Indian politician
Deo Prakash Rai (December 1926 – 1981) was an Indian politician. A former Gorkha Brigade soldier, he was the general secretary of the All India Gorkha League and was made a minister in the West Bengal state government in 1967, 1969 and 1971.
Youth
Rai was born at Tukvar Tea Estate in Darjeeling in December 1926.[1] He was the son of K.S. Sotang.[1] He went to school at the Arung School of Education, obtaining a Higher English Certificate of Education.[1]
Soldier
Rai served in the Gorkha Brigade for three years during the Second World War.[1][2] He reached the rank of colour sergeant.[3] In 1950, he was arrested in Malaya and deported, having been denounced as a "communist agent" by John Cross, chief instructor of the new Army School of Education (Gurkhas).[3][4][5]
In politics and trade unionism
Rai was general secretary of the All India Gorkha League.[6] In 1946, the Communist Party of India (CPI) proposed the notion of creating a "Gorkhasthan", merging Nepal, south Sikkim and the Darjeeling hills.[6] The CPI tried to convince the Gorkha League to support the Gorkhasthan proposal, but Rai categorically opposed it.[6] As a trade unionist, he was the founder of Darjeeling Chiya Kaman Shramik Sangha.[1] He was patron of the Darjeeling Cultural Institute.[1] As an author, he wrote many poems and short stories in the Nepali language.[1]
Legislator
Rai represented the Darjeeling constituency in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly from 1957 until his death.[7]
Minister
Rai was named Minister for Scheduled Castes and Tribes Welfare in the 1967 and 1969 United Front governments of West Bengal.[2][7][8] He was again named as Minister in the 1971 state government, now in charge of Scheduled Castes Tribal Welfare and Tourism.[2][9]
For a quarter of a century, Rai was the dominant politician in the Darjeeling hills.[10] He received criticism from within his own community, which accused him of having entered into a secret pact with the state government in Calcutta.[10] While Raj was a minister in three successive state cabinets, no progress on administrative autonomy for the Darjeeling hills was made.[9]
1977 election
At the time of the 1977 elections, Rai was weakened by illness.[6]
Rai died in 1981.[10] After his death, his party was weakened and more militant factions such as Pranta Parishad and the Gorkha National Liberation Front came to dominate the political field in the hills.[11]
References