History of Gorkha and Gorkhaland..

Gorkha are people from Nepal and parts of North India, who take their name from the eighth century Hindu warrior-saint Guru Gorakhnath. His disciple Bappa Rawal, born Prince Kalbhoj/Prince Shailadhish, founded the house of Mewar, Rajasthan (Rajputana). Later descendants of Bappa Rawal moved further east to found the house of Gorkha, which in turn founded the Kingdom of Nepal.
It is a misconception that the Gurkhas took their name from the Gorkha region of Nepal. The region was given its name after the Gurkhas had established their control of these areas. In the early 1500s some of Bappa Rawal's descendants went further east, and conquered a small state in present-day Nepal, which they named Gorkha in honour of their patron saint.
The history of Darjeeling is intertwined with that of Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim and Bengal. Until the early 19th century, the area around Darjeeling was ruled intermittently by the kingdoms of Nepal and Sikkim,[2] with settlement consisting of a few villages of Lepcha woodspeople. In 1828, a delegation of British East India Company officials on their way to Sikkim stayed in Darjeeling and decided that the region was a suitable site for a sanitarium for British soldiers. The Company negotiated a lease of the area from the Chogyal of Sikkim in 1835.[2] Arthur Campbell, a surgeon with the Company and Lieutenant Napier (later Lord Napier of Magdala) were given the responsibility to found a hill station there.
The British established experimental tea plantations in Darjeeling in 1841. The success of these experiments led to the development of tea estates all around the town in the second half of the 19th century. Darjeeling was annexed by the British Indian Empire a few years after an incident of discord between Sikkim and the Company in 1849.
Under British rule, the Darjeeling area was initially a "Non-Regulation District" (a scheme of administration applicable to economically less advanced districts in the British Raj) — acts and regulations of the British Raj did not automatically apply to the district in line with rest of the country. As a consequence of the 1905 Partition of Bengal, the area came under the jurisdiction of the Rajshahi division (Rajshahi is a city in Rajshahi District in northwestern Bangladesh. The river Padma, one of the major rivers of Indian subcontinent, runs along the city) and was placed in the newly created province of East Bengal and Assam. Later in 1919, the area was declared a "backward tract". Darjeeling's elite residents were the British ruling class of the time, who visited Darjeeling every summer. An increasing number of well-to-do Indian residents of Kolkata (then Calcutta), affluent Maharajas of princely states and land-owning zamindars also began visiting Darjeeling. The town continued to grow as a tourist destination, becoming known as the "Queen of the Hills".
Historically, Darjeeling and its surrounding terai areas formed a part of the then Kirat kingdom called Bijaypur. After the disintegration of the Bijaypur kingdom, it fell to Sikkim and Bhutan. From 1790-1816, Darjeeling and its immediate contiguous area were overrun by the Gorkhas of Nepal. After the Anglo Nepalese War (1814-1815), Treaty of Sigauli was signed between the Gorkhas and the East India Company. Darjeeling was wrested back from the Gorkhas of Nepal by the Britishers and handed back to the Sikkimese after the Treaty of Titaliya. In 1835, Col Llyod became the representative of East India Company for Darjeeling. During his tenure Darjeeling was annexed into the British India Empire. However the original map of Darjeeling came into existence only after the induction of Kalimpong and Duars area after the Anlgo-Bhutanese war of 1864 (Treaty of Sinchula). Darjeeling as we know of today was organised in 1866. The ethnic identity "Gorkha" comes from the district of Gorkha within Nepal which was the kingdom of the Prithvi Narayan Shah.
By the start of the twentieth century, Gorkhas made a modest socio-economic advance through government service, and a small anglicized elite developed among them. Following this in 1907, the first ever demand for “a separate administrative setup” for the District of Darjeeling was placed before the British government by the “leaders of the hill people”. The “Hill people” here referred to the Lepchas, Bhutias and the Gorkhas. Their main reason for doing so was the superior attitude of the Brown Sahibs (from Dhaka and Calcutta) shown towards the people of the hills and their growing sense of insecurity against the educated hordes of the plain. The demand was ignored. The demand for separate statehood was revoked in 1917, 1930, 1934. On 19 December 1946, the party's heart and soul, D.S. Gurung even made a plea in the Constitution Hall before the Constituent Assembly for recognition of Gorkhas as a minority community "Sir, the demand of the Gurkhas is that they must be recognized as a minority community and that they must have adequate representation in the Advisory Committee that is going to be formed. When the Anglo-Indians with only 1 lakh 42 thousand population have been recognized as a minority community, and Scheduled Castes among the Hindus have been recognized as a separate community, I do not see any reason why Gurkhas with 30 lakhs population should not be recognized as such."
Soon after the death of D.S. Gurung, Randhir Subba raised the demand for a separate state within the framework of the Indian Constitution called Uttarakhand. Uttarakhand could be comprised of the following options.
Darjeeling district only or
Darjeeling district and Sikkim only or
Darjeeling district, Sikkim, Jalpaiguri, Dooars and Coochbehar or
Darjeeling district, Jalpaiguri and Coochbehar
This movement was discussed even by the masses. Initially Randhir Subba was in favor of a militant movement but was dissuaded by other leaders. Sadly the movement never gained momentum as its leaders were moblised to other purposes.
In presentations to the States Reorganisation Commission in 1954, the CPI favored regional autonomy for Darjeeling within West Bengal, with recognition of Nepali as a Scheduled Language. In all from the 1950's to the 1985, first the CPI (1954), then the Congress (1955), then the triumvirate of Congress, CPI and AIGL (1957), then the United front (1967 & 1981), then again Congress (1968) and finally CPI(M) 1985 dangled along with the carrot of Regional Autonomy for Darjeeling. (Source: Wikipedia)
The Gorkhaland movement has its roots in the demand of Gorkhas living in Darjeeling district and Duars of West Bengal and the aspirations of all Gorkhas within India and abroad, who see India as their motherland, for a separate state for themselves, within the constitutional framework of India. The Gorkhaland National Liberation Front which led the movement in the 1980's, was the first party ever to use the proper noun Gorkhaland for the desired dream. The movement disrupted the district with massive violence between 1986 and 1988. The issue was resolved, at least temporarily, in 1988 with the establishment of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council within West Bengal.
The fight for separate land for the residents of this hill is not new at all and every time the demand was ignored or sidelined. The recent sidelining was replacing statehood by sixth scheduled status. But as of today’s status every individual in the hills know why we need Gorkhaland. The major issue here is how and when.