World Notes India

Darjeeling, an Indian district in the Himalayan foothills, is home to some of the world's best tea. It is also home to 600,000 Gurkhas, an ethnic group that has feelings of second-class citizenship. They have mobilized under the % leadership of the Gurkha National Liberation Front to seek an autonomous state within India.

To reinforce these de- mands, G.N.L.F. Leader Subash Ghising has ordered strikes and violent protests that have led to 19 deaths this summer and huge losses in the tea industry. Says he: "We will lay down our lives but not give up our demands for a separate land and identity."

Gurkha soldiers, renowned as some of the world's most valiant fighters, have been deployed in recent years to quell disorders arising from militant Sikh demands for an independent state. Today Sikh soldiers patrol Darjeeling to prevent further Gurkha agitation.