“We don’t have a good college here even though we have so many elite boarding schools. Since independence, the people here have felt that we haven’t got independence. Our people feel that the reigns have just been transferred from the British to the Indian government. We can’t write in our language, learn in our language. There’s a feeling of alienation from the state government itself. The Bengal government has always been a second mother to us”, says Rahul Pradhan, another youngster at MBKS.
For others like Upendra M Pradhan, the struggle for Gorkhaland has meant a life wherein he can’t speak or live with his family. Upendra, a journalist, runs a news portal called “Darjeeling Chronicles” and has been underground since 2017.
Both Darjeeling Chronicles and Upendra himself have multiple FIRs filed against them for their coverage of the Gorkhaland movement.
“People like us in Darjeeling are used to midnight knocks by the Bengal police and other authorities. When the FIR was filed…