KALIMPONG- PAST AND PRESENT

(1700 to 2017)
(Journey from the Sikkimese Empire to Kalimpong District)

BY SANDIP C JAIN
(THE AUTHOR OF THIS ARTICLE IS THE EDITOR OF HIMALAYAN TIMES, KALIMPONG)

The present day area of the district of Kalimpong with an area of 401 square mile (1056 sq km)
was historically a part of the Sikkimese Empire. The Sikkimese Empire at that time was said to
extend from the Arun River in the West to the Taigon Pass in the East and from Tibet in the
North to Purnea in the South.

The word Kalimpong can be roughly translated in the Lepcha language as “Ridges where we play”.
This may have been due to the reason that during the rule of the Bhutanese, the officials from the
forts of Dalim and Damsang used to visit this hamlet every year to collect taxes on behalf of the
Bhutanese rulers. The locals are said to organize field sports and other entertainment events for
these Officials while they were here. Hence the name, Kalimpong- meaning the ridges where we
play. The Tibetan translation of the word Kalimpong roughly translates in “stockade of king’s
ministers”, kolon in Tibetan meaning the high ranking ministers in the Dalai Lama government in
Lhasa and pong meaning stockade. Others interpret the word as “Black spurs” and also as the
“place where the plant kaulim grows”.

Kalimpong does not have a very long history- in fact this is just the 151th year of its incorporation
into the Indian Union. Although its history is fairly short, it certainly has more dramas than a town
of its size should have had.
In the year 1700, the Maharaja of Sikkim, Tensung Namgye (born 1644), died leaving behind
three wives and four children. The first wife, called Nyem-bi-enmo, bore him a daughter named
Pende Amo, the second wife was from a family near Tinki-jong to the North West of Sikkim and
was named Desa-Sam-Serpa. The second wife bore him a son Chakdor Namgye (the future king).
The third wife was a local Limbu Princess who had two children, a son named Shalno Guru and a
daughter named Pendi Tchering Gyenu.

On his death in 1700, a tussle broke out within the family as to who should be proclaimed the new
ruler of Sikkim- Pende Amo, staked claim to the throne on the basis of she being the eldest child
of the family and also because her mother was the first wife of the former king but Chakdor
Namgye, the oldest son of the king, though from his second wife, was crowned the king at the
tender age of fourteen. Chakdor Namgye was the third king of the Chogyal dynasty. This angered
the daughter who facilitated an invasion of Sikkim by the Bhutanese Army. The Deb Raja of
Bhutan, Deb Naku Zidar, sent a force to Sikkim under his renowned General Nawang Thinley
and Dewan Phenlai, who overran Sikkim and seized the palace at Rabdense. The child king fled
Sikkim and entered Tibet via Illam in Nepal, where he stayed for a couple of years. It is believed
that during his stay in Tibet he studied intensely and soon gained the respect and favours of the 6 th
Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso, who was the ruler of Tibet at that time. The Dalai Lama also
allotted a few villages to the Sikkimese king which remained with the Sikkimese rulers for the next
two centuries. On coming of age, he with the help of the Tibetans raised a small army and
succeeded in pushing the Bhutanese out of a portion of what was his rightful empire. Of course
the Bhutanese version is that the Bhutanese made a voluntary retreat due to internal turmoil and
power struggle in Bhutan. Most historians generally agree that it was in the year 1707 that Chakdor
Namgye came back to Sikkim. Though the Bhutanese were forced to withdraw from the right
bank of the River Teesta, they still continued to control the area on the left bank.

The area from which the Bhutanese withdrew is roughly the area of present day Sikkim and where
the Bhutanese continued to remain, is roughly the area of present day Kalimpong.

The precise dates of the Bhutanese occupation and their partial withdrawal are still not too clear
with scholars differing on the exact years. But most historians agree that it was between1700 and
1707.

This was the circumstance under which the present day area of Kalimpong came under the
Bhutanese. But it is believed that although, technically the area was under Bhutan, the local
Lepcha chieftains actually held sway over the area. The Bhutanese put the present day area of
Kalimpong under the administration of the fort of Damsong, which was under the control of the
Zongpen (Commander) of Dalim fort. The Bhutanese Officer at Damsong was titled as Neibu
(Fort in-charge). Kalimpong contained to be under the Bhutanese empire for the next 160 years till
1865, after which the British annexed it into the British Empire along with the “athara duars”,
after the Anglo-Bhutan War and the Treaty of Sinchula. It was only following the annexation by
the British that Kalimpong set into the tracks of development.

Initially after the annexation, Kalimpong was put under the Deputy Commissioner of Western
Duars District but a year later in 1866 it was transferred to the district of Darjeeling. Kalimpong
was administered under the Sadar Sub-Division (Darjeeling Sub-Division) with a manager of “Khas
Mahals” working under the Deputy Commissioner. Police work was controlled by an Inspector.

Although Kalimpong was annexed into British India in 1865, it remained in relative obscurity,
anonymity and in the wilderness for the next two decades. There was almost no mention of this
town in almost any official records or private documents during this period. Probably the lack of a
substantial amount of population in this hilly tract of land was the reason for the neglect and for
the lack of attention by the then rulers. This was all set to change by the mid 1880s with the
coming of the Scottish Christian Missionaries into Kalimpong. Their zeal to work for the people of
this newly acquired region coupled by their aspirations to spread the word of Christ, resulted in
Kalimpong suddenly being propelled into the road of development. The work that Rev.
Sutherland, Rev. Macfarlane, Dr. Graham and his wife Katherine Graham and others did and
their constant representations to the Government for the various development works that needed
to be done in Kalimpong saw the town slowly come into prominence as well as acquire the
necessary infrastructures required for a modern town. By 1916 it had become important enough
and big enough to be upgraded into a sub-division.

Although it was the efforts of the Christian missionaries which initiated the development of
Kalimpong as well as creating all the infrastructure that a modern town required, it was the opening
of the India-Tibet Trade through the Chumbi Valley that actually brought this little town to
National and International prominence. This happened after Col. Younghusband forced his way
into Lhasa in the year 1904 and compelled the Tibetan Government to sign a treaty. One of the
main purposes of this expedition was the opening up of Tibet for trade and commerce with the
outside world, mainly British India. Kalimpong offered the most direct and all weather route to the
Chumbi Valley via the Jelep-la. Very soon this once quaint little town was converted into the
bustling nerve center of trade between India and Tibet. Traders for across India and Tibet started
making a beeline for Kalimpong to take part in this cross-border trade which came with huge
amounts of adventure and considerable profits. Flocks of Marwari, Tibetan, Chinese and Newari
traders thronged Kalimpong and made it their operating base as well as their new homes in order
to cash in on the profits that the newly opened cross-border trade racked in. The newly opened
trade required a huge influx of skilled and unskilled labour to take care of the import and export
of goods. This increased the population of the town drastically with people of all back grounds
congregating into Kalimpong making it their new home. Kalimpong became so prominent during
that period that for the lay masses in Tibet, Kalimpong and India became synonymous. For them
Kalimpong and India meant one and the same place. Kalimpong was definitely one of the most
famous and popular small towns in India at those times.

Soon after the area was opened up for trade with Tibet it became a playground of a different
nature- this turned into a playground for the rich and famous, the king and nobles, the scholars
and historians, the lamas and the bhikshus, the spies and the renegades, traders and the
missionaries…. It became a place of mystery and intrigue, it became a place of trade and studies
and it became a place of conspiracies and religion. Its connections were such that very few towns of
this little size could boast of.. it can brag of its association with the King of Bhutan, the King of
Nepal, the King of Burma, the Prince of Greece and Denmark, the Prince and Princess of
Afghanistan, the Dalai Lama, the King of Sikkim and his daughter who was the wife of Raja
S.T.Dorji, the Queen of Bhutan who was the daughter of Raja S.T.Dorje and the Kazi and
Kazinee of Sikkim. It can bask in the glory of having associations with Gurudev Rabindra Nath
Tagore, Vinoda Bhave, Indira Gandhi and Jahawarlal Nehru.

Unfortunately like all good things, this had to end too. The start of the Indo-Sino War in 1962 saw
the forced closure of this trade route through Kalimpong and all trade between India and Tibet
through Kalimpong came to a grinding halt. The good times and Kalimpong’s privileged place
under the sun was all set to be over. And over it was. With it’s over reliance on the cross border
trade, Kalimpong had almost neglected the need to develop other industries like the education,
tourism and the local handicraft industries. The closure of the trade route came as a shock to this
town and it was rudely jolted out of its false sense of financial security. It was like the billionaire
suddenly becoming the pauper. And with this many of those who had milked the once rich trade
cow started to migrate out of Kalimpong, like rats abandoning a sinking ship, leaving it to the
mercy of the big bad world outside the bubble that Kalimpong had created for itself.

In the next two decades Kalimpong faded into the background while its sister towns in the region
gained in prominence and fame. The crumbling infrastructure and the remains of the old world
edifices gave it the look of a place which had seen better times. Then came the mid 1980s and the
creation of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) after a violent two year agitation for the
separate state Gorkhaland. Kalimpong was included in the new administrative set up and saw its
share of infrastructural growth. The creation of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA)
in 2011 saw Kalimpong once again being included in it. Although political and socially Kalimpong
was one with the rest of the Darjeeling District, there was always a growing amount of disillusion
and resentment amongst the people of Kalimpong against what they considered “administrative
apathy” towards this town. A feeling of disenchantment, rightly or wrongly, crept up steadily against
the Darjeeling based District and GTA administration. This was further magnified when political
leaders based in Darjeeling made a few demeaning and humiliating speeches against the people
and leadership of Kalimpong. This fueled the demand for the separation of Kalimpong from the
District of Darjeeling. The political leadership in West Bengal, for whatever reasons,
acknowledged this resentment and this year, on the 14th of February, Kalimpong sub-division was
upgraded into a District making it the 21st District in the State of West Bengal clearing the way for
further infrastructural development of this town.

The former District of Darjeeling comprised of four sub divisions- Darjeeling, Kurseong, Siliguri
and Kalimpong with Kalimpong being the largest of the four sub-divisions with an area of 1056
square km. The total area of the former Darjeeling District was 3149 square km which meant that
the sub division of Kalimpong occupied more than one-third of the total land mass in the District
of Darjeeling. Though collecting data on the size of sub-divisions in West Bengal for the sake of
comparing the size of sub-divisions proved a very tedious affair, it may be claimed with much
authority that Kalimpong was definitely one of the largest sub-divisions in the State. With three
Blocks(Kalimpong 1, Kalimpong 2 and Gorubathan), 42 Gram Panchayats(Kalimpong 1-18 gram
Panchayats, Kalimpong 2- 13 Gram Panchayats and Gorubathan- 11 Gram Panchayats),
Kalimpong was a huge sub- division even by National Standards. Considering the remoteness of
the far flung areas under the former Kalimpong sub-division, it was a logistic nightmare for the
administrators based in the town of Kalimpong. There are places like Todaay and Tangta which
are almost a full day’s drive away. Even places like Tinsimana in the Neora National Park, which is
the border between Bhutan, Sikkim and West Bengal fell in the sub division of Kalimpong and it
is about two days of walking from Lava, the nearest hamlet. Even in this age and time of
technology, EVMs, superior road connectivity etc etc, there were places in the sub division of
Kalimpong where Polling Parties who conduct Elections, had to leave two days in advance just to
set up the infrastructure to conduct the Polls. As per Election Department published documents
there were18 booths in the former Kalimpong sub division where the Polling Party had to be
deployed on P-2 (means two days in advance). The furthest Polling Station from Kalimpong town
being Tangta Primary School, which is 156km by vehicle and then a further 10 km by foot. The
plight of people staying in these areas is pathetic to say the least- imagine yourself living in Tangta
and having to correct a small mistake in your Ration Card or having to renew your Driving
License. It takes you one day to come to Kalimpong, one day to get your work done and one day
to return. Ok maybe you can return back the second day but even then, it’s a total waste of two full
days and to cap it, it involves staying over in Kalimpong overnight. This fact is being pointed out
only just to bring out the vastness and remoteness of this former sub-division. It was felt that had
Kalimpong been a district with maybe two or three sub divisions under it, then things would have
been so much more easier. The former sub-division of Kalimpong literally starts from Sikkim and
ends in Bhutan. The area of Kalimpong boarders four Districts- three in Sikkim, and Jalpaiguri- I
may be wrong but my assumption is that no other sub-division in West Bengal could stake claim to
such a unique position. Considering this very fact, Kalimpong was a fit case for being upgraded
into a District.

Consider all the positives that will emerge out of Kalimpong being upgraded into a District- 1.
Consider all the job opportunities that will be thrown up- At least several hundred Government
jobs will be created and probably an equal number of private job opportunities. 2. Consider the
time that will be saved by Kalimpong residents not having to commute to Darjeeling for every
single petty work at the District Headquarters. 3. Consider not having to go to Darjeeling several
times just to attend a hearing at the District Court. 4. Consider the increased funding that will
come into Kalimpong. The list is endless and considering all the above, the up gradation of
Kalimpong into a new District was a push in the right direction.

West Bengal is a medium sized State in India- out of the 29 states in India; it is about 14th in order
of size. Immediately after Independence, West Bengal was formed with 11 districts out of which
Darjeeling was one. In 1950 Cooch Behar was made into a District, in 1956 Purulia was formed,
In 2002, Midnapur was divided into East and West Midnapur, in 1986, 24 Pargana was bifurcated
into North and South Districts and like-wise in 1992, North and South Dinajpur were
reconstitutes as two different Districts. The last District to be made in West Bengal before
Kalimpong was of course next door Alipurduar just last year. With the creation of Kalimpong as a
District now West Bengal has 21 Districts and has a total of 72 sub divisions. This means that the
average size of a District in West Bengal is about 4435 square km which is far larger than the
present size of Kalimpong district. But then Districts in the States of Indian are created for the
sake of Administrative convenience not on the basis of size. In fact Kalimpong District is definitely
not the smallest District in West Bengal. Districts like Kolkata and Howrah are smaller in size to
the new District of Kalimpong. The new District Alipurduar is actually just slightly larger than the
area of present day district of Kalimpong.

Kalimpong has been fairly unique in many ways and has always been that spark that kick started
almost all events, whether Political, Social, Literary or Intellectual, in the Hills of Darjeeling. Its
uniqueness stems from the fact that Kalimpong has had a past very unlike Darjeeling or Kurseong.
Darjeeling and Kurseong and most other parts of the present day District Darjeeling, except
Kalimpong district, have their history linked to Sikkim and Nepal while Kalimpong has its history
linked with Bhutan. It was only after the Anglo- Bhutanese War of 1864 and the subsequent
Treaty of Sinchula that Kalimpong became a part of British India while Darjeeling and Kurseong
had already been incorporated into the British India Empire thirty years earlier. After being
annexed from Bhutan, Kalimpong was actually put under the Western Duars District and only
later was Kalimpong merged into the District Darjeeling. In fact even after being merged into the
District of Darjeeling, there were several rules and regulations which were unique only to
Kalimpong. Several sets of rules and regulations which were applicable in Darjeeling were not
applicable to Kalimpong. Even the British Rulers of that time had realized the uniqueness of
Kalimpong.

In present days too, Kalimpong has retained its exclusivity as well as its reputation as the Engine of
the Darjeeling Hills. It is still the place wherefrom most intellects, artists and ideas come out. It is
still the place wherefrom most of the creativity in the Hills of Darjeeling emerges. It is still the
place which sustains all Political agitations and activities in the Hills of Darjeeling.

The creation of Kalimpong District is a step in the right direction and it can be assumed that much
development will now take place. The long due development demands of this town can be
expected to be addressed promptly and more compassionately now without the erstwhile long
serpentine process of being routed through the District Magistrates office in Darjeeling. All this
can only argue well for the future Hills of Darjeeling of which Kalimpong was, is and always be a
part of.

What has to be kept in mind by the rest of the Hills of Darjeeling is that Kalimpong has separated
from them only so far as the District administration is concerned. In all other respects, Kalimpong
is one with the rest of them.