ALL ASSAM NEPALI STUDENT UNION

he total number of Nepalis who settled permanently in erstwhile Darrang district was much larger than in other parts of the state. For this reason, Tezpur, the head quarters of the district in comparison to other regions of Assam, had a substantial number of Nepali students. This situation, in course of time, obviously facilitated the Nepali students to forge unity for the purpose of formation of an organisation. The first Nepali students' organisation, Tezpur Gorkha Chhatra Sangha (Tezpur Gorkha Students' Union, TGSU), made its appearance on 13 November 1946.3 Mention may, however, be made that the Nepalese of Assam were largely influenced by the Nepali elite of other parts of India especially Darjeeling distrcit when the All India Gurkha League (1943) was formed there under the leadership of Dambarsingh Gurung. The primary objective of the All India Gurkha League (hereafter AIGL) was to organize the Nepalese living all over India and abroad for maintenance of their distinct identity. Thus being inspired by the AIGL, the Nepalese of Assam also began to organize themselves at the regional level as a result of which the Assam Provincial Gurkha League (hereafter APGL) was born in 1944 in Shillong. Truly speaking, the formation of the branches of the AIGL opened the door for the growth of Nepali organisations in the state. Further, it also provided a source of inspiration to the Nepali students community to be organized at the regional and local level as in the case of Tezpur Gorkha Chhatra Sangha (TGCS), which was purely regional in character as it confined its activities to Tezpur region. Like any other students' organisation ever since its birth the TGSU also intiated certain measures for educational and socio-cultural uplift of the Nepali students as well as their community. One such measure was to set up a Boarding House at Tezpur named Tezpur Gorkha Chhatrabas with the basic objective of providing residential accommodation to the students studying in different educational institutions of the town. Similarly they also exhorted their people to come forward for setting up educational institutions in the region for academic advancement.4 After India's independence, however, the TGSU seemed to have realized that a broad-based students-body was called for which ultimately culminated in the formation of a district Nepali students' union under the name and style of Darrang Gorkha Chhatra Sangha (Darrang Gorkha Students' Union, DGSU) in 1952. But after only three years of its formation, the Teliagaon (near Dhekiajuli) session of the DGSU held on December 24-25 of 1955, decided to use the word 'Nepali" replacing the word 'Gorkha' and rechristen it as Darrang Nepali Chhatra Sangha ('Darrang Nepali Students' Union' DNSU).5 As soon as the DNSU was formed, the TGSU got completely merged with the former and lost its independent existence because the TGSU leadership realized that in order to strengthen the organizational base, their activities needed to be intensified at the district level even at the cost of losing their separate identity. Initially, the DNSU adopted certain measures for academic upliftment of the community of the erstwhile Darrang district, such as holding of seminars, publication of magazines, establishment of libraries in order to protect the educational rights of the Nepali students and cultivate and develop the Nepali language and culture, etc.6 Interestingly, initially unlike a pressure group it did not exert pressure on the government for the implementation of their declared objectives. But soon enough they felt the need of the help of the ruling authority in order to make their mission a success. Some of the steps they took were the demand placed before the government for sanctioning a post of lecturer in Nepali at Darrang College, Tezpur in 1959, the demand for constitutional recognition of the Nepali language in 1972, recognition of the Nepali language by the Sahitya Akademi etc. Thus the DNSU gradually began to overcome its limited jurisdiction of function and it involved itself in the issues of common interest of the Nepalese of India in general.