By Simon Denyer
DARJEELING, India (Reuters) - India's Darjeeling hills havecome alive with fresh demands for a separate state within Indiafor the Gorkha people, with protests threatening the area'srenowned tea and tourism industries.
Bizarrely, it was a television talent show, India's versionof "American Idol", that lit the fire of Gorkhaland lastSeptember, two decades after the end of a insurgency amongethnic Nepalis in eastern India that left more than 1,200people dead.
Frenzied canvassing for a local boy, ethnic Nepali orGorkha policeman Prashant Tawang, metamorphosised into apolitical upsurge that has ushered in a new king of the hills.
Politician Bimal Gurung surfed the wave of ethnic prideunleashed by the TV contest and now is hoping it will carry hispeople towards Gorkhaland, the separate state carved out ofWest Bengal they have been demanding for many decades.
"This is the last fight," the 44-year-old Gurung toldReuters in an interview in his party office in Darjeeling."Till the last drop of my blood, I will fight this battle untilwe have a Gorkhaland state for the Gorkhas."
The green, white and yellow flags of Gurung's GorkhaJanmukti Morcha (Gorkha People's Liberation Front) fly fromhomes, shops and cars all around Darjeeling and nearby towns,bunting criss-crosses above the main streets.
The party's symbols are the sun, the Himalayan mountainsand two crossed kukris, the heavy, curved knife used by thefamously fierce Gorkha soldiers from Nepal and India who havelong fought with both British and Indian armies.
On a windy hilltop by the town of Kurseong, an obeliskcrowned by a huge kukri commemorates the "martyrs" of the1980's insurgency, which formed the backdrop for Kiran Desai'sBooker Prize-winning novel "The Inheritance of Loss".
But Gurung insists his will be a peaceful struggle.
"We want the right of self-determination within the Indianconstitution," he said. "We would not like to repeat theviolence of 20 years ago. All protests will be held in ademocratic and peaceful manner."
Peace broke out in 1988 when Gorkha champion leader SubhashGhising compromised with New Delhi, accepting limited autonomyunder a new Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council, which he then led.
Two decades on, Gurung says Ghising betrayed the cause, andcomplains the Gorkha people are still neglected, pointing tothe appalling state of roads, water and public services in thehills.
His chance came when Tawang sang his way into the finalstages of Indian Idol. Stoking Gorkha pride, Gurung raised hugesums of money to finance a mass SMS campaign which saw thelocal boy win first prize.
When a Delhi FM radio DJ mocked Tawang as a "chowkidar" orcaretaker, a common term of abuse for people from India'snortheast, the fire was well and truly lit.
Prashant Fan Clubs were transformed into GJM offices, theirmembers inducted into Gurung's ranks and the Gorkhaland cause.
The 74-year-old Ghising had seemed indifferent to theTawang phenomenon, and was completely wrong-footed. His supportsuddenly evaporated and after more than 20 years in charge, heresigned from the Hill Council this month.
GEO-POLITICALLY SENSITIVE
Frequent strikes in favour of Gorkhaland this year havebadly undermined tea and tourism industries, business leaderssay.
Now, Gurung promises an intensified non-cooperationmovement from April 1, including the non-payment of taxes andan economic blockade to stop timber being exported from thehills
But he says strikes will be kept at a minimum for a fewmonths so as not to disrupt the tourism industry that so manyof his supporters depend upon during the peak spring season.
"During the 1980s things were so bad we lost Darjeeling asa brand in the eastern Himalaya," laments Raj Basu, presidentof the Eastern Himalaya Travel and Tour Operators Association."
"With a lot of effort, we had started getting our tourismcharm back," he said. "Then the agitation started. Fortunatelythey have confirmed that tourism won't be affected."
But Rajiv Lochan, secretary of the tea traders associationin the nearby town of Siliguri, is not so sanguine. He says thefine tea plantations of Darjeeling are already suffering.
"These so-called leaders have made people think too much,giving them all these dreams," he said.
"Things have regressed by 25 years, and because people arelooking for something they are not going to get, they aregetting more and more frustrated."
Marcus Dam, Kolkata editor of the Hindu newspaper, says theprotests may continue for some time, but India is unlikely togive way "in the near future".
The area lies on or close to the borders of China, Nepal,Bhutan and Bangladesh, making it geo-politically veryimportant.
New Delhi will also be wary of the encouraging pan-Nepalisentiments which are sweeping across the region and encompassthe neighbouring Indian state of Sikkim.
"Central leaders are quite conscious of the sensitivity ofthe matter," Dam said. "But because of the language issue andgeopolitics, it (Gorkhaland) won't happen in the near future."
(Editing by Alistair Scrutton and Sanjeev Miglani)
