1949: The FOURTEENTH DEMAND for a Separate Homeland
The Deputy Foreign Minister while on a visit to Sikkim was met by a delegation of the All India Gorkha League and a demand replacing the above one was made where a state consisting of the district of Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Sikkim and Cooch Behar was suggested.
Post our independence the creation of a separate homeland became virtually impossible for amongst the policy makers was the tough man Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the first Deputy Prime Minister, who held very strong and racial views against us and our likes. His letter to Pandit Nehru, dated 7th July 1950 is quite unbelievable and racially slurred:
"All along the Himalayas in the north and northeast, we have on our side of the frontier, a population ethnologically and culturally different from Tibetans or Mongoloids. The undefined state of the frontier and existence on our side of a population with its affinities to Tibetans or Chinese have all the elements of potential trouble between China and ourselves…
The Deputy Foreign Minister while on a visit to Sikkim was met by a delegation of the All India Gorkha League and a demand replacing the above one was made where a state consisting of the district of Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Sikkim and Cooch Behar was suggested.
Post our independence the creation of a separate homeland became virtually impossible for amongst the policy makers was the tough man Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the first Deputy Prime Minister, who held very strong and racial views against us and our likes. His letter to Pandit Nehru, dated 7th July 1950 is quite unbelievable and racially slurred:
"All along the Himalayas in the north and northeast, we have on our side of the frontier, a population ethnologically and culturally different from Tibetans or Mongoloids. The undefined state of the frontier and existence on our side of a population with its affinities to Tibetans or Chinese have all the elements of potential trouble between China and ourselves…
Let us consider the political conditions on this potential troublesome frontier. Our northern or northeastern approaches consists of Nepal, Sikkim, Darjeeling and the Tribal areas of Assam. …The contact of these areas with us, is by no means, close and intimate. The people inhabiting these portions have no established loyalty or devotion to India. Even Darjeeling and Kalimpong areas are not free from pro-Mongoloid prejudices."
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