Unsung heroes of the Hills

SILIGURI, 25 AUG: Leo Tolstoy once said that history is like a deaf man which goes on answering questions which nobody has asked. But history cannot be wished away. No matter whether it is “bunk” or not a la former US President Henry Ford, its importance can hardly be undermined. Yet, history is embarrassing, for it often points out unpalatable truths about us.

Today is the martyrdom day of Captain Durga Malla. He was one of the Prisoners of War, held captive and brought to “justice” by the colonial British government in India when the Second World War was continuing. Originally hailing from Kalimpong, he was recruited in the Indian National Army along with several other Indian Nepali soldiers.

He fought gallantly under the leadership of Netaji. Captain Malla was hanged in August 1944. Apart from Captain Malla, Dal Bahadur Thapa was another Indian Nepali soldier who was hanged for his INA “crime” in March 1945, a few months before the historic INA trial began in Delhi.
A statue of the martyr was unveiled at Hamiltongunj in the Dooars last year. His martyrdom anniversary is observed as Balidan Divas. But what is intriguing is that when the state government-GJMM bonhomie seems to have scaled astounding heights post-GTA agreement and the redoubtable GJMM president is being eulogised as the “Royal Bengal Tiger”, the Darjeeling district Trinamul Congress and Congress leadership do not seem to be even vaguely acquainted with the Durga Malla legacy. When reminded of the anniversary of the Hill martyr, the north Bengal development minister, Mr Goutam Deb, and the Siliguri mayor, Miss Gangotri Datta, pleaded ignorance. The same is the case with the Forward Bloc, which thrives on the Netaji legacy.
A senior Darjeeling district FB leader, Mr Smritish Bhattacharya, admitted that his party had never observed Durga Malla's martyrdom anniversary.

Ignorance is, perhaps, bliss as the proverb goes. Otherwise, we would remain clogged with “trash”. But the problem is that mere developmental politicking and cheap flattery cannot achieve things as far as emotional integration involving long estranged communities is concerned.

Assimilation through cultural empathy and interaction is more enduring, as Tagore and other Indian stalwarts have always stressed. The eminent historian associated with the North Bengal University, Dr Ananda Gopal Ghosh, did not sound surprised when told about the facts. “It is natural that the politicians do not know history. But what is pathetic is that most of them lack curiosity about the history of the region they claim to represent,” he said.

The Statesman