The ancient inhabitants of Darjeeling are the
Lepcha and
Limbu. Most of Darjeeling formed a part of dominions of the
Chogyal of Sikkim, who had been engaged in an unsuccessful warfare against the
Gorkhas of Nepal. From 1780, the Gorkhas made several attempts to capture the entire region of Darjeeling. By the beginning of the 19th century, they had overrun Sikkim as far eastward as the
Teesta River and had conquered and annexed the entire
Terai. In the meantime, the British were engaged in preventing the Gorkhas from over-running the whole of the northern frontier. The
Anglo-Gorkha war broke out in 1814, which resulted in the defeat of the Gorkhas and subsequently led to the signing of the
Sugauli Treaty in 1815. According to the treaty,
Nepal had to cede all those territories which the Gorkhas had annexed from the Chogyal of Sikkim to the British East India Company (i.e., the area between
Mechi River and Teesta River). In 1817, through the
Treaty of Titalia, the
British East India Company reinstated the Chogyal of Sikkim, restored all the tracts of land between the Mechi and the Teesta rivers to the Chogyal of Sikkim and guaranteed his sovereignty. In 1835, the hill of Darjeeling, including an enclave of , was given to the British East India Company by Sikkim. In November 1864, the
Treaty of Sinchula was executed in which the
Bhutan Dooars with the passes leading into the hills and
Kalimpong were ceded to the British by
Bhutan. The Darjeeling district can be said to have assumed its present shape and size in 1866 with an area of 1234 sq. miles. Before 1861 and from 1870 to 1874, Darjeeling District was a "Non-Regulated Area" (where acts and regulations of the
British Raj did not automatically apply in the district in line with rest of the country, unless specifically extended). From 1862 to 1870, it was considered a "Regulated Area". The phrase "Non-Regulated Area" was changed to "Scheduled District" in 1874 and again to "Backward Tracts" in 1919. The status was known as "Partially Excluded Area" from 1935 until the
independence of India. On 14 February 2017,
Kalimpong district was carved out of Darjeeling district.
Gorkhaland Movement During the 1980s, the
Gorkha National Liberation Front led an intensive and often violent campaign for the creation of a separate
Gorkhaland state within India, across the
Nepali-speaking areas in northern West Bengal. The movement reached its peak around 1986–1988 but ended with the establishment of the
Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council in 1988. The hill areas of Darjeeling enjoyed some measure of autonomy under the
Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council. However, the demand for full statehood within India has emerged once again, with the
Gorkha Janmukti Morcha as its chief proponent. The
Gorkhaland Territorial Administration replaced the DGHC in August 2012 after the GJM signed an agreement with the government. ==Geography==