Browsing by Subject "Immigrants"

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Open Access
Comment on the gurkha’s daughter
(University of North Bengal, 2015-03) Chhetri, Kumar
Although the British colonizers, anthropologist and administrators have produced a bulk of ethnographic accounts, travelogues, military accounts, and research papers there is no sufficient English literary work which centers on the life of the Nepalis. The earlier available works were either based on the life of Nepalis in Darjeeling or on the Himalayan kingdom (Nepal), whereas the present work The Gurkha’s Daughter by Prajwal Parajuly is unique in the sense that it engulfs the life of the Nepalis both in Nepal and its Diasporas around the world in eight short stories. Despite being fiction the stories carry the social reality of everyday life experiences of the Nepali people and its Diasporas.
Open Access
Identity Politics, Ethnic Conflict and Altruistic Sentiments: Situating Assam in 1960
(University of North Bengal, 2024) Sen, Arpita
In Assam, the perennial discords between the indigenous/native Assamese and immigrant/refugee Bengalis have posed serious challenges to peaceful cohabitation and administration. The year 1960 proved tumultuous in Assam’s history as these two communities clashed with each other. This paper traces the roots of ethnic conflict in Assam to British colonial policy of encouraging Muslim Bengali immigrants from erstwhile East Bengal to clear forests and cultivate in Assam, (a flow which soon became unrestrained); the middle class educated Bengalis who threatened the livelihood of the Assamese in oil refineries, tea gardens, government services and business; the introduction of Bengali as the official language in Assam from 1826 to 1873; and the Sylhet Referendum in 1947 which ousted Sylhet from Assam and led to an unprecedented refugee influx that led to immense resentment among the Assamese. An attempt to declare Assamese as the state language fuelled Bengali discontent and led to the political radicalization of the Assamese. In 1960, violent clashes erupted, especially in the Bengali-speaking district of Cachar. The disturbances were politicized by the political parties in Assam. This article also highlights the humanitarian side of ethnic conflict, which often lies in obscurity, with an illustration of how the Assamese people helped and supported a Bengali family at the height of communal tensions, thus giving expression to altruistic sentiments.
Open Access
Khas-kura Nepali and Cultural Consolidation in Darjeeling Hills: A Genesis
(University of North Bengal, 2015-03) Ghosh, Sujit
With the opening of Tea Industries by British tea planters gradually altered the racial composition of Darjeeling hills. Immigration of plantation labor hailing from Nepal had .been a major factor of the changing of racial composition of Darjeeling hills .. Multi-ethnic Nepali community became the majority people in Darjeeling hills. The preponderance of Nepali in Darjeeling hills, the Nepali or Khas-kura speaking people gradually conscious to unify and consolidate on linguistic basis. An attempt has been made to search the emergence of culture, literature and the process of cultural Consolidation of the Nepali or Khas-kura speaking people in Darjeeling hills.