Deo Prakash Rai

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

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

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

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

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

Minister

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

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

1. West Bengal (India). Legislature. Legislative Assembly (1974). Who's who 1972: General Election, March 1972. West Bengal Legislative Assembly Secretariat. p. 67.
2. India Who's who. INFA Publications. 2000. p. 156.
3. 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. Amiya K. Samanta (2000). Gorkhaland Movement: A Study in Ethnic Separatism. APH Publishing. pp. 90, 99. ISBN 978-81-7648-166-3.
7. Communist Party of India (Marxist). West Bengal State Committee. Election results of West Bengal: statistics & analysis, 1952–1991. The Committee. pp. 379–380, 460. ISBN 978-81-7626-028-2.
8. Ranabir Samaddar (13 December 2005). The Politics of Autonomy: Indian Experiences. SAGE Publications. p. 182. ISBN 978-81-321-0364-6.
9. 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. 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.