be traced. Similarly in the archive there are many early land papers including land deeds, but they were lying totally uncared for to rote and to be eaten by moths. Most of them are already in a state of rot and their papers are brittle and, therefore, unless donated to the District Library Darjeeling or the University of North Bengal library for their upkeep, they will be very soon lost for the posterity, the land history of Darjeeling will become irretrievable. While scrutinising the land deeds, I was surprised they were written in Devanagari, but the language was local dialect, an admixture of old Hindi and old indecipherable Bengali and also Urdu words were liberally used and even alphabets, though seemed to me Devanagari but the style of writing was that of Bengali scripts. Then I discovered that deed writers were Bengalis, because at the bottom of every deed I came across their names. That proved that one of the few early settlers in Darjeeling were need-based Bengalis, who were employed by the British and brought to Darjeeling from Calcutta for doing petty works in the Collector's office. Even the sum charged as a fee to allot huge plots of land was paltry, such as eight ananas, equivalent to today's fifty paise. In fact, lands were simply allotted to the Europeans almost for free. Later these lands were sold to some Bengali Rai Bahadurs from Calcutta, when these Englishmen left for their homeland London, to develop as tea gardens. At least fifty percent of such lands belonged to such Rai Bahadurs and a portion to one rich Bhutia land owner. By the early 20th century, lands changed many hands and tea gardens had also sprung up in almost all over Darjeeling but only at lower altitudes, but mostly the planters were either Europeans or they were in full command and a few were in the hands of rich Bengali gentlemen and some businessmen from North India particularly Marwaris, who also ventured into tea business but much later and the trend still continues in Darjeeling and Dooars.
Since tea gave high returns in terms of money because of its high price in European markets including London, some retired Englishmen could not leave the temptations of tea business and settled down in Darjeeling marrying the local belles. Therefore, in Darjeeling we still find a sizable number of Anglo-Indian community descendents of the early English people and now most of them are engaged in odd jobs. Later a good number of them left Darjeeling for Australia in search of better prospects, when Australia was opened for new settlers.
For the first few years matters went on smoothly with the Raja, whose minister (Dewan) was an upright man, but upon his death a new Dewan, a Tibetan, who was the relative of the Raja's wife, succeeded, who was highly cunning and greedy, whose only concern was to monopolise every trade for his personal benefit. Therefore, every liberal offer for free trade and intercourse was rejected and British merchandise was highly taxed. Even the representatives of the British government were highly insulted and for no reason incarcerated.
However, all this did not prevent the progress of Darjeeling. In 1835 when this strip of land was gifted by the Raja of Sikkim, the village of Darjeeling consisted of a monastery (later a temple was also constructed at this site, which is now known as Mahakaal) on Observatory Hill around which clustered a few huts with a population of around 100 Lepcha people, from which a revenue of Rs.20/- per annum was accessible. During this period the material and spiritual welfare of the inhabitants was under the care of the only Lama or priest-in-charge of the monastery, whose name was Dorje, who was responsible to the Raja of Sikkim for the collection and transmission of the revenue from this village, which was borne on the Tauji (Land Revenue) ledger under the heading "Dorje Ling," or village governed by Dorje, which was subsequently anglicised by the British and called it Darjeeling, the same name once again extended to the whole district when fully annexed in 1850.
    Even in Sikkim the original inhabitants were only Lepchas, they numbered about 10000 souls. The Bhutias include Sikkimese, Sherpa, Dukpa and Tibetan-Bhutias, who settled in Sikkim much later, were actually a cross-bred between the Tibetan. Today's Nepalese population of both Sikkim and Darjeeling had their forefathers originated from Nepal. Migration from Nepal to both Darjeeling and Sikkim continued since the late 19th century and is still continuing. In those days, they were mainly the retired Gorkha British soldiers of the First World War and Second World War, who had nowhere to go, had settled down in the outskirts of Sikkim and Darjeeling by clearing jungles and starting agriculture. It seems the British had actually encouraged its retired Gorkha soldiers to settle down, because they were highly loyal. Therefore, in order to suppress the 1857 movement, the British sought the help of Nepal to lend its soldiers to suppress the rebels (the British version). Moreover, they knew a Gorkha soldier never questioned the orders of his superior, however illogical they might be. So this way the British had rewarded its retired Gorkha soldiers by donating lands freely. Moreover, they also needed people to serve them. Even the majority of the Nepali population in Bhutan are migrants from Nepal.
So is the case with Siliguri, the original inhabitants were the Mech, Rava and Rajbanshi tribes who practised shifting cultivation. The Rajbanshis, or Koches, are to be found throughout the foothills or Terai, this is the aboriginal race that once ruled over extensive tract, but they have subsequently been outnumbered by the migrants, but still they do exist, but in pockets, but mostly in Dooars region and Coochbehar.
So until 1870, besides Indian army men and the British, there were very few civilians in Siliguri, who were employed by the British in petty works.
The word "Siliguri' literally means a stack of pebbles or stones. Until the 19th century, this area was known by the name "Shilchaguri." This whole area was covered by dense Dolka forest. Since it had an appeal as an agriculture village, the Kingdom of Sikkim captured Siliguri and made it a southernmost part of their kingdom until Nepal interfered. After this Nepalis and Kiratis came to settle down in this region. In early 19th century Mahananda River, south of Phansidewa, served as a small port to trade with Malda, Bengal and Bihar. This riverine trade line was used by both Sikkim and Bhutan to bring goods into their mainland. This is the beginning of Siliguri as Shaktigarh beside the bank of the River Mahananda. After the Treaty of Sugauli (1815) signed between Nepal and the British, the layout of Siliguri changed in terms of development as it became a transit point between Darjeeling and Nepal mainland. Since it became a strategic convenience of trade from 1815, Siliguri slowly started growing as a town, when new settlers arrived. In 1865, the British captured both Darjeeling and Dooars and, finding them suitable for growing tea, started plantations. In tea gardens, as workers and tea pickers the original inhabitants were recruited on paltry payments by the British planters, and who were extremely cruel and showed no mercies when it related to their work done. They frequently used lashes to chastise them even for minor faults. .  
The road from Darjeeling to Siliguri had been built to facilitate communication, for the earlier one was too steep to use, yet still the new was not meant for the faint hearted, it was still steep and even ponies required rest every fifteen minutes, and for the British foot soldiers, it was like climbing the Himalayas. The glaring example is the present Pankhabari Road, which is infrequently used at present after a new road was built via Simulbari up to Kurseong. Though from the foothill of Garidhura to Kurseong the distance is hardly ten kilometres, yet the ascent is extremely steep within this distance there is a quick change in altitude from around 500 to 4800 feet. Therefore, this road is hardly being used by motorists these days for climbing; a few opt only to descend when Simulbari road is jam packed with traffic.
This Pankhabari road has a very cruel history of development. It was earlier known as pony road, but later on paved. For construction of this road in the second half of the 19th century, cartloads of tribals were brought from Chota Nagpur and employed as labourers by the British to work. They were made to work in highly stressful conditions. There was no arrangement of proper food and shelter, nor did the British care for their health. They worked in the malarial infested jungles. Most of them died either due to starvation or malaria. Still in deep forest, it is said, the bones of their limbs are found occasionally by some locals. The cruel English contractors simply threw away the dead bodies of these poor labourers into the adjacent jungles to be feasted by the wild animals.
We get a glimpse of the terrain from the accounts of the famous British explorer and a close friend of Charles Darwin, Joseph Dalton Hooker, who travelled through this region in 1848. In his travelogue "Himalayan Journal," Hooker writes how he crossed the Ganga in a steamer and reached Caragola. He says how travellers hired bullock carts and armed guards. About Siliguri, Hooker had no good opinion. He writes,"a low malarious belt, skirting the Himalayas ... which nature has marked as the home of fever".
Siliguri was marked as a fatal malaria and kalazar zone. When Governor General of India, Lord Canning (1856-1862) came to Darjeeling, his wife Lady Canning caught malaria and died in Darjeeling in 1861.
Another important catalyst for the growth of Siliguri was the cultivation of tea estates in North Bengal. The railway brought food and consumer goods to Siliguri and while returning took back oranges and tea. It also transported jute grown around Siliguri to the jute mills in the vicinity of Calcutta. Finding this transportation business beneficial, the British companies like the Raleigh Brothers, Landel and Clark set up godowns in Siliguri. This brought the Bengalis from south of the Ganges to Siliguri to work as clerks and support staff for the companies, while the Santhals and other tribal were engaged as labourers in tea estates. This is in brief the history of the development of Siliguri from a village and a military outpost into a small town. Satyendra Nath Majumdar, a famous freedom fighter, wrote in his memoir "Bandi Jiban”: "The town becomes busy, when the Darjeeling Mail comes in the morning, and at night when the Calcutta-bound train leaves, the town becomes silent."  How later Siliguri developed into a sprawling city is a different story.
To be precise, it is necessary to know the circumstances that led to the full occupation of Darjeeling district, though erstwhile Darjeeling district has been bifurcated into two districts, Darjeeling and Kalimpong a few years back. Earlier only a strip of hill territory, 24 miles long and about 5 to 6 miles wide, stretching from the northern frontier of the district to Pakhabari in the plains, which included Darjeeling and Kurseong was handed over to the British as a mark of friendship between the Raja of Sikkim and Governor-General Lord William Bentinck only for the establishment of a sanatorium for the invalid servants of the East India Company. The British did their level best to develop roads and Darjeeling, but this peace did not last long. When in November, 1849, Dr. Joseph D.Hooker and Dr.Campbell, while travelling to Sikkim taking permission of the Raja, were treacherously arrested and imprisoned. This was done on the orders of Namgay, the brother-in-law of the aged Raja, and the Dewan of the State, who subjected Dr.Campbell to severe torture. His hands and feet were bound, and he was knocked down, kicked and buffeted, and even his head was forcibly bent over his chest with an ulterior motive to dislocate his cervical bones and cause death. However, Dr.Campbell survived this ordeal. Though Sir Hooker was not subjected to such torture, yet he was kept under strict surveillance and was not permitted to communicate with Dr.Campbell.
For a while the British Government maintained complete silence, which encouraged the Dewan more, and he started playing more pranks with the British merchants. When the Dewan did not display any sign of the release of the prisoners including Dr.Campbell, the British Government resorted to punitive action by concentrating forces at the borders in 1850, withdrawing the allowance to the Sikkim Raja with immediate effect and finally annexing the whole of the district of Darjeeling, which covered an area of 640 square miles. This is how the district of Darjeeling passed into the possession of the British Government without fighting a battle, fortunately only the intimidation did the trick. Even after this punitive action the Dewan did not appear to mend his ways, sometimes or other he created trouble at the borders. Therefore, in 1861, it was decided to teach a lesson to Sikkim, and a heavy force under the command of Lt.Col.Gawler was sent. On February 2nd, 1861, the river Rangeet was crossed, and the enemy who did not number more than 800 strong was surrounded and badly beaten at Namchi. Then the force marched and entered Tumlong, the then capital of Sikkim on March 9th, 1861; a final treaty was signed with the Raja on 28th. The old aged Raja (80 years) was forced to resign in favour of his son, Sikeong Kuzoo Sikkimputti, the notorious Minister Namgay, popularly known as Pagla Dewan or mad Prime Minister of Sikkim, was removed, even the Raja was made to pay an indemnity of seven thousand rupees. The Daling Sub-division, of which Kalimpong was the headquarters, and which is bounded on the east and west by Jaldhaka and Teesta, together with the Bengal Dooars were annexed from Bhutan on November 11th, 1865, and merged with the district of Darjeeling, thereby expanding the area from 640 to 1164 square miles. The remnants of earlier Bhutan rules are still visible, if one goes to the Buxa Fort in Alipurduar. In and around the Buxa Fort still some old Bhutanese coins of the 19th century and earlier can be found sometime or the other.
One will be awestruck, when he studies the history of the rise of population in Darjeeling. The migration from Nepal and elsewhere was very fast. Around 1835, which hardly had hundred souls swelled up to 265500 souls, of which 135000 were Nepalese and other hill tribes, while 2808 were Europeans, and the rest included the population of Siliguri and its surroundings according to the 1911 census, and if we go by the official figure then in 1931, the population of the whole district of Darjeeling had rose up to 319635. In 1835, the population in Siliguri sub-division was only a few hundred, though no authentic figure of that period is available. Siliguri, which was called Terai in those days, terai stands for foothills in local dialect, was feared by every civilised society from Calcutta and the British, because of malaria and kalazar. It is a fact, the British encouraged its Nepalese soldiers after retirement to settle down in Darjeeling and Sikkim, yet most of these people were mainly extremely poor souls, who did not feel safe during the reigns of the Rana’s in Nepal, who were highly cruel. It is said during the Rana’s reign, no unmarried girl was safe. So particularly the Nepalese who entered Dooars or outskirts of Darjeeling were these highly exploited poor Nepalese. More than 70% of these migrants, who entered the outskirts of Siliguri and Dooars had died either due to malaria or kalajar. Again those who took up menial jobs in tea gardens both in Darjeeling and Dooars had been equally exploited by the British tea planters. Every such worker even feared the welfare of their womenfolk. The history of exploitation of these poor migrants is no less in degree than the history of indigo farmers in south Bengal, the only difference is, nobody had seriously thought to write down the history of exploitation of these illiterate migrants, even the Department of the Himalyan Studies of the North Bengal University, leave aside the department of history, has done little or nothing in this area, at least this author has no such information in this regard. Even most of the researchers, who conducted some research in the history of North Bengal had confined themselves to the history of Coochbehar, Malda, Dinajpur etc. What is the importance of reading the history of the rulers, if we do not know the history of their subjects? This is really miserable. Even Dr.Hooker, while on his visit to Sikkim had recruited Nepalese as coolies to carry the loads of his entourage, did not bother to take care or nurse his employees, if they fell ill, he simply left them to die and moved ahead. He himself has admitted this fact in his book "Himalayan Journals."     
(drpkchhetri7@gmail.com)