(This piece was first published on 19 June 2021 and has been updated based on recent political developments in the West Bengal BJP with regard to statehood demands by their leaders for the state's North Bengal and Junglemahal regions.)
At first glance, Riya Tamang looks like any other teenage girl. She is dressed in a simple jeans and tee, but manages to make it look like high-fashion. When this reporter met her, at a Maggi and chai shop next to a rock-climbing spot in Darjeeling, Riya was sitting at the cash counter, carefully straightening her hair, ensuring that her green and purple highlights gain the prominence they deserve.
Nineteen-year-old Riya lost her father, a municipal official, in 2017 when massive violence broke out in the Darjeeling hills, resurfacing an almost century-long demand of the Gorkha people in the region – that of a separate Gorkha state – Gorkhaland. Since then, Riya, whose parents had separated earlier, became the sole breadwinner of her family, consisting of her 15-year-old brother and 82-year-old grandmother. The need for money made her drop out of school and move to Mumbai where she now works at a salon. Riya admits that she doesn't understand politics at all. What she does understand, however, is that the only place she feels safe is in the hills, with "her people", who don't call her "Manipuri" or "chinky" or "momo" like the ones in Mumbai. Or even Kolkata.