The Gorkhaland Territorial Administration has directed hill schools not to implement the state’s notification to ensure mandatory singing of Bengal’s state song “Banglar Mati, Banglar Jol” during the morning assembly.
On Thursday, the state government asked all state and state-aided schools to sing the song. State education minister Bratya Basu posted on X: "The famous song written by Rabindranath Tagore in 1905 is now to be sung as a prayer song (prarthana sangeet) at the beginning of each day in every govt and govt-aided school in Bengal."
The same day, deputy secretary (academic) of the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education notified all the heads of upper primary and secondary schools under the board for the mandatory singing of the song.
However, the same day, as soon as news of the notification spread, there was a huge uproar in the hills opposing it.
With pressure mounting in Darjeeling where identity and language have been at the root cause for the violent statehood movement since 1986, the GTA, with Anit Thapa, the president of Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM), at its helm, issued a written clarification on Friday, in effect, said that schools under the GTA's jurisdiction would not have to sing “Banglar Mati, Banglar Jol”.
In a letter to the district inspector of schools of GTA, the hill body has stated schools in the GTA have their traditional anthems and morning prayers in Nepali language.
Moreover, education is under the GTA's ambit. The GTA directed all schools within its jurisdiction to carry on with the “regular tradition of morning assembly”.
“I have been, therefore, directed to appraise you that the regular tradition of morning assembly will be followed in the schools keeping in mind the different culture, tradition, and language of communication in the schools within the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration,” the letter signed by the secretary of the GTA reads.
In the hills, hardly any student can speak, read or write in Bengali.
Nepali is the official language recognised by the state government for Darjeeling hills and Kalimpong. The language has also been included in the 8th Schedule of the Indian Constitution.
Immediately after the state notification, Ajoy Edwards, the Opposition leader at the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) and chief convener of India Gorkha Janshakti Front (IGJF), wrote to the principal secretary of the school education department of the Bengal government to oppose the notification.
“I write not in defiance, but in defence of our identity, our history and our people’s dignity,” wrote Edwards on Friday.
Edwards, in his letter, said they respected Tagore, his poetry and his vision, but the composition was not written as a representation of the Gorkha hills.
“We hold the highest respect for Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore. His poetry belongs to all of India and his vision for humanity rises above every border. Yet 'Banglar Mati, Banglar Jol' was written in the spirit of Bengal’s unity, not as a representation of the Gorkha hills. To make it compulsory in our schools is to blur that truth and to deny who we are,” wrote Edwards.
He added the Gorkhas of the Himalayas were not an extension of Bengal but a people with “our own history, our own culture, and a long record of service and sacrifice to the nation”.
The elected GTA Sabha member further added that the GTA agreement of 2011 and the GTA Act of 2012 had reaffirmed that the hills were home to a people with a distinct identity that must be respected and never erased.
