The Nepali-speaking Indians are fighting for their identity in India under the banner of the Gorkha which puts them at odds with Nepali migrants in northeast India
Shyam Prasad Pokharel, a migrant Nepali coal mine labourer in Jaintia Hills, Meghalaya
JUN 05- During the course of my week-long stay in Shillong (and other parts of Meghalaya and Assam) I interacted with many Gorkhas and Nepalis both in their homes and offices. Some of them came to see me at the guest house in Jhalupara where I was staying. Jhalupara neighbourhood resembles most Nepali towns where Narayan Gopal blares at the music kiosk and youths playing Counter Strike video game scream Nepali expletives. A person I was meeting at the guest house called me beforehand to ask an unexpected question: “Do you think you are being followed by the Meghalayan intelligence?” Continue reading Meghalaya Diary: the Gorkhas, Migrant Nepalis and India→
News reports from Meghalaya are disheartening. Nepali migrant workers and Nepali-speaking Indians are being chased away from their homes and workplaces (coal mines) by the Khasis who are in a majority in the North-Eastern Indian state. Some Nepalis have been killed; one of them was burnt alive during the ruthless eviction that began early last week. Some Khasis of the state have issued an ultimatum to the Nepalis to leave Meghalaya that, some say, is against the 1950 Indo-Nepal peace and friendship treaty. The Indian state, so far, has done nothing to stop the ethnic conflict. May be they will act, but part of the problem is with us. Nepal hasn’t been able to provide jobs to its own citizens. Unemployed folks, therefore, are forced to go to the hills of Meghalaya (and other parts of India, not to mention the Gulf countries) to look for jobs Continue reading Talking About Revolution #Nepal→
By Dinesh Wagle in Achham, western Nepal Wagle Street Journal
[This article appeared in today’s Kathmandu Post. Nepali version of the same appeared in today’s Koseli of Kantipur] Photos by Wagle. Photos of Wagle by David Geoffrion
When I saw him for the first time walking on the dusty Karnali Highway leading to Jumla in Dailekhi land, the image of “Afghan Girl”, a famous photo by photojournalist Steve McCurry, popped in my mind. In the picture published on the cover of National Geographic Magazine in 1985, the Afghan refugee girl Sharbat’s eyes and face reflect immense pain and fatigue. I saw the same pain and fatigue on Rajesh Shahi’s face.
