Rajbongshi
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Political history
1990-2018
Romita Datta , Speaking their language “India Today” 19/3/2018
In a bid to woo north Bengal's 10 million Rajbongshis, who voted for the BJP in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC), on February 28, pledged to recognise the Rajbongshi dialect, alongside Kamtapuri and Kurmali, as an official language.
Rajbongshis are a subaltern ethnic group inhabiting West Bengal's Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar and Alipurduar districts, besides parts of lower Assam. Their main demand, first articulated in the early 1990s, is the creation of Kamtapur, a separate state that includes their home districts. They also want their native language to be included in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution. The movement gained momentum with the formation of the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO), a militant group that was initially supported by the ULFA (United Liberation Front of Assam). It had also led to the formation of the Kamtapur People's Party and the Kamtapur Progressive Party. But in 2001, when the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC allied with the Kamtapur People's Party, both were routed in the very districts that had cradled the movement.
Encouraged by the Rajbongshi party's failure, the Left Front government, in 2003, ordered a crackdown that crushed the KLO and landed its leaders in jail. Earlier, in 1998, the Koch Rajbongshis of Cooch Behar, comprising 40 per cent of the district's population, formed the Greater Cooch Behar People's Association (GCPA) to demand 'Union territory' status for the district. However, this movement was beaten down by the government.
In 2012, when the GCPA revived its demand in the hope of leveraging its earlier association with Mamata (now the chief minister), she was in no mood to fuel Rajbongshi aspirations to statehood. Instead, she established the Rajbongshi Bhasha Academy as a compensatory gesture. Unhappy with the 'betrayal', the community voted for the BJP in 2014. Looking for a toehold in West Bengal, the BJP had then readily promised to fulfil the Rajbongshis' demand for statehood and a distinct linguistic identity. The GCPA also saw the BJP's stated position on Gorkhaland as a sign of its sincerity.
Mamata's numerous attempts to placate ethnic sentiments have not worked, as the 2016 byelections in Cooch Behar showed. The BJP cornered an impressive vote share of 28 per cent in the polls (approximately 150,000 new voters). Under the circumstances, the TMC government's announcement, according Rajbongshi the status of an official language, has revived the community's statehood dreams. Opposition leaders, predictably, have slammed the state government. "The chief minister is courting trouble by dangling carrots before separatist groups," cautioned Sukhbilas Barma, Congress's Jalpaiguri MLA. Asok Bhattacharya, the CPI(M)'s Siliguri legislator, said official recognition to ethnic dialects would only lead to ethnic clashes, as it did in Assam.
But analysts say it's an astute manoeuvre by Mamata. "With Tripura and the Northeast going saffron, Mamata's hurried announcement could pre-empt the BJP from exploiting ethnic sentiments," says Kolkata-based political analyst Biswanath Chakrabarty.
