Darjeeling turned a page in its history by celebrating its “birthday” for the first time, an event billed as apolitical but one that stirred fresh conversations about the region’s complex past and its historical association with Sikkim.
The “birthday” was largely organised by two social activists from Darjeeling, Palzo Tshering and Ananta Sharma, to mark the transfer of the present-day Darjeeling tract to the British East India Company by the Chogyal (king) of Sikkim.
The deed of grant was signed on February 1, 1885, and Gen G.W. Aylmer Llyod, an officer with the East India Company, was instrumental in the transfer.
During the celebration at Lloyd’s cemetery in the Old British Cemetery along 18th Lebong Cart Road in Darjeeling, Tshering repeatedly said that the event was apolitical, even though political leaders were present.
The politicians present at the event included R.B. Rai, former Darjeeling MP and leader of the Communist Party of Revolutionary Marxists (CPRM), along with Sunil Rai, who also belongs to the CPRM, Darjeeling municipality councillor Mukund Raj Baraily of the ruling Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha and Shankar Hang Subba, general secretary of the Sikkim-Darjeeling Ekikaran Manch that supports the merger of Darjeeling with Sikkim.
“The event is apolitical. We have invited all political leaders as common citizens of the place, to attend this celebration,” said Tshering.
However, on the sidelines of the event, Subba said that he was “extremely happy with the celebration”.
“I am extremely happy with the celebration. The event is a clear reminder, a factual reminder that Darjeeling was never a part of Bengal but belonged to Sikkim,” said Subba.
The celebration included cleaning up the area, cutting a cake and lighting the cemetery with candles and talks on the past and future of Darjeeling.
Politics in Darjeeling centres around the demand for a Gorkhaland state.
Darjeeling had belonged to the Sikkim king, whose reign had extended till eastern Nepal. However, in the 1700s, Nepal continuously attacked Darjeeling and conquered the area up to the Teesta river.
The Archaeological Survey of India says this changed when the East India Company declared war on Nepal and the victorious British forced Nepal to cede 4,000 square miles (10,000sqkm) of territory through a treaty signed at Sugauli in 1816.
The British gave back Darjeeling to the Sikkim monarchy, but a decade later, a dispute cropped up between Nepal and Sikkim once again. It was then that the British sent two officers, Captain Lloyd and J.W. Grant, the commercial resident of Malda, to broker peace between Nepal and Sikkim in 1828.
Captain Lloyd arrived near Ghoom, also known as the Old Gurkha Station, and immensely liked Darjeeling. The British East India Company gave him the responsibility to negotiate a lease of the area with the Chogyal of Sikkim, which resulted in the signing of the deed.
In 1841, the East India Company granted the Sikkim monarchy an allowance of ₹3,000 as compensation and raised the amount to ₹6,000 in 1846.
While Lloyd continued to stay in Darjeeling, Arthur Campbell was given charge of establishing a sanatorium and developing the area. Campbell, the first administrator of Darjeeling under British rule, also introduced tea to the hills.
Lloyd died in Darjeeling at the age of 76 in 1865, and his body was laid to rest near the old cemetery
The ASI in a signboard at the site termed General Llyod as “the discoverer of Darjiling who died here in 1865 AD”.
Some have argued that terming Llyod as the “discoverer” of Darjeeling undermines the natives of the place.