Gorkhas and Adivasis in Dooars-Terai :

The Bengal tea zone, marred by ethnic and class polarisation, has failed to r eceive the scholarly attention it deserves. Viewed from this perspective Sharit Bhowmik’s attempt to overview the situation of the Dooars-Terai region “Wages and Ethnic Conﬂicts in Bengal’s Tea I ndustry” (EPW, 6 August 2011) is a timely exercise.

The Bengal tea zone, marred by ethnic and class polarisation, has failed to r eceive the scholarly attention it deserves. Viewed from this perspective Sharit Bhowmik’s attempt to overview the situation of the Dooars-Terai region “Wages and Ethnic Conﬂicts in Bengal’s Tea I ndustry” (EPW, 6 August 2011) is a timely exercise. While the issues of tea and the dynamics of the Dooars-Terai region ( lying in between the two districts of J alpaiguri and Darjeeling covering the Himalayan foothills) constitute the ﬁeld in which Bhowmik is considered to be an authority, some inputs that the article should have contained are missing.

For example, he says that “Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) sprang up in 2008”. This is misleading. The GJM in fact was e stablished on 7 October 2007 not “as a result of inter-regional conﬂict” but b asically to challenge Subhas Ghising’s s upremacy in hill politics. Again, Bhowmik says GJM chief Bimal G urung’s residence is in Kalimpong when the latter actually belongs to the Singmari area located just at the fringe of the city space of Darjeeling. Gurung was also the former councillor of Singmari area under the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council. If Gurung did not b elong to a non-tea garden area (i e, Kalimpong), then the comparison of the backgrounds of Ghising and Gurung as made in the article does not hold water.