No time for tea after Darjeeling strike

India’s world famous Darjeeling tea gardens are under threat from an ethnic Gurkha group that has ordered an indefinite general strike in the region to press its demand for greater autonomy.

Tens of thousands of tourists, including hundreds of foreigners, have also been evacuated from Darjeeling, in the Indian state of West Bengal, since the Gurkha group asked them to leave last week.

The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (Gorkha People's Liberation Front) is demanding a new state within India to protect the rights and interests of the region’s 650,000 Gurkhas, or ethnic Nepalis.

It first ordered the strike on June 10, then lifted it for six days to allow tourists to leave, and re-imposed it indefinitely from last night, telling Darjeeling residents to stockpile food for 45 days.

“Our main demand is for a Gurkhaland within the Indian constitution. We have been raising our voices for more than 100 years,” Binay Tamang, a GJM spokesman told The Times.

“The government of India and the government of West Bengal are treating us as second class citizens.”

The Gurkhas, who traditionally inhabit the hills of eastern India and neighbouring Nepal, are renowned for their stamina and fighting skills and have been recruited to fight for the British since 1815.

But Indian Gurkhas have long complained that they suffer racial discrimination from a government that has done little to improve basic infrastructure and public services since India’s independence in 1947.

Bimal Gurung, the GJM leader, insists that his movement is a peaceful one, based on the principles of Mohandas Gandhi.

His campaign has nonetheless conjured memories of a Gurkha insurgency in the 1980s that killed 1,200 people and ended with Delhi granting Gurkhas limited autonomy within West Bengal.

There have already been several reported clashes between Gurkhas and ethnic Bengalis living around Darjeeling – whose relatively cool temperatures attract many Indian tourists this time of year.

A group of Gurkhas roughed up some Bengali tourists last week and hundreds of Bengalis have since blocked roads to Darjeeling and beaten up several Gurkhas, according to local media.

The strike has also hit the tourism and the tea industries, the two mainstays of the local economy.

Palden Lama, Secretary of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hotel Owners’ Association, told The Times that some 25,000 tourists had been evacuated and only about 200, including a handful of foreign backpackers, remained.

“We are paying a price of course, but there was no other option for us,” said Mr Lama, a Gurkha. “The situation had become unbearable.”

Darjeeling’s 250 tea estates are exempt from the strike, but with almost all major transport routes now blocked and many staff stuck at home, their operations have been severely hampered at the height of the picking season.

Rajiv Lochan, secretary of the Darjeeling Tea Traders' Association, estimated that the industry was losing $475,000 every day the strike continued.

He also predicted that exports of premium Darjeeling tea could fall 20-25 percent this year. Darjeeling produces about 10 million kg of tea annually and accounts for seven percent of India's tea exports.

West Bengal's communist government has ruled out a separate "Gorkhaland" but has offered to talk to the GJM.

Mr Gurung, however, has refused, insisting he will only talk with the federal government in Delhi.

With neither side apparently willing to compromise, analysts say the standoff is likely to continue for most of the summer.

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