The people of Nepali origin living in Gorkha Nagar face a perpetual crisis of identity as a result of their condition of marginalization amidst the vast majority of the natives of Jammu. As is common with people distanced from their indigenous land, they realize two kinds of problems. First, they are in minority, their population being only about 5000 individuals according to a resident — a record formidably small compared to the population of the city of Jammu. Second, they are experiencing a gradual loss of their cultural originality as a consequence of the shift from old values — Nepali language and culture — into the local way of life. The older generation of Nepalis, the initial settlers, have almost passed away leaving the new generation to cope with the ways of the natives. As old values are slowly evaporating, they have been caught between being Nepalis or Indians. Dogri, the local language, has dominated their Nepali all in diction, grammar and accent as a result of the lack of connection to Nepal. Because this part of India is a less chosen destination for Nepalese from Nepal than the eastern and southern parts, and because hardly any of these settlers frequents Nepal, the survivors of the earlier generation are worried that the new generation will forget their identity as Nepalis in the days to come. Guided by this consciousness of fading identity, they are putting all their efforts to secure Gorkha Nagar as a different name, as it always was. They have formed an association with a name J&K Gorkha Sabha. This association has two significant responsibilities: to supervise internal affairs of the community and to take care of the legal and administrative liabilities of the residents. It is an optimistic development and indicates that Gorkha Nagar as a place will continue to retain its name even though the Gorkhalis may be further assimilated into the local way of life. Hybridity in language and culture, a characteristic of their life at present, may have been accepted as a conditional transformation, but they are not prepared to accept division of any kind. They are bound together by an inflexible spirit of unity. They have abolished caste system within the community realizing its dividing impact with a notion that there is only one caste — the Nepalese. Despite such internal reformations, however, the condition of being in scanty minority has haunted them continuously. But, if they retain unity, the problem of maintaining identity may be solved in course of time.
(This is a sample work for an argumentative essay following Stephen Toulmin’s model.)
