8/14/2019 Nepali Times Article on Sikkim

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3333323 - 29 MARCH 2001NEPALI TIMES

L E T T E R S

ing Palden ThondupNamgyal, the Chogyal ofSikkim was in his palace on

the morning of 6 April, 1975

when the roar of army trucksclimbing the steep streets ofGangtok brought him running tothe window. There were Indiansoldiers everywhere, they hadsurrounded the palace, and shortrapid bursts of machine gun firecould be heard. Basanta KumarChhetri, a 19-year-old guard atthe palaces main gate, was struckby a bullet and killedthe firstcasualty of the takeover. The5,000-strong Indian force didnttake more than 30 minutes tosubdue the palace guards whonumbered only 243. By 12.45 it

was all over, Sikkim ceased toexist as an independent kingdom.

Captured palace guards, handsraised high were packed intotrucks and taken away, singing:Dela sil, li gi, gang changkachibso (may my country keepblooming like a flower). But bythe, the Indian tri-colour hadreplaced the Sikkimese flag at thepalace where the 12th king of theNamgyal dynasty was heldprisoner. The Chogyal was agreat believer in India. He hadhuge respect for Mahatma Gnadhiand Jawaharlal Nehru. Not in his

wildest dreams did he think Indiawould ever swallow up hiskingdom, recalls Captain Sonam

Yongda, the Chogyals aide-de-camp. Nehru himself had told

25 years after

SIKKIMjournalist Kuldip Nayar in 1960:Taking a small country like Sikkimby force would be like shooting a fly

with a rifle. Ironically it wasNehrus daughter Indira Gandhi

who cited national interest tomake Sikkim the 22nd state in theIndian union.

In the years leading up to the1975 annexation, there wasenough evidence that all was not

well in relations between New

Delhi and Gangtok. The seedswere sown as far back as 1947after India gained independence,

when the Sikkim State Congressstarted an anti-monarchistmovement to introducedemocracy, end feudalism andmerge with India. We went toDelhi to talk to Nehru aboutthese demands, recalls CD Rai, arebel leader. He told us, wellhelp you with democracy andgetting rid of feudalism, but donttalk about merger now.Relenting to pressure from pro-democracy supporters, the 11thChogyal was forced to include Raiin a five-member council ofministers, to sign a one-sidedtreaty with India which wouldeffectively turn Sikkim into anIndian protectorate, and allowthe stationing of an Indianpolitical officer in Gangtok.

As a leader of internationalstature with an anti-imperialistrole on the world stage, Nehrudid not want to be seen to bebullying small neighbours in hisown backyard. But by 1964Nehru had died and so had the11th Chogyal, Sir Tashi Namgyal.There was a new breed of youngand impatient political peopleemerging in Sikkim and things

were in ferment. The plotthickened when Kaji Lendup

Dorji (also known as LD Kaji) ofthe Sikkim National Congress,

who had an ancestral feud withthe Chogyals family, entered thefray. By 1973, New Delhi wasopenly supporting the KajisSikkim National Congress.Pushed into a corner, the newChogyal signed a tripatriteagreement with political partiesand India under which there wasfurther erosion of his powers. LDKajis Sikkim National Congress

won an overwhelming majority inthe 1974 elections, and within a

year the cabinet passed a billasking for the Chogyals removal.The house sought a referendum,during which the decision wasendorsed. That was a charade,says KC Pradhan, who was thenminister of agriculture. The

voting was directed by theIndian military.

Indias Chief Executive inGangtok wrote: Sikkims merger

was necessary for Indian nationalinterest. And we worked to thatend. Maybe if the Chogyal hadbeen smarter, and played his cardsbetter, it wouldnt have turnedout the way it did.

It is also said that the real battlewas not between the Chogyal andKaji Lendup Dorji, but betweentheir wives. On one side was QueenHope Cook, the American wife ofthe Chogyal and on the other wasthe Belgian wife of the Kaji, Elisa-Maria Standford. This was a proxy

war between the American and theBelgian, says former chief minister,BB Gurung. But there was a third

woman involved: Indira Gandhi inNew Delhi.

Chogyal Palden met the 24-year-old New Yorker, Hope Cook,in Darjeeling in 1963 and married

her. For Cook, this was a dreamcome true: to become the queen ofan independent kingdom inShangrila. She started taking themessage of Sikkimese independenceto the youth, and the allegationsstarted flying thick and fast that she

was a CIA agent. These were thecoldest years of the Cold War, andthere was a tendency in India to seea foreign hand behind everything

so it was not unusual for theAmerican queen to be labelled aCIA agent. However, as HopeCooks relations with Delhideteriorated, so did her marriage

with the Chogyal. In 1973, she tookher two children and went back toNew York. She hasnt returned toSikkim since.

Then there was Elisa-Maria,daughter of a Belgian father andGerman mother who left herScottish husband in Burma andmarried LD Kaji in Delhi in 1957.The two couldnt have been moredifferent. Elisa-Maria wanted tobe Sikkims First Lady, but HopeCook stood in the way. Shedidnt just want to be the wife ofan Indian chief minister, she

wanted to be the wife of theprime minister of an independentSikkim. With that kind of anambition, it was not surprisingthat with annexation, neitherHope Cook nor Elisa-Maria got

what they wanted.Meanwhile in New Delhi,

Indira Gandhi was going fromstrength to strength, and India

was flexing its muscles. The 1971Bangladesh war and the atomictest in 1974 gave Delhi theconfidence to take care of Sikkimonce and for all. Indira Gandhi

was concerned that Sikkim mayshow independent tendencies andbecome a UN member likeBhutan did in 1971, and she alsodidnt take kindly to the threeHimalayan kingdoms, Bhutan,Sikkim and Nepal, getting toocosy with each other. TheChogyal attended King Birendrascoronation in Kathmandu in 1975and hobnobbed with thePakistanis and the Chinese, andthere was a lobby in Delhi thatfelt Sikkim may get Chinese helpto become independent.

In his book on the Indianintelligence agency, Inside RAW,The story of Indias secret service,

Ashok Raina writes that NewDelhi had taken the decision toannex Sikkim in 1971, and that

Next month, it will be 25 years since theIndian annexation of Sikkim. SudheerSharma looks back at how a Himalayankingdom lost its sovereignty.

the RAW used the next two yearsto create the right conditions

within Sikkim to make that

happen. The key here was to usethe predominantly-HinduSikkimese of Nepali origin whocomplained of discrimination fromthe Buddhist king and elite to riseup. What we felt then was that theChogyal was unjust to us, says CDRai, editor ofGangtok Timesand ex-minister. We thought it may bebetter to be Indian than to beoppressed by the king.

So, when the Indian troopsmoved in there was general

jubilation on the streets ofGangtok. It was in fact in farawayKathmandu that there werereverberations. Beijing expressedgrave concern. But in the absenceof popular protests against theIndian move, there was onlymuted reaction at the UnitedNations in New York. It was onlylater that there were contraryopinions within IndiaMorarji

k

RE-RESUNGA

Since the publication ofResunga: the Mountain of theHorned Sage, we, the authors,have eagerly expected criticalcomments from Nepali readers.Unfortunately, neitherSudhindra Sharmas review(#29) nor Pratyoush Ontasletter (#32) addressed thesubject matter of the book.Sharma expected that we,being French, should havementioned Frenchtheoreticians like JeanBaudrillard and PierreBourdieu. The value of thesescholars is a separate issue

but we find they are morepopular in ego-drivenAmerican or Americanisedsocial science circles than inEurope, where they are simplytaken as two of many possibletheoreticians. The questionreally is what the relevance ofthese texts is to the data wepublished. Generalanthropological theory isimportant, and so is dealing

with the issue of representation,which is at the heart ofanthropology, and not a newconcern, as Sharma seems tosuggest.

But Resunga is not atheoretical essay, it is acollection of in-depth studies onthe historical, ecological andsocial conditions of a Nepaliregion. Ontas criticism revolvesaround our alleged assertionthat no research at the regionallevel was undertaken in Nepalbefore. No such statementappears in the book. Onta writesfurther that it is no surprise thatforeigners are unaware of Nepali

works, suggesting we dont careabout them. We totally supportOntas effort to defend andpromote Nepali writings, but theallegation here is not reallygrounded in fact. Readers maycheck for themselves: the bookcontains 73 references to Nepaliwork, of which 23 are in Nepali,in addition to the 70 historicaldocuments from Gulmi-Argha-Khanci. It should be noted that

most of the Nepali texts we citedwere written by local scholars andnot by passers-by in the yatrastradition.

We would have been veryinterested to read Sharmas andOntas opinion about the issuesdealt with in the book, and theircriticisms on the way we perceived,interpreted or presented what wesaw in the field. From theecological dynamics to the ritualsand the political relations, thebooks substance pertains to thelife and perceptions of localpeople, not to the self-

interrogation of the postmodernurban dweller. It is unfortunate thatthis was not read as somethingworth discussion.

Philippe Ramirezvia email

WHY GOVERNMENT?

In Leaving it to the last minute(Economic sense, #34). ArthaBeed says the government letsvaluable opportunities slip, and

only attempts to solve things atthe eleventh hour. looking at thesituation with the Maoists and thesharing of water with India, itsclear the government was eitherunwilling or unable to negotiatewhile it had the chance. Theseissues require a lot of thought,expert opinion and timeandthey are resolutely thegovernments responsibility.

As for hotel industry strikes, Imnot so sure they fall under thegovernments purview. This is anissue for hotels owners and theirstaff. Hotels are not under the

control of the government, andthats wsshy the government onlylooks at them in terms of theircontribution to national economicstability. Negotiations and findingthe means to negotiate are theresponsibility of hotel owners. Thegovernment is just one factor inthe development of the industry.The government does lacknegotiation skills and the art oftiming. But does this mean the

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?Kaji Lendup Dorji(LD Kaji): is 97, hasleft Sikkim and livesquietly inKalimpong.

KC Pradhan: isinvolved with apro-Chogyalpolitical front.

CD Rai: ex-minister,now runs theGangtok Times, anEnglish weekly.

Elisa-MariaStandford: died inKalimpong in1990.

Hope Cook: is ahistorian whodoes guidedwalking tours ofManhattan.

Captain SonamYongda: runs aschool in aremote corner ofSikkim.

The 13th ChogyalWangchukNamgyal: lives in amonastery nearKathmandu.

Indira Gandhi: wasassassinated by herbodyguards in1984.

The 12th Chogyal:lost his kingdomand died of cancerin 1982.

Crown PrinceTenzing Namgyal:died in amysterious carcrash in 1978.

CORRECTION:

InAnd the winner is: NepaliMusic(#34) the LifetimeAchievement Award to Nati KajiShrestha was presented byChetan Karki. The architect ofthe Annual HITS FM MusicAwards is Sonny Shrestha. Ed.

government is unable to govern?Will negotiations led by thegovernment solve the problem?

Ritu Raj OntaNayabazar

HE WHO GIVES

Why is it that whenever we hear ofcorruption, it is only about thereceiving end? Those giving theghoos get away scot free. No onetalks about these nationalparasites who have cultivated andencouraged corruption amonggreedy officials. Such is theenvironment in our ministries,departments and institutions thateven clean people cannot

remain spotless without beingaffected by the institutionalisedcorruption around them. Ghoos-taking and ghoos-giving shouldbe taken as equal crime and theperpetrators punished equally.

Kiran Raj JoshiBagh Bazar

SILENCE OF THE BEETLES

First Kunda Dixit raves about the

gastronomicdelights ofsuchappetisingdelicaciesas beetles,red antabdomensand Boiled Eggs a la Murgh(Under my hat, #33). Then, hegoes on to candidly confess histemptation to eat his spousewhen he does not see anydelectable bugs crawling aroundhim. It seems that the infamousDr. Hannibal The CannibalLecter ofSilence of the Lambshas found a major disciple.

Yasoda IwaramLazimpat

Desai said in 1978 that themerger was a mistake. EvenSikkimese political leaders whofought for the merger said it was ablunder and worked to roll it back.But by then it was too late.

Today, most Sikkimese knowthey lost their independence in1975, and Siliguri-bound passengersin Gangtok still say they are going

to India. The elite have benefitedfrom New Delhis largesse andarent complaining. As ex-chiefminister BB Gurung says: We cantturn the clock back now.

The Chogyal with Hope Cook atthe palace in Gangtok in 1970(left) and with King Mahendra.The Sikkim flag (top left).

SIKKIM

CORONATION