New Delhi, March 8 -- Socio-political life of 'New India' is characterized by a woven web of ethnic demands, but not many communities can find their way through conditions of such contradiction as the Gorkhas of India. In the Indian imaginary, the Gorkhas are placed in a paradoxical position of the "Bravest of Brave" in the war front to defend the nation, yet viewed as a "perpetual migrant" or a "foreigner" in the civil and administrative spheres.

The dehumanizing racist slurs that tend to mark Gorkhas in India tend to cast their right to exist in their own Pritibhumi and Punyabhumi of India. Racist epithets like Chinky, Nepali, Chinese, Momo, etc. are not just offensive words but are used to signal that the Gorkha is an "Other" or an "A...