Political machinations in India’s West Bengal state are threatening the Lepchas, or so they feel, and they are responding, characteristically, with peaceful protests. The Telegraph, a major Indian newspaper, described the dispute on Wednesday last week. The issue revolves around the overall management of the Mayel Lyang Lepcha Development Board (MLLDB), which Mamata Banerjee, Chief […]

A sit-down strike begun in April by 46 Lepcha paraprofessional teachers protesting their treatment by Gorkha authorities in India’s West Bengal State ended peacefully last week when a face-saving compromise was announced. The strike by the teachers, called a dharna in India, had been in effect for 109 days. They were pleased to receive a […]

The Lepchas are confronting the authorities in India’s West Bengal state over their right to have their language taught in the local schools. The controversy, covered in the Indian news media over the past month, echoes the even more serious conflicts of two years ago when the Lepchas sought to dramatize the discrimination they suffered […]