This week in Himal
This week, Abhishek Avtans writes about the languages of tea-estate workers in Assam and Darjeeling, following the migration of diverse people to tea estates for work.
Labour migration to the tea gardens of colonial India fostered contact and convergence among diverse languages, prompting the rise of new linguas francas and the erosion of many mother tongues
Ganju Lama, an ethnic Bhutia, wangled his way into the Gurkha regiments and won a Victoria Cross in the Second World War – and proved that a true Gurkha need not come from a “martial” race, or be defined only by battles and bravery
Fiction: Below are the ramblings of an inhabitant of Darjeeling whom I often happen to meet. They are the words we have been hearing in the hills since the beginning of the Gorkhaland agitation in 1986.
