On 19th December 1946, at the Constituent Assembly Mr. Dambar Singh Gurung [Bengal General] spoke as follows;
“Mr. Chairman Sir, I stand here today as a only representative of 30 lakhs Gorkhas permanently domiciled in India. It is 30 lakhs near about the population of Sikh, still I am the solitary representative here in this House. I need not give any introduction as to who this Gorkhas are? They have made themselves sufficiently known to the World by their excellence fighting qualities. It has been proved to the hilt during last World War I and II they are the greatest fighting race in the World—- Sir, it has been very often said that the Gorkhas have been the stumbling block on the path to freedom it may be true if it is viewed from that angle of vision but it must always be remembered that especially in the military Department duty first and duty last and the discipline the most essential thing without which no nation can rule now in free India you will ask us to do the same thing as we were asked to do under the British Government if there be any disruptor of the Constitutionally established Government you will praise them for maintaining this discipline. Sir the problem of the Gorkhas is quite different they are scattered throughout India, it is only in the district of Darjeeling and the province of Assam that they are called concentrated to certain extent their number in these two areas is about 14 lakhs and the rest are scattered throughout the India they are very, very backward educationally and economically though we were made to do the dirtiest work in India for which we have been called even butcher by Indians though 100s and 1000s of Gorkhas lives were sacrificed to keep British rule in India and elsewhere. Nothing has been done by the British Government so far as for the uplift of the Gorkhas we have been very sadly neglected. Only at the time of war they remember the Gorkhas which has always been the policy of the British Government to keep us backward and ignorance so that we may be sacrificed anytime, anywhere by their like. The Gorkhas for apprehending whether the same policy will be followed by the Congress too. There is strong ground for this apprehension before the Election of Members to the Constituent Assembly, the All India Gorkha League approached the Congress High Command to give adequate representation to the Gorkhas too in the Constituent Assembly but our claim was totally ignored not a single seat given for 30 lakhs of Gorkhas whereas as many as 3 seats were given to the Anglo Indians whose population is 1 lakh and 42,000 in India, I do not think that Gorkhas will any more tolerate this kind of injustice I am very recently been to Nepal leading a delegation of All India Gorkha League to his Highness, the Maharaja of Nepal and I hope Nepal will not allow any such exploitation of the Gorkhas, Sir, the demand of Gorkhas that they must be recognised as a minority community and that they must have adequate representation in the advisory committee that is going to be formed when the Anglo Indians with only 1 lakh and 42,000 population they have been recognised as a minority community, the Scheduled Caste among the Hindus have been recognised as a separate community — I request the leaders to consider this very seriously. In spite of all these if Mr. Jinnah goes on throwing the challenge of Civil War I ask the Countrymen to accept the challenge and let us fight it out as far Gorkhas we will fight along with those who want one India and oppose those who want to divide it”
Comment: It may be recollected that Gorkha regiment was used by General Dyer in the Jaalianwala Bagh incident.