Deo Prakash Rai

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Deo Prakash Rai (December 1926 – 1981) was an Indian politician. A former Gorkha Brigade soldier, he was the general secretary of the All India Gorkha League and was made a minister in the West Bengal state government in 1967, 1969 and 1971.

Youth[edit]

Rai was born at Tukvar Tea Estate in Darjeeling in December 1926.[1] He was the son of K.S. Sotang.[1] He went to school at the Arung School of Education, obtaining a Higher English Certificate of Education.[1]

Soldier[edit]

Rai served in the Gorkha Brigade for three years during the Second World War.[1][2] He reached the rank of colour sergeant.[3] In 1950, he was arrested in Malaya and deported, having been denounced as a "communist agent" by John Cross, chief instructor of the new Army School of Education (Gurkhas).[3][4][5]

In politics and trade unionism[edit]

Rai was general secretary of the All India Gorkha League.[6] In 1946, the Communist Party of India (CPI) proposed the notion of creating a "Gorkhasthan", merging Nepal, south Sikkim and the Darjeeling hills.[6] The CPI tried to convince the Gorkha League to support the Gorkhasthan proposal, but Rai categorically opposed it.[6] As a trade unionist, he was the founder of Darjeeling Chiya Kaman Shramik Sangha.[1] He was patron of the Darjeeling Cultural Institute.[1] As an author, he wrote many poems and short stories in the Nepali language.[1]

Legislator[edit]

Rai represented the Darjeeling constituency in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly from 1957 until his death.[7]

Minister[edit]

Rai was named Minister for Scheduled Castes and Tribes Welfare in the 1967 and 1969 United Front governments of West Bengal.[2][7][8] He was again named as Minister in the 1971 state government, now in charge of Scheduled Castes Tribal Welfare and Tourism.[2][9]

For a quarter of a century, Rai was the dominant politician in the Darjeeling hills.[10] He received criticism from within his own community, which accused him of having entered into a secret pact with the state government in Calcutta.[10] While Raj was a minister in three successive state cabinets, no progress on administrative autonomy for the Darjeeling hills was made.[9]

1977 election[edit]

At the time of the 1977 elections, Rai was weakened by illness.[6]

Rai died in 1981.[10] After his death, his party was weakened and more militant factions such as Pranta Parishad and the Gorkha National Liberation Front came to dominate the political field in the hills.[11]

References[edit]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 West Bengal (India). Legislature. Legislative Assembly (1974). Who's who 1972: General Election, March 1972. West Bengal Legislative Assembly Secretariat. p. 67.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 India Who's who. INFA Publications. 2000. p. 156.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 The Call of Nepal. Educational Enterprises. 1996. p. 52.
  4. ↑ Tony Gould (1999). Imperial warriors: Britain and the Gurkhas. Granta Books. p. 335. ISBN 978-1-86207-284-8.
  5. ↑ The Times of India Directory and Year Book Including Who's who. Bennett, Coleman & Company. 1968. p. 932.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Amiya K. Samanta (2000). Gorkhaland Movement: A Study in Ethnic Separatism. APH Publishing. pp. 90, 99. ISBN 978-81-7648-166-3.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Communist Party of India (Marxist). West Bengal State Committee. Election results of West Bengal: statistics & analysis, 1952–1991. The Committee. pp. 379–380, 460.
  8. ↑ Ranabir Samaddar (13 December 2005). The Politics of Autonomy: Indian Experiences. SAGE Publications. p. 182. ISBN 978-81-321-0364-6.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Raṇabīra Samāddāra; Helmut Reifeld; Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (1 June 2001). Peace as process: reconciliation and conflict resolution in South Asia. Manohar Publishers & Distributors. p. 270. ISBN 978-81-7304-397-0.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Romit Bagchi (13 June 2012). Gorkhaland: Crisis of Statehood. SAGE Publications. p. 108. ISBN 978-81-321-1680-6.
  11. ↑ Maitreyee Choudhury (2008). Himalayan Studies in India. Mittal Publications. p. 94. ISBN 978-81-8324-196-0.
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