The remoteness of Bhutan, manipulable press, publicity and information media and Bhutan's policy of isolation is largely responsible for Bhutan's untarnished image outside. The events, incidents and historical facts have remained mostly unreported. Thimphu’s jealously guards its image and the little it has allowed to leak to the world media has been through the eyes of carefully vetted journalists and academicians. However, it has been proved beyond doubt that Bhutan is home to communities other than the Rulers of western Bhutan. The first ruler of Bhutan, Shabdrung Jigme Ngawang Namgyel and King Ram Shah of Gorkha (a kingdom of Nepal then) had met and established a perpetual friendship between the two kingdoms between 1624 AD and 1628 AD. Accordingly the people were taken to Bhutan to defend and work for development of Bhutan in an around that period. More carpenters, sculptors, metal casters and painters joined during the reign of King Shah Malla - from Kathmandu. Shabdrung (Jigme Ngawang Namgyel) again visited Gorkha in 1640 AD during the reign of King Dambar Shah and added more people to Bhutan. It is reported that by around 1900 AD Bhutan had an ethnic Lhotsampa population of about two hundred thousands.
It is falsely reported by the Home Ministry of Bhutan that Lhotsampas in Bhutan were not there until the beginning of the twentieth century. These people have continuously migrated from Nepal and the Indian hills eastward into Bhutan beyond since the 17th century. Most migration probably occurred between the mid 1800 AD (especially immediately after the Bhutan-British war of 1864 AD) and the 1950's as reported by Kanak Mani Dixit in the article 'The Dragon Bites it's Tail' in Himal Jul/Aug 1992 issue. Geographer, Harka Gurung believes that most of the movement of the people was not directly from Nepal, but "step - migration" from adjacent Indian regions.
Whatever be the actual facts, the Government of Bhutan cannot just float wrong information outside so as to defend the cultural interest of one community at the cost of others. As Bhutan has a very limited and almost nil record of its population and economic exploitation; no definite conclusion can be drawn about the actual settlement of Lhotsampas in Bhutan. The Government of Bhutan's claim that no Nepali ever crossed beyond the Teesta River until after 1865, let alone penetrates into Bhutan is debatable. On the one hand, they appreciate the presence of Nepali in the adjoining regions of Bhutan since indefinite period and on the other hand, they counter their stand. David B. Thomson, Harvard Law School, Boston, USA in his document "Cultural Cleansing" August 1993 states that - "the resolution of the historical argument has little relevance to the average Nepali People of Bhutan. The issue of early Nepali settlement is important, however, in analysing the current population".
The Government of Bhutan officially acknowledges the settlement of people in Southern Bhutan in 1900 AD through the Bhutan agent in Kalimpong Kazi Ugyen Dorji. Kanak Mani Dixit further writes that it was the Dorji Family of Kalimpong that opened these southern hills to immigrants, encouraged by the British who had employed Nepali in their tea gardens in nearby Darjeeling. The settlement and administration of Southern Bhutan was carried out through a special dispensation given to the Dorji Family, first by the Penlops and later by the government. He further states that "A special affinity developed with the Penlops of the north. The Kalimpong based Dorji rule, though feudocratic in character, was based on an understanding of "Nepali Culture". This was not the case with ‘Ruling Class’ who were to come later as administrators and representatives of the government in Thimphu. The interaction between the population of South and the Northern population, after-math the political assassination of Prime Minister Jigme Palden Dorji in 1964 almost remained the same as before. It may be questioned to the Royal Government of Bhutan, as to why the then Prime Minister was assassinated under the most unfortunate circumstances in 1964. The obvious answer was that the growing popularity of the Prime Minister with the peace-loving population in the south was taken as a threat to the culture of the rulers and Wangchuk Dynasty and there-by he was silenced forever. In spite of the loss of a leader in Dorji, the people of Southern Bhutan ever remained loyal and faithful to the government with a close liaison with other ethnic groups.
In 1932 AD a British Army Officer reported about 60,000 Nepali-Speaking inhabitants in south-West Bhutan. These people migrated legally as labourers to clear forests in Samchi and the cleared lands were distributed to them later according to the government, only in the early 1950s did the settlement spread from south-western Samchi and Chirang to Sarbhang, Gaylegphug and Samdrup-jongkhar areas and in 1958 the National Assembly passed its first nationality act granting citizenship to these settlers.
The actual strength of different ethnic population figure presented at random over a long period of time by different authors and journalist cannot be taken for granted nor the extent of peoples’ settlement in South Bhutan as gospel truth. Most parts of Southern Bhutan were occupied long back as the geographical terrain and the development of the villages at par with the neighbouring developed villages and localities in India does not qualify these immigrants as recent settlers. It is true that Bhutan stepped up socio-economic development activities with the launch of its first five-year plan in 1961. This step was the first modernisation drive by the Royal Government and due to the shortages of manpower, many labourers from India and Nepal including the Bengalis and Assamese were imported to Bhutan with permission from the government on contract basis and recycled after the contract period. It is also equally true that Bhutan has a porous and open border with India and people often cross to and fro. The main entry points to Bhutan are Phuntsholing, Gaylegphug, Sarbhang, and Samdrup-Jongkhar. The border check posts are manned by the Customs and Police officials. The people entering Bhutan, other than the Bhutanese nationals are screened in these check posts and their personal details, reasons of visit and their period of stay recorded in the registers maintained in these posts. Therefore, the trans-border movement is controlled. The other entry points to Bhutan are only through the thick vegetation, swift flowing rivers and through rugged terrain. It can be thus assessed that entry to Bhutan is not as easy as had been made by the Bhutanese propaganda drive against the ethnic Lhotsampa populace. The Ministry of Home Affairs has not been able to do justice to it-self when it expressed its ignorance of the presence of illegal immigrants in Southern Bhutan for about three decades. Moreover, it went on to record saying that the government was deeply pre-occupied with the implementation of development programme and with only a skeleton administrative set-up in the south headed by civil officials who were mostly ethnic Lhotsampas, the government remained ignorant about the scale of this silent invasion by economic immigrants. By then substantial members of them had already mingled and merged with the local population in southern Bhutan. The above stand of the government must be met with scepticism. The reader can rightly point out here as to how the government can remain unaware with the development taking place in its own soil. It is ridiculous and unbelievable and is a cover up to defame the other ethnic people of Bhutan. Most of the parents claim that Dago Tshering or Dawa Tshering was not born when we were working on roads in Bhutan. Whether invited as political future citizens simply as migrant labourers, ethnic Lhotsampas clearly were actively recruited and welcomed to Bhutan. Many of the workers were granted land and the 1958 Nationality Act allowed for the naturalisation of land owners after ten years of residence.
It is obvious that Bhutan is a country surrounded by major Nepali population in the adjoining regions of India and Nepal. Therefore, illegal entry to Bhutan cannot be denied due to its strategic location and favourable economic prosperity. In fact, the world is not free from economic immigrants and every government have been bothered due to influx of illegal hordes of people. However, the dramatisation of illegal immigrants in Bhutan by the Royal Government is exaggerated beyond perception and should not be taken as event of magnitudinal nature nor it should be viewed as something extraordinary, designed to destabilise the demographic set up in Bhutan by the ethnic Nepalis. The fear expressed by the Royal Government of Bhutan about the invasion of Ruler’s Culture by acts of espionage, sabotage and subversion by the illegal immigrants as totally baseless and uncalled for. History is a witness to the fact that there was never any armed interaction or conflict of ideologies between the different ethnic groups of Bhutan. The present political upset in Southern Bhutan is due to political immaturity of its leaders. “There are lessons to be learnt from the Sikkimese experience. one is that political oppression does not quell popular democratic movement. In Sikkim, the ruling Chogyal, or king attempted to keep his throne by force. By doing so, he lost popular support and was toppled by his own subjects, backed by India” quotes Carole Rose in The Last Emperor ?
The Thimphu Regime has shown reservation to the entire Nepali People in the Himalayas by labelling them as the only truly migratory race. Perhaps, the Rulers in Bhutan are not aware that people have migrated in the Himalayan Sub-Continent over different periods of time. The Aryans, the Dravidians, the Mongoloids and other races are not the actual aborigines of the Himalayas but have migrated from Central Asia and other regions. The citizens of Bhutan have been often equated with the people in Sikkim, Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Duars and the Seven Sisters of North-East, India. By equating, the Bhutan Government is desperately trying to project the Bhutanese nationals as violent, aggressive and uncooperative in the face of the world there by harming the sentiments of the other communities. The movement of these different ethnic people in India and Sikkim were for their own specific causes and does not bear any relevance with Bhutan. The basic stand adopted by Bhutan to these people shows the Regime’s utter dislike of the other ethnic people. The writ-ups briefly reads as .............."the Nepalese are the only truly migratory race in the Himalayas. Their eastward migration has already reduced several indigenous people of the Himalayas into minorities in their own land. The Lepchas of Kalimpong and Darjeeling have almost vanished in the face of the demographic invasion while the Lepchas and Bhutias of Sikkim have been reduced to a small minority. Bhutan is clearly the next target and the odds are overwhelmingly stacked against her". However, this show of fear of the government is a cover up to protect their poor human rights record in the face of growing criticism and does not project the demographic reality in the true sense within the above mentioned region.
The fault of the creation of the majority population in six of the 20 districts in Bhutan with ethnic people of Nepali origin lies with the Bhutanese Government. When Southern Bhutan used to be heavily forested and malarial, it imported the Nepali people to develop it and when Southern Bhutan emerged out to be a rich agricultural land with fruitful returns, Bhutan exported a false propaganda of cultural invasion and assassination against the very people who have sweated, toiled and bled to make Southern Bhutan a focus of northern ruling elite’s attention and greed. A Government official who served there in the mid 1950s clearly recalled that in those days, Ruling Staffs were afraid to spend even one night in the south. No northerner would ever go down there, other than for brief spells during the mid-winter. The Government of Bhutan attributed the demographic exploitation of Bhutan particularly to the ethnic Nepalese from Nepal and adopted a liberal approach to label the ethnic Nepalese from India as economic immigrants. This is an unfavourable approach to create a diplomatic wrath from one sector and favourable support from the other quarter vis-à-vis the Lhotsampas immigrant factor. This is no doubt a dubious policy nurtured and adopted from the royal circle in Thimphu that aimed at fragmenting the Bhutanese society, the Indian people and the people of Nepal on ideological differences and geographical separation.
A prominent and distinct nature of the Lhotsampa-settlers in Bhutan is that they have never approved violence as a means to achieve a targeted goal or aim. During the assassination of the late Prime Minister of Bhutan Jigme Palden Dorji in 1964 as mentioned in the text, the Lhotsampa never resorted to unlawful activities but remained silent and prostrate. The Chief of Army Staff then, Brigadier Namgyel Bahadur (Cholba Namgyel) a relative of the Wangchuck Family was instructed to assassinate him by a royal command. He did so and he also had to meet with the same fate along with other people by a firing squad. Again in 1974, during the coronation ceremony of the present king, his step mother, wanted to install her son as King of Bhutan and almost succeeded in making the coup successful but her plan was discovered in time. She fled to India and she is now living in exile. Many high ranking officials from Ngalong community connected with the events were executed. All these facts indicate that the Lhotsampa people in Bhutan were/are loyal and the above quoted instances clearly demonstrate the frustration of the ruling class to seize power and remain as a dominant minority.
Bhutan Government views it a Herculean task to curb the influence of other ethnic people in Bhutan and equates to the story of David and Goliath in the slow development process. However, Bhutan has totally failed to realise that the threat to ruler’s culture is not from the Lhotsampa but from the disgruntled factions from their own community with different ideological links. In the political turmoil in Darjeeling, in the downfall of Sikkim, from international acceptance of an independent state, in the disturbances in the North Eastern States of India and in the democratic struggle in Nepal, the Bhutanese or Lhotsampas in Bhutan have never supported these movements and political developments. There are no instances of any support from Bhutan to these democratic changes. The Government's claim of dissidents, offering citizenship and land to all the ethnic Nepalis or Indians outside Bhutan supporting their cause cannot be therefore, accounted as demographic invasion. No-where, in the history, people have been found to provide citizenship and land from exile to their supporters. The government has undermined the validity of the Bhutanese Citizenship Act of 1985 and its own weaknesses to activate the law in totality by surrendering to the extreme and to place the ethnic Lhotsampas as the real trouble shooters to pocket its own nefarious design of ethnic cleansing in the name of cultural preservation.
**********
