The fact that almost 95 per cent of the ethnic population of Darjeeling, Dooars and Tarai speak Nepali, this issue of language has been used time and again as a tool to stoke the sentiment of the ethnic population in the hills of North Bengal.The Nepali language has also acted as a common thread connecting people of various tribal origins in the Darjeeling hills and this has been used as a political capital by the late GNLF leader Subhash Ghisingh and now GJM leader Bimal Gurung to foment anti-establishment sentiments in the hills.
The Gorkha community, though numerically in the minority when pitted against the combined population of the other tribes in Darjeeling such as Lepchas, Bhutias, Tamangs etc – have always had a stranglehold over hill politics by virtue of their identity as the so-called elites among the ethnic groups in and around Darjeeling. From the Indian armed forces to the business community in the hills, the Gorkhas have always enjoyed a position of relative socio-economic superiority compared to the other tribes. Both Ghisingh and Gurung have cashed in on this reality.
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