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103-585: Darjeeling ( / d ɑːr ˈ dʒ iː l ɪ ŋ / , Nepali: [ˈdard͡ziliŋ] , Bengali: [ˈdarˌdʒiliŋ] ) is a city in the northernmost region of the Indian state of West Bengal . Located in the Eastern Himalayas , it has an average elevation of 2,045 metres (6,709 ft). To the west of Darjeeling lies the easternmost province of Nepal , to the east the Kingdom of Bhutan , to
206-468: A 2014 study, although the demand for labour in the tea estates surrounding Darjeeling had stayed roughly constant since 1910, the population of Nepali-speaking workers and their families in the tea estates had grown throughout. As the excess population migrated up to Darjeeling in search of jobs and housing, their cause was championed by the Gorkhaland movement in the 1980s; this had the effect of making
309-528: A boundary dispute between Nepal and Sikkim, passed a crescent -shaped mountain ridge which they fancied excellent for a sanitorium for the British, or a resort for sheltering and recuperating from the heat of India's plains. Lord William Bentinck , the Governor-General of India , to whom Lloyd communicated his notion, concurred, recommending a small presence of the army in addition for monitoring
412-578: A burgeoning hostility between the East India Company and the neighbouring Himalayan kingdoms. By 1849 the hostility came to a head. Campbell and Hooker were allegedly kidnapped. Despite the two being released without harm, the British exploited the incident to annex some 1,700 square kilometres (640 sq mi) of territory between the Mechi and the Teesta rivers from Sikkim. Darjeeling became
515-913: A considerable number of non-Gorkha families leave their homes in Darjeeling. Seasonal migration out of Darjeeling has long been a local feature, especially among the lower-income groups; substantial migration among middle-class youth is a 21st-century occurrence. Many educated young people in Darjeeling have begun to migrate out because the growth of jobs in the area has not kept pace with the numbers of people with tertiary degrees . For both groups of migrants, favoured destinations fall into three groups: Those looking for eventual employment in professional careers pursue higher education. Both groups have experienced racism and economic and social discrimination in India's big cities, caused by their distinctive, more East Asian, physical appearance. The Darjeeling Municipality
618-600: A divine manifestation the thunderbolt has been a powerful symbol throughout history, and has appeared in many mythologies . Drawing from this powerful association, the thunderbolt is often found in military symbolism and semiotic representations of electricity. Lightning plays a role in many mythologies, often as the weapon of a sky god and weather god . As such, it is an unsurpassed method of dramatic instantaneous retributive destruction: thunderbolts as divine weapons can be found in many mythologies. The name "thunderbolt" or "thunderstone" has also been traditionally applied to
721-417: A forested high-altitude area to the southeast (see Map 2 ), which are filled with water from a surrounding catchment area during the monsoon months, have a greatly reduced supply, as of 2016. Darjeeling's explosive population growth in the period 1961–2011, and extensive deforestation even within the protected catchment area for the lakes, have caused many springs to have vastly reduced yields during
824-702: A glacier in Sikkim, and flows south, at first meeting the Rangpo river and then the Rangeet before exiting the hills and eventually joining the Brahmaputra river in Bangladesh . The flow rate of the Teesta is 1,500 cubic metres (53,000 cu ft) per second during the summer monsoon; it had had major floods in 1950 and 1968. The continual tectonic activity of Darjeeling's ancient past can be inferred from
927-407: A hotel and a courthouse were raised. Soon, work had begun on bungalows that conformed to British tastes. Turning Darjeeling into a resort required many more workers than were available in the scattered local populations. The British attracted workers from the neighbouring kingdoms, chiefly from Nepal but also from Sikkim and Bhutan. They did so by offering regular wages and lodgings , a contrast to
1030-477: A house and a yard in which to grow vegetables and fruit, the Nepalis would be more inclined to stay. The arrangement, which lasted during the colonial period, was formalized in independent India's Plantations Labour Act, 1951. As of 2017, workers maintain their two or three-bedroom homes which they do not own, become attached to their upkeep, and eventually hope to retire in them when an adult child who also works on
1133-635: A municipality in 1850. In the span of 15 years, this Himalayan tract had become a hill station , an official retreat for British administrators in a hilly, temperate, region of India. Hill stations, such as Simla (summer capital of the British Indian Empire), Ooty (summer capital of the Madras Presidency ), and Nainital (summer capital of the North-Western Provinces ) were all established between 1819 and
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#17327719058291236-456: A reconstituted GTA, marginalizing and eventually ousting the founder of the movement, Bimal Gurung . The Darjeeling hills (formally Darjeeling Himalayan hill region ) comprise parts of Darjeeling district and all of Kalimpong district ; specifically, they contain: Darjeeling Sadar subdivision , Kalimpong subdivision and Kurseong subdivision. Darjeeling town lies in the Sadar subdivision. It
1339-464: A sovereign democratic republic. The new republic was also declared to be a "Union of States". The constitution of 1950 distinguished between three main types of states: Andhra State was created on 1 October 1953 from the Telugu -speaking northern districts of Madras State . The French enclave of Chandernagore was transferred to West Bengal in 1954. In the same year Pondicherry , comprising
1442-519: A symbol of cosmic order, as expressed in the fragment from Heraclitus describing "the Thunderbolt that steers the course of all things". In its original usage the word may also have been a description of the consequences of a close approach between two planetary cosmic bodies, as Plato suggested in Timaeus , or, according to Victor Clube , meteors, though this is not currently the case. As
1545-441: A tree, the early British planters devised these means to monocrop tea in tightly packed hedges on vast estates. In the plantation factories, men operate machines to ferment , dry, and package the normally short-lived green tea leaves. After India's independence in 1947, many of Darjeeling's governmental and economic arrangements remained unchanged. When British planters auctioned off their estates, they were bought by Indians from
1648-525: Is a term that denotes the Nepali-speaking people of India, as distinct from the Nepali-speaking inhabitants of Nepal. As of 2016, the population of Darjeeling was predominantly Indian Gorkha. There were also smaller numbers of Lepchas , Bhutias , Tibetans , Bengalis , Marwaris and Biharis . In the 2011 census, between them they practised Hinduism (66.5%), Buddhism (23.9%), Christianity (5.1%) and Islam (3.9%). The Lepchas were considered
1751-506: Is approximately 4500 microwatts per square cm per day during the peak months of May, June, and July. It is 50% higher than the Assam hills to the east, whose altitude is 170 metres (560 ft). From the beginning of the twentieth century, Darjeeling's average temperature has increased by 4 °C, which is twice the world's average, and the annual averages of its daily maximum and minimum temperatures have increased by greater margins. During
1854-502: Is highly cosmopolitan—a result of diverse ethnic groups intermixing and evolving away from their historical roots. The region's indigenous cuisine is rich in fermented foods and beverages. Tourists have flocked to Darjeeling since the mid-19th century. In 1999, after an international campaign for its support, the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO . In 2005, Darjeeling tea
1957-620: Is located at an average elevation of 2,045 m (6,709 ft) on the Darjeeling–Jalapahar range which runs south to north starting at Ghum (Map 1). The range is Y-shaped with its base resting at Katapahar and Jalapahar and two arms diverging north of the Observatory Hill . The north-eastern arm dips swiftly and ends in the Lebong spur, while the north-western arm slopes gently, passing through North Point, and ends in
2060-454: Is one of the oldest in India, established on 1 July 1850, with ten wards . It was governed by commissioners who were nominated until 1916, then elected until 1932, and nominated again until 1947. After India's independence that year, the commissioners continued to be appointed until 1964, when the first election was held. It was overturned by a court injunction; further elections and continual interference by West Bengal's state government became
2163-629: The British Raj was drawing towards a close, the Nepalese-speaking Indian Gorkha residents of Darjeeling had not been granted rights as British Indian subjects. These residents were at the bottom of the economic ladder, and their physical appearance was now the occasional object of racism by Indians from the plains. The 1941 census had shown that the Gorkha in Darjeeling constituted 86% of the population. They made up 96% of
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#17327719058292266-467: The Bureau of Indian Standards , Darjeeling town falls under seismic zone-IV (on a scale of I to V, in order of increasing proneness to earthquakes). A study published in 2018 found that residents of Darjeeling's outer areas, which are lower-income and lower-lying, worried about catastrophic loss during an earthquake. The April 2015 Nepal earthquake was felt in Darjeeling, and these residents feared that in
2369-534: The Constitution of India . Slights delivered by senior Indian leadership around this issue— Morarji Desai , a former prime minister calling Nepali a foreign language, and Vallabhbhai Patel , a former deputy prime minister, describing the Gorkhas as disloyal and entertaining "Mongoloid prejudices"—were all remembered. A decade later, during Rajiv Gandhi 's prime ministership, small regions in Assam to
2472-803: The Crown Colony of Burma . In 1947, the last Act of the Crown was passed. The act dissolved the Indian Empire, the Imperial Legislative Council and the Chamber of Princes and the Union of India was consequently established from 9 former Indian provinces ( East Punjab , United Provinces , Central Provinces , Madras , Bombay , Bihar , Orissa , West Bengal and Assam ) and 562 former Indian states. Between 1947 and 1950,
2575-631: The East Indian Railway Company Jamalpur Locomotive Workshop had begun to build steam locomotives for the route. Miniature steam engines made by Sharp, Stewart and Company of Manchester, were employed for pulling the train on a narrow gauge of two feet. The train service to Darjeeling was opened in July 1881. After cresting at the Ghoom railway station at 2,300-metre (7,500 ft) above sea level,
2678-618: The Emperor to that province and head of government of the directly ruled territories in the province. The governor or lieutenant-governor also served as the Emperor's representative to the constituent states of the province. The first three of the lieutenant-governorships were territories annexed to India from other powers and temporarily governed by the erstwhile Bengal Presidency, before being made into their own separate provinces. Agra and Bengal were still considered de jure parts of
2781-649: The Eurasian plate . Their physical composition varies from unaltered sedimentary rocks in the southern regions to several types of metamorphic rock and some intrusive rocks in the middle and northern, suggesting upward intrusion of the Earth's mantle . The collective process has sheared , folded, crushed together, fractured and jointed the rocks, reducing their strength and making them vulnerable to water percolating down their crevices and causing pore water pressure to build up. Phyllites and schists are found in
2884-576: The Indian Constitution . Though Darjeeling became peaceful, the issue of a separate state lingered. Agitation for a new state again erupted in 2008, led by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM). In July 2011, a pact was signed between GJM, the state and national governments which included an elected Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA), with limited autonomy within the state of West Bengal. It evoked little enthusiasm on
2987-764: The Lepcha and Limbu peoples. The Company's interference in territorial matters began in the aftermath of its army's victory over the Gurkhas in the Anglo-Nepalese War . Fought between 1814 and 1816, the war concluded with two treaties, the Treaty of Sugauli and the Treaty of Titalia , under which Nepal was required to return the Darjeeling territory to Sikkim. In 1829, two East India Company officials, Captain George Lloyd and J. W. Grant, en route to resolving
3090-504: The Nepali language , has been given official recognition at the state and federal levels in India, the recognition has created little meaningful employment for the language's speakers nor has it increased their ability to have a significantly greater say in their political affairs. The tea industry and tourism are the mainstays of the town's economy. Deforestation in the region after India's independence has caused environmental damage, affecting
3193-695: The Tibetan Dorje ling or Dorje-glin , meaning "Land of Dorje," i.e. of the vajra , the weapon of the Hindu god Indra . Darjeeling lies between the Mechi and Teesta rivers in the Eastern Himalayas. In the 18th century, it was part of a boundary region that had stirred ambitions and insecurities in several South Asian states. For the greater part of the century, the Chogyal -ruler of
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3296-583: The directly ruled territories of the Crown . The entire empire was divided into provinces and agencies. A province consisted of territory under the direct rule of the Emperor of India (who was also the King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions ) and a few minor states, ruled by Indian princes under the suzerainty of the Emperor. A Governor or Lieutenant-Governor acted as the representative of
3399-473: The monsoon of South Asia . The "June–May ratio," or the percentage by which the rain increases from May to June, is 2.6 or 260%. In contrast, just 3% of the annual rainfall takes place between December and March. Darjeeling's altitude—which is greater than some other regions of the Eastern Himalayas at the same latitude (27° N), such as the Assam hills—and its rarified air causes its UV radiation levels to be correspondingly higher. Its mean monthly UV radiance
3502-489: The tea plantations . The widespread deforestation displaced the indigenous peoples. Residential schools were established in and around Darjeeling for the education of children of the domiciled British in India. By the late-19th century, a novel narrow-gauge mountain railway, the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway , was bringing summer residents into the town and carrying a freight of tea out for export to
3605-478: The 1840s, a period during which the rule of the East India Company had spread to the greater part of the Indian subcontinent and the British felt confident about planning them. Darjeeling later became the summer capital of the Bengal Presidency . From 1850 to 1870 the tea industry in Darjeeling grew to 56 tea gardens employing some 8,000 labourers. The tea gardens' security forces kept a close watch on
3708-404: The Darjeeling area as entirely dependent on the production of tea and the inflow of tourists to create employment. Darjeeling tea is produced on plantations in which a few leaves on each tea bush are plucked by women. During the tea bush's dormancy period in the short winter season, it is pruned by the women to stimulate growth the following season. Unlike China, where the tea bush grew into
3811-532: The Darjeeling area, including the 14th Dalai Lama 's older brother Gyalo Thondup . After the 1959 Tibetan uprising , the Dalai Lama himself fled to exile in India, and tens of thousands of Tibetan refugees poured in after him, with many finding refuge in the Darjeeling– Kalimpong area. A Tibetan Refugee Self Help Centre was established in Darjeeling in 1959. In May 1975, the Kingdom of Sikkim to
3914-474: The Government of India introduced legislation to merge the union territories of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli into a single union territory to be known as Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu , effective from 26 January 2020. Ladakh UT The Constitution of India distributes the sovereign executive and legislative powers exercisable with respect to the territory of any state between
4017-491: The Indian Union and the state's monarchy was abolished. In 1987, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram became states on 20 February, followed by Goa on 30 May, while erstwhile union territory of Goa, Daman and Diu 's northern exclaves Damão and Diu became a separate union territory as Daman and Diu . In November 2000, three new states were created, namely: Pondicherry was renamed Puducherry in 2007 and Orissa
4120-471: The Union and that state. Thunderbolt A thunderbolt or lightning bolt is a symbolic representation of lightning when accompanied by a loud thunderclap . In Indo-European mythology, the thunderbolt was identified with the 'Sky Father' ; this association is also found in later Hellenic representations of Zeus and Vedic descriptions of the vajra wielded by the god Indra . It may have been
4223-454: The area include Himalayan black bear and red panda . A conservation centre for red pandas opened at Darjeeling Zoo in 2014, building on a prior captive breeding program; this Species Survival Plan had about 25 red pandas by 2016. The Himalayan newt Tylotriton verrucosus , one of two salamander species occurring in India, is found in wetlands in the vicinity. The Himalayan relict dragonfly Epiophlebia laidlawi , one of just four species in
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4326-770: The burdensome tax and forced labour regimens common in those kingdoms at the time. Tens of thousands arrived in Darjeeling. Not long after the Darjeeling Hill Cart Road was built in Northern Bengal, connecting Siliguri at the base of the Himalayan foothills to Darjeeling. In 1833 the East India Company lost its monopoly rights in the tea trade with China. A plan was prepared for growing tea in India. Superintendent Campbell began experimentation in 1840 in Darjeeling which soon proved successful. European planters and sponsors acquired large stretches of
4429-543: The capital of the British Indian Empire, to Siliguri at the base of the Darjeeling hills. Thereafter, Tonga horse-carriages were required to cover the last stretch on the Hill Cart Road. Ascending some 1,900-metre (6,300 ft), the journey required stopping at "halting barracks", or stables for feeding or changing the horses. By 1880, railway tracks were being aligned along the Hill Cart Road, and
4532-501: The defunct Bengal Presidency for judicial and legal purposes. Agra was separated in 1878 and merged with Oudh . The Bengal Presidency was re-established in 1912 as a governorship. All these provinces had their own legislatures established by the Indian Councils Acts, and high courts established by Indian High Courts Acts. Laws passed by these legislatures needed the dual assent of the governor or lieutenant-governor of
4635-642: The disparate militant groups. The agitation ceased after an agreement was reached between the government and the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF). It resulted in the establishment of an elected body in 1988, the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC), which received some autonomy to govern the district. In 1992, the Nepali language was recognized officially at the federal level in India by inclusion in
4738-443: The distinctive ethnicity of Darjeeling, called Indian Gorkha . By the last decades of the 19th century, large numbers of administrative officials of the imperial and British Raj provincial governments had begun to travel to hill stations during the summers. Commerce in the stations had grown as had the trade with the plains. A train service to Darjeeling was announced in 1872. By 1878 trains could take summer residents from Calcutta,
4841-849: The district are managed and protected by the Divisional Forest Officer of the Territorial and Wildlife wing of the West Bengal Forest Department. The fauna found in Darjeeling includes several species of ducks , teals , plovers and gulls that pass Darjeeling while migrating to and from Tibet . Small mammals found in the region include civets (such as small and large Indian civets , masked palm civet , spotted linsang and binturong ), mongooses (such as Indian grey mongoose and crab-eating mongoose ) and badgers (such as Burmese ferret-badger and greater hog badger ). Other carnivores found in
4944-621: The dry months from February to May. Of the 26 springs that had once fed the lakes, 12 have been affected. Forests and pastures have shrunk from 78% in 1900 to 38% in 2000, and cultivated land, which contributes to soil erosion, has correspondingly increased during the same time from 20% to 44%. By 2006, land records in Darjeeling showed that foodgrain-producing farmland had decreased proportionally, caused by accelerated levels of urbanisation and by subsistence farming giving way to commercial cropping, especially of tea. In 2016, acid rain , which can be caused by air pollution and can in turn damage forests,
5047-518: The early 1900s. Among the most famous Sherpas who moved to Darjeeling were Ang Tharkay and Tenzing Norgay . On 29 May 1953, Tenzing and Edmund Hillary became the first two humans to stand atop Mount Everest, vaulting both to instant stardom worldwide. The prime minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru , took Tenzing under his wing. Tenzing became the first field director of the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute after it
5150-506: The east of Darjeeling, which had been riven by violent ethnic separatism, were granted statehood. All these factors played into creating a militant mood among the Gorkhas for statehood and brought the Gorkhaland movement to the forefront. It led to the founding of the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) under the leadership of Subhas Ghising . Agitation for a separate state in Darjeeling included violent protests, and fighting between
5253-471: The family Epiophlebiidae , was first described from the region. The Indian decennial census of 2011 (the last for which there is processed data) recorded the population of the Darjeeling municipality to be 118,805 individuals. Of these, 59,618 were females and 59,187 were males, yielding a gender ratio of 1007 females for every 1000 males. The population density of the municipality was 15,990 individuals per km (41,000 per square mile). The literacy rate
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#17327719058295356-587: The former French enclaves of Pondichéry , Karikal , Yanaon and Mahé , was transferred to India. This became a union territory in 1962. Also in 1954, pro-India forces liberated the Portuguese-held enclaves of Dadrá and Nagar Aveli , declaring the short-lived de facto state of Free Dadra and Nagar Haveli . In 1961, India annexed it as the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli . The States Reorganisation Act, 1956 reorganised
5459-505: The frontier. Taking the ambition forward, in 1835 the East India Company negotiated the lease of a 40 by 10 kilometres (24 by 6 miles) strip of land in a grant deed from the Chogyal. By the end of 1838, sappers from the army were readied for clearing the woods and construction planned in earnest after the monsoon rains . The following year, Archibald Campbell , a physician, was made "superintendent" of Darjeeling, and two public buildings,
5562-406: The hills around Kalimpong, which lies to the east, and gneiss predominates the western regions in which Darjeeling lies. Two studies (1990 and 2019) recorded that landslides were a serious concern in the area. Most are triggered by excessive rainfall, earthquakes, and quick erosion caused by torrents. They are accelerated by extensive deforestation, defective drainage, poorly built revetments and
5665-417: The instance of a major earthquake, the unplanned upper-level construction could very well give way and tumble down on them. Darjeeling has a temperate subtropical highland climate ( Köppen climate classification : Cwb). The average annual precipitation in Darjeeling is approximately 3,100 mm (120 in). Eighty percent of the annual rainfall takes place between the months of June and September, due to
5768-614: The labour force in the tea gardens. Many had been recruited to fight for the British in the Second World War , but the British had been reluctant to displease the governments of Nepal and the Kingdom of Sikkim whose feudal labour regimes many original migrants had sought to escape. Major General Sir Lee Oliver Fitzmaurice Stack , who was the Governor-General of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan was born here in 1868 as
5871-431: The labourers and used coercion when necessary to maintain intensive production. The labourers' disparate cultural and ethnic backgrounds and the tea gardens' commonly remote locations ensured the absence of worker mobilization. By the turn of the 20th century, 100 tea gardens employed an estimated 64,000 workers, and more than five million pound sterling were invested in Darjeeling tea. The widespread deforestation caused by
5974-448: The main indigenous community of the region; their original religion was a form of animism. The Nepali community was a complex mix of numerous castes and ethnic groups, with many roots in tribal and animist traditions. The accelerated growth of the town's population and the tightly packed living conditions in which different ethnicities mixed created syncretic cultures in Darjeeling which evolved away from their historical roots. According to
6077-494: The market for cheap housing in Darjeeling inspires developers to go skyward, often as many as eight stories. Hastily built apartment houses ... are falling into the jhorās and sliding down the mountainside." Darjeeling is a part of the Eastern Himalayan zoo-geographic zone. Flora around Darjeeling comprises sal , oak , semi-evergreen, temperate and alpine forests. Dense evergreen forests of sal and oak lie around
6180-645: The municipality until March 2022, when it was defeated by the newly-formed Hamro Party . Darjeeling town is within the Darjeeling Assembly constituency that elects one member of West Bengal Legislative Assembly in state legislative elections every five years. The town is part of the Darjeeling parliamentary constituency that elects one member for the Lok Sabha , the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament . A 2017 study described
6283-455: The municipality considered wards 15, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, and 25 to be the core areas; most businesses, hotels, restaurants, and educational institutions were located in these wards and they were better connected to municipal electricity and water; wards 10, 15, 20 and areas of ward 30 were the most developed, whereas wards 1, 2, 13, 14, 27, 31, and 32 were the most deprived; and the latter group of wards contained 37 slums in which 23% of
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#17327719058296386-400: The newly independent nation. The division of India into states comprising the regions of its different spoken languages had allowed a relatively large proportion of the educated speakers of these languages to find employment in the government-owned enterprises. In the instance of the Gorkhas, the federal and state governments refused to accept their requests for their own Nepali-speaking state in
6489-548: The north of Darjeeling was absorbed into the Republic of India through a referendum. A month thereafter, Sikkim, in which nearly two-thirds of the populace spoke Nepali, was made a state of India. It was not lost on the Gorkhas of the Darjeeling region that there were many more speakers of Nepali in the Gorkha districts of northern Bengal, and their calls for autonomy had borne no fruit. The Government of India, moreover, had been reluctant to recognise Nepali as an official language in
6592-603: The north the Indian state of Sikkim , and farther north the Tibet Autonomous Region region of China . Bangladesh lies to the south and southeast, and most of the state of West Bengal lies to the south and southwest, connected to the Darjeeling region by a narrow tract . Kangchenjunga , the world's third-highest mountain, rises to the north and is prominently visible on clear days. In the early 19th century, during East India Company rule in India, Darjeeling
6695-512: The northern Kingdom of Sikkim had asserted possession of this territory. In the closing decades, the Gurkha kingdom of Nepal expanded eastwards to bring Darjeeling into its territory. Its army stopped short of the Teesta, beyond which at the time lay the Kingdom of Bhutan . The English East India Company began to show an interest in the Darjeeling hills in the early 19th century. At the time Darjeeling's indigenous population largely consisted of
6798-479: The northern regions of Bengal. Eventually, the demands for autonomy were downsized to calls for the recognition of the Nepali language for official state business in Nepali-speaking regions of Bengal. This was accepted in the West Bengal Official Language Act, 1961 . Darjeeling had a sizeable community of Sherpas , an ethnic group, originally from eastern Tibet whose ancestors had moved to some villages in Nepal below Mount Everest . Sherpas had come to Darjeeling in
6901-485: The perennial springs that supply the town's water. The population of Darjeeling meanwhile has exploded over the years, and unregulated construction, traffic congestion and water shortages are common. Many young locals, educated in government schools, have taken to migrating out for the lack of jobs matching their skills. Like out-migrants from other regions of northeastern India, they have been subjected to discrimination and racism in some Indian cities. Darjeeling's culture
7004-462: The plains or corporations from elsewhere in India. Darjeeling's labour force had long consisted of workers recruited from Nepal. Mid-19th-century British ethnologists had commended Nepalese for their step farming and other forms of settled agriculture in the Himalayan foothills. They were contrasted with Darjeeling's native population of the Lepcha at the time of British annexation, who practised "shifting agriculture". Planters believed that if allotted
7107-419: The plantation inherits the house. In 2017, the average basic daily wage (that is, without employee benefits ) of a Darjeeling tea garden worker was Rupees 144.60 (US$ 2.22) per day. With benefits, it was Rupees 277.10 (US$ 4.26) per day. Comparatively, Darjeeling's tea estate workers were paid less in 2017 than tea estate workers in several southern Indian states. The auction price of Darjeeling tea for 2017
7210-499: The population of Darjeeling resided. In 1988, the Gorkha -dominated hill areas of Darjeeling district were given an autonomous form of governance under the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC). In 2012, the DGHC was replaced by a similar body called the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA). The elected members of GTA manage certain affairs of the hills, including education, industry and land revenue; they cannot legislate or levy taxes. The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) held power in
7313-438: The presence of steep slopes that have been undercut to make shelves for paths, roads, and houses. Debris flows along existing gullies can sometimes bring along large boulders and cause damage to roads; in 1968, during a catastrophic rainstorm, the 56 kilometres (35 mi) Darjeeling–Siliguri road was cut in 92 places by debris flows. Teesta, the major river of the Darjeeling region, rises at 6,300 metres (20,700 ft) from
7416-403: The prevalent state of affairs. As of 2021, the municipality is governed by a board of councillors headed by a chairperson and a vice chairperson . The number of wards in the municipality increased to 32 in 1988. Wards represent electoral subdivisions; in 2017, 32 councillors were elected, one from each ward. The wards were reorganized and bifurcated in 2011. The area of the town (municipality)
7519-541: The province and the governor-general of India , who functioned as the representative of the Emperor . In addition to these, there were certain territories ruled directly by the Government of India through nominated chief commissioners. These were former independent states annexed to India and since ruled directly by the Supreme Government. A vast majority of the Indian states in the late nineteenth century were, in terms of imperial divisions, organised within
7622-466: The provinces with only territories under direct Crown rule. The latter years of the Indian Empire saw the enactment of the last Government of India Act by the Crown. This act granted full autonomy to Indian provinces. Provincial laws no longer needed the assent of the governor-general. This act created the office of a Premier in each province, who functioned as the new head of government and
7725-639: The provinces. However a good number of states were organised into imperial structures called agencies, or residencies. An Agent to the Governor-General (AGG) functioned as the Emperor's representative to all the states in the agency. In 1919, the fourth Government of India was enacted by the Crown. This saw many major changes. The legislatures of the provinces were made elected ones rather than nominated ones. Some provinces were given bicameral legislatures . All provinces were elevated to governorships and all lieutenant governors were made governors. Burma
7828-406: The same period, relative humidity has decreased by 7%, and rainfall by 300 millimetres (0.98 ft) annually. For its water the Darjeeling municipality and the surrounding hills depend to a large extent on perennial or seasonal jhora springs (see Map 1 ), especially during the pre-monsoon months from February to May. The Senchal Lakes , two artificial reservoirs built in 1910 and 1932 in
7931-513: The second half of the 19th century as seasonal labourers looking for work in road-building. As mountaineering in the Himalayas had gained popularity and Nepal was closed to foreigners, many Western mountaineers and enthusiasts came to Darjeeling to plan their Himalayan expeditions. The Sherpas stood out for their exceptional physical ability as porters. These physical abilities and their fitness elicited visits to Darjeeling by European biochemists in
8034-616: The son of the British Inspector-General of Police for Bengal. After the partition of India in 1947, Darjeeling became a part of the new province of West Bengal in the Dominion of India , and in 1950, of the state of West Bengal in the Republic of India . A British exodus from Darjeeling quickly followed. Their cottages were quickly purchased by the Indian upper classes from the plains who enrolled their children in
8137-403: The states are shared between the state government and the union government . On the other hand, the union territories are directly governed by the union government. The Indian Empire was a very complex political entity consisting of various imperial divisions and states and territories of varying autonomy. At the time of its establishment in 1876, it was made up of 584 constituent states and
8240-495: The states based on linguistic lines resulting in the creation of the new states. As a result of this act: Bombay State was split into the linguistic states of Gujarat and Maharashtra on 1 May 1960 by the Bombay Reorganisation Act. The former Union Territory of Nagaland achieved statehood on 1 December 1963. The Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966 resulted in the creation of Haryana on 1 November and
8343-521: The streets. In 2013, fresh agitation broke out in Darjeeling after Telangana , a region in southern India was granted statehood. Four years later, more agitation caused several months of violence, food shortages, and strikes in Darjeeling but resulted in the Morcha splitting into factions. In 2017, Mamata Banerjee , the West Bengal chief minister, appointed a moderate Morcha politician to leadership in
8446-476: The surrounding hillside and converted them to plantations, called tea gardens . Existing tracks and paths in the hills were improved, renamed as roads, and connected to the Hill Cart Road. The botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker , who visited Darjeeling in the 1840s, noted that carts and pack animals on these roads were bringing fruit and produce from Nepal, wool and salt from Tibet, and labourers looking for work from just about everywhere. The labour migrations created
8549-411: The surrounding landscape in such features as terraces that dip in their middle as a result of earlier horizontal pressure. Eroded fault scarps , or steps, observed in the landscape were caused by vertical slips in the faults below. Alluvial fans at different heights signify a succession of previous rivers that dried up and spread their silt outwards as their beds were raised by the uplift. According to
8652-423: The tea industry drastically changed the lives of the region's forest dwellers, who were either forced to relocate to other forests or become employed in their former habitat in new colonial occupations. To the mix of the forest dwellers recruited, more labourers joined from across the Himalayas. They communicated with each other in the Nepali language . Later the language, and their customs and traditions would create
8755-552: The territories of the princely states were politically integrated into the new Indian Union . Most were merged into existing provinces. Others were organised into new provinces and states , such as Rajasthan , Himachal Pradesh , Malwa Union , Baghelkhand and Bundelkhand States Union , and Patiala and East Punjab States Union , made up of multiple princely states. A few, including Mysore , Hyderabad , Bhopal , and Bilaspur , became separate states. The new Constitution of India , which came into force on 26 January 1950, made India
8858-537: The town's many schools. These actions created social and economic tensions with the Indian Gorkha population and further marginalised the latter. Their lack of economic development, caused by a hierarchal economic system set up by the British, continued in some respects in the immediate decades after 1947. The Indian nationalism that emerged seemed to highlight the unclear position of the Indian Nepalis in
8961-556: The town, where a wide variety of rare orchids are found. The Lloyd's Botanical Garden preserves common and rare species of plants, while the Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park specialises in conserving and breeding endangered Himalayan species. The town of Darjeeling and surrounding region face deforestation due to increasing demand for wood fuel and timber, as well as air pollution from increasing vehicular traffic. Forests and wildlife in
9064-775: The train made a descent to Darjeeling. Darjeeling was now within a day's travel from Calcutta. Education became another aspect of Darjeeling's notability by the turn of the 20th century. After the Charter Act of 1833 , which allowed unrestricted immigration, British women had begun to arrive in India in significantly more numbers than before. Hill stations became popular summer destinations for women and children as colonial physicians recommended them for improved maternal and infant health. The British soon began to consider hill stations promising sites for primary and secondary education. St Paul's , an Anglican boys' school in Calcutta,
9167-415: The transfer of the northern districts of Punjab to Himachal Pradesh . The act designated Chandigarh as a union territory and the shared capital of Punjab and Haryana. Madras State was renamed Tamil Nadu in 1969. The north-eastern states of Manipur , Meghalaya and Tripura were formed on 21 January 1972. Mysore State was renamed Karnataka in 1973. On 16 May 1975, Sikkim became the 22nd state of
9270-496: The valley near the Tukver Tea Estate . Kangchenjunga , the world's third-highest peak at 8,598 m (28,209 ft), which lies 74.4 kilometres (46.2 mi) to the north, is the most prominent mountain visible. The Darjeeling hills have been formed by accumulations of folds , faults and tangential thrusts caused by a compression in the north–south direction as the Indian tectonic plate has subducted under
9373-432: The world. After India's independence in 1947, as the British left Darjeeling, its cottages were purchased by wealthy Indians from the plains and its tea plantations by out-of-town Indian business owners and conglomerates. Darjeeling's population today is constituted largely of the descendants of the indigenous and immigrant labourers that were employed in the original development of the town. Although their common language ,
9476-454: Was 25,026 individuals (which was 21.1% of the population). Darjeeling began to be an "administrative" town in independent India after being made the headquarters of Darjeeling district in 1947. During the period 1961–2011, the town's population increased at an accelerated rate (Figure 1). An "aspirational middle class" arose, comprising families of professionals in the administration, and retail and service industries. " Indian Gorkha "
9579-509: Was 93.9%—the female literacy rate was 91.3% and the male was 96.4%. Among groups whose historical disadvantages have been recognized by the Constitution of India and designated for amelioration in subsequent commissions and programmes, the scheduled tribes of Darjeeling town constituted approximately 22.4% of the population, and the scheduled castes 7.7%. The work participation rate was 34.4%. The number of people living in slums
9682-429: Was comparatively higher. States and union territories of India India is a federal union comprising 28 states and 8 union territories , for a total of 36 entities. The states and union territories are further subdivided into 806 districts and smaller administrative divisions . The states of India are self-governing administrative divisions, each having a state government . The governing powers of
9785-535: Was established in Darjeeling in November 1954 A trickle of immigrants from Tibet poured into Darjeeling which had begun in the second half of the 19th century. Wealthy Tibetan aristocrats had sent their children to Darjeeling's schools, and some went on to settle in the Darjeeling area. After the annexation of Tibet by the People's Republic of China in 1950–1951, many Tibetans emigrated to India, with some settling in
9888-624: Was given geographical indication by the World Trade Organization as much for the protection of the brand as for the development of the region that produces it. At the time of the first British arrival, Darjeeling was known among its Lepcha inhabitants as Dorje-ling , or the "Place of the Thunderbolt ." According to the Oxford Concise Dictionary of World Place Names , Darjeeling is derived from
9991-506: Was given a special status and made an autonomous province. The Chamber of Princes was established by Emperor George V in 1920. One of the major consequences of this was the creation of many more agencies from the states of the provinces, thus granting them direct relations with the Emperor instead of with the Governors. This saw the separation of all the states from the provinces and addition to before-mentioned agencies. This left all
10094-414: Was identified as a potential summer retreat for British officials, soldiers and their families. The narrow mountain ridge was leased from the Kingdom of Sikkim , and eventually annexed to British India . Experimentation with growing tea on the slopes below Darjeeling was highly successful. Thousands of labourers were recruited chiefly from Nepal to clear the forests, build European-style cottages and work in
10197-695: Was moved to Darjeeling in 1864. The Catholic Church opened St Joseph's College for boys in Darjeeling in 1888. For girls, the Loreto Convent had already been established during Company rule; the Calcutta Christian Schools Society established the Queen's Hill School in Darjeeling in 1895. Anglo-Indians (of mixed British and Indian ancestry) were discouraged from attending the better-known schools and Indians were almost always prohibited until after World War I. In 1945, as
10300-500: Was observed in the Eastern Himalayas; the pH value in Darjeeling was measured at 4.2. A 2022 article quoting another 2016 study reported a pH value of 5.0±0.825 in the rainwater. According to a 2014 study, the influx of the excess population in the tea plantations around Darjeeling into "marginal areas of town—on backfill, slopes, septic tanks, and jhorās (springs)—has strapped the town’s colonial-era infrastructure. Despite building codes that prohibit buildings taller than three stories,
10403-403: Was reduced from 10.75 square kilometres (4.15 sq mi) to 7.43 square kilometres (2.87 sq mi) in 2011 after bifurcation. By 2016, the municipality was surrounded by tea gardens and forestry department land and had minimal room for expansion. In 2021 the town had approximately 22,000 households and 350 hotels and restaurants. That same year the following statistics were collected:
10506-537: Was renamed Odisha in 2011. Telangana was created on 2 June 2014 from ten former districts of north-western Andhra Pradesh . In August 2019, the Parliament of India passed the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 , which contains provisions to reorganise the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories; Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh , effective from 31 October 2019. Later that year in November,
10609-399: Was responsible to the provincial legislature. Bengal, Madras and Bombay which had been till now styled Presidencies, were now officially styled as provinces. The provinces of Orissa and Sind were created from Bihar and Bombay respectively. The Province of Burma which had previously functioned as an autonomous province of India was now separated from the Indian Empire, and established as
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