Gross national happiness, Bhutan’s contribution to the world of ideas, has been much debated in international development circles and among the Bhutanese. The country’s new government, after the second elections to the new parliament, declared itself unimpressed, seeing in the concept above all an electoral conceit of its political opponents. However, the idea has traction internationally. And the Bhutanese government seems more recently to have warmed to it somewhat. Bhutanese society is broadly egalitarian, the quality of life is good, its pace hardly frantic (indeed, working days can be very short in Bhutan), family life much prized (as is longbow archery, the national sport), Buddhism both sobering and consoling in its locally practiced incarnation and the physical beauty of the country unsurpassed, with much of it still pristine. The Bhutanese have much to be happy about. Perhaps less so the many Bihari labourers there, often working alongside their women-folk on public-infrastructure projects throughout Bhutan, often back-breaking work when involved with road-building, for example. But the opportunity is superior to what exists back in their home state in India.
Clouds on the horizon? Not a lot. Bhutan, like Nepal, sits in between the giants of China (with which Bhutan has an un-demarcated border, and with which Thimphu carries forward discreet talks on border matters) and India, which has been a much kinder, gentler neighbour to Bhutan than it has been to Nepal. Indian friends find this natural. Bhutan is neither constantly criticizing India, nor seeking to play it off against China. Starting with Nehru, Indians of all stripes tend to find Bhutan enchanting, for everything it both is and isn’t. And the economic relationship is mutually beneficial, with Bhutan’s hydro-electrical resources increasingly powering parts of India’s north-east.
Can Nepal, or indeed India, learn much from Bhutan? Directly, no. The country is sui generis. But India could reflect on whether its essentially gentle and supportive approach to Bhutan, which has yielded real dividends for both countries, might also work well with some of its other neighbours, as recent improvements in its relationship with Bangladesh suggests. Nepal might think about whether its obsession with Indian conspiracies (sometimes well-founded, mostly in the realm of fantasy) might be overcome in the interest of more ambitious and deeper economic cooperation and hence, faster domestic economic growth. And vis-à-vis Nepal, Delhi might wonder whether its more benevolent initiatives towards Nepal (such as helping to induce the peaceful end of the Maoist insurgency) might be preferable to its occasional strong-arm tactics, which, while seldom unprovoked, hardly behoove the democracy that India so vibrantly represents and sometimes backfire.
Bhutan reminds me of an equally beautiful, but less visited, nearby (although ethnically quite different) corner of India, Nagaland, the tribal hill state often in the clouds, on Myanmar’s border not so far from that of China. It was briefly the theatre of fierce fighting towards the end of World War II when the Japanese forces in Burma, already under great pressure, were ordered by a delusional high command in Tokyo to attack Imperial India across its Burmese frontier in 1944, leading to two climactic battles, at Imphal and Kohima, Nagaland’s capital. Here, the Naga people (mostly Christian but often with concurrent animist beliefs) and government, with some outside financial support, have honoured the war dead with a splendid museum equally sympathetic to the Japanese troops and the allied ones, explaining with great insight the objectives, constraints and bravery of both sides.
Nagaland’s multiple secessionist movements rejecting incorporation into India on its independence in 1947 and seeking its own country (which in most versions would extend dangerously across the border of fragile but proud modern-day Myanmar) brought on a relentless Indian military response that has only eased in recent years. Thus, gross national happiness has not been on the agenda here, delightful as the Naga people are. But in concluding a deeply inspiring visit there several years ago, I could not help feeling that, like Bhutan, Nagaland could and should be God’s own country and one day, hopefully, will be.
My love for India, incipient as of my first visit so many decades ago, came fully into its own as I travelled not only its own vast expanses and contrasts, but also those of its several neighbours. The connections across borders, positive and negative, are to be found across all frontiers, most poignantly Pakistan, walled off behind barriers of all sorts, which have never proved fully effective against insurgents from beyond.
Travel and connection were my friends in the subcontinent, my sharp interest in local goings-on my least unhelpful attribute. Indians are great travellers. They too learn from the experience of India and its wider neighbourhood, doubtless much more accurately than I did.
What a country! And what a neighbourhood!
NOTES
The Making of the Gorkha Empire
1.Stiller, L.F., Prithwinarayan Shah in the Light of Dibya Upadesh, Ranchi: The Catholic Press, 1968, p. 38
2.Regmi, M.C., Kings and Political Leaders of the Gorkhali Empire, Hyderabad: Orient Longman, 1995, p. 6
3.Regmi, Kings and Political Leaders of the Gorkhali Empire, p. 6
4.Stiller, Prithwinarayan Shah in the Light of Dibya Upadesh
5.Regmi, Kings and Political Leaders of the Gorkhali Empire, p. 15
6.Regmi, Kings and Political Leaders of the Gorkhali Empire, p. 15
7.Stiller, The Rise of the House of Gorkha, Kathmandu: HRD Research Center, 1995, p. 235
8.Regmi, Thatched Huts and Stucco Palaces: Peasants and Landlords in 19th Century Nepal, New Delhi: Vikas Publishing, 1978, p. 35
9.Regmi, Thatched Huts and Stucco Palaces, p. 35
10.Stiller, Prithwinarayan Shah in the Light of his Dibya Upadesh, p. 44
Operation Mustang
1.The operation was also supported by a team in London.
2.According to a letter entitled ‘cleaning the operation’ and dated December 30, 2004 (two months before the coup), purportedly from the NID chief to the officer in charge of Mustang on the Nepali side: ‘Considering the changing times and the UK’s financial, physical and human support, this operation shall now be conducted within HARC and therefore HARC has been registered at the district administration office on 11/11/04. A safe house has been established in Kathmandu Municipality ward 3 for HARC.’
3.All of the above information appeared in Nepal magazine, Bhadau 9 2064 [August 26, 2007] ‘Operation Mustang: Belaayat sarkaarko sahayogma sanchaalit jaasusi kaarbaahima karodau rupiyako ghotaala’ [Operation Mustang: a scam of millions of rupees in an intelligence operation which was run with the assistance of the British government]. A series of articles in the weekly tabloids Jana Aastha and Sanghu published around the same time contained similar information. Several well placed interviewees, speaking anonymously, asserted that this information is accurate.
4.In that case Mustang would have been running before the notorious and well documented tortures and disappearances at the Bhairabnath Battalion in late 2003. It is important for the British government to explain whether any of Mustang’s targets were among those victims, although the practice of torture and disappearance in state custody was by no means restricted to the events described in the OHCHR’s Bhairabnath report.
5.The army killing of 17 Maoist and 2 civilian prisoners at Doramba, which took place as the last round of talks began in August 2003, was raised in a meeting between the king and the British foreign secretary at the end of August. The British warned that if proved true such allegations could endanger British military aid. See Wikileaks cable 03KATHMANDU1723 of September 5, 2003.
6.The police anti-terrorism unit was supported by the American government.
7.Press release February 4, 2004
8.In Wikileaks cable 03KATHMANDU2496 of December 19, 2003, describing a meeting between the American Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia and Nepali army chief, the army chief describes intelligence gained by army interrogations of Maoists and explains that he would like to hold prisoners without notifying the civilian authorities. The cable states that ‘Under the Terrorist and Destruct
ive Activities Act, the RNA already has authority to hold prisoners incommunicado for 3 months as long as they inform the relevant Chief District Officer.’
9.ICRC Missing Persons in Nepal, updated list 2012. It was symptomatic of the impunity with which the army operated that when the Supreme Court ordered army prisoners released they were frequently rearrested by soldiers from the court steps.
10.Other Western countries, most notably the US, also gave assistance to covert, ‘anti-terrorist’ units of the army, police and APF, and most also have information on the conduct of the war which is not in the public domain but would be of interest, for example, to a Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
11.The purpose of the halt to arms shipments (at least for the American government) was to put pressure on the king to reach out to the parties, without pushing him to the wall militarily. The US therefore hoped that others such as Israel would continue to supply ammunition. See Wikileaks cable 05KATHMANDU2572 of November 25, 2005. Western governments also faced political and legal difficulties in supplying arms to what was, after February 1, 2005, a nakedly authoritarian regime with a very poor human rights record.
12.Wikileaks cable 06KATHMANDU689
13.According to Wikileaks cables, although the British had been against such a pact in the summer of 2005 by the time the 12-point understanding was signed they were cautiously supportive (see cable 05KATHMANDU2548 dated November 22, 2005). Their preferred solution in early 2006 seems to have been three-way negotiations between the parties, the Maoists and the king (see cable 06KATHMANDU465). As the Wikileaks cables show, MI6 maintained their own contacts with the Maoists throughout the period of Operation Mustang, sometimes passing messages on behalf of the Americans, who refused to have contacts, even at the level of intelligence agencies, with a terrorist organization
14.The somewhat belated American realization that the king was ‘more interested in power than democracy’ is expressed for example in Wikileaks cable 05KATHMANDU2565 of November 25, 2005, citing events of that July.
15.By chance, November 2006 was also the month that MI6 issued its clearest internal advice to date on Britain’s legal obligations on complicity in torture. See Gibson Inquiry report (‘The Report of the Detainee Inquiry’) December 2013, p. 66. For earlier iterations of MI6’s internal legal advice on torture (based on the same legal obligations) see p. 49, p. 57 and pp. 60–61.
My Journey into Sikkim
1.In fact, the book was never banned, although, as the author Sunanda Datta-Ray explains in a new 2014 edition of the book, it was cleverly sidelined by the Indian authorities.
2.Regulations governing access to Sikkim today are remarkably similar to those introduced by the British in 1873.
My Mother Tampak, Maid of Chongtham
1.Respectful form of ‘mother’ used to address royalty.
2.One’s real mother, as distinct from stepmothers who are also called ‘mothers’.
3.Author’s traditional Manipuri name.
4.Older name for Manipur.
5.Endonym of the Manipuris.
6.Kangla is the historic fort in Imphal and seat of the kings of Manipur. The British presence in Manipur began in 1826 when the Burmese were expelled from Manipur and surrounding regions by the Manipur Levy, commanded by Captain F.J. Grant of the East India Company and Maharaja Gambhir Singh of Manipur. The Burmese and the British recognized Manipur as an independent kingdom in the subsequent Treaty of Yandaboo of 1826. Until 1891, the relations between the British and the kingdom, its buffer state against the Burmese, was guided by the 1833 treaty between Maharaja Gambhir Singh and the East India Company. By 1884, the British had started unilaterally referring to Manipur as an independent as well as a protected state as they were providing arms to the Maharaja’s military. After the conquest of Manipur on April 27, 1891, the question as to whether to annex Manipur or not was debated intensively by the British parliament. It was officially decided against, Churachand being appointed to the throne instead, and Manipur became a Protected State of the British Indian Empire under British paramountcy.
7.The royal deity of Manipur.
8.The estate occupied by the palace at Nongmeibung.
9.Major Horatio St. John Maxwell, Political Agent of Manipur (1891-1905).
10.Kangsabodh, the story of Krishna’s early life, when his uncle, Kangsa of Mathura, sets out to kill the infant.
11.Hijam Irabot, the Communist leader.
12.Form of respectful address, meaning Teacher, used also to address any highly educated person.
13.Sandalwood marks worn on the forehead and nose by Vaishnav Hindus.
14.Also known as Tombisana.
Poetry from India’s North-east
1.A wooden slab upon which divinations are made.
Pacifist Prisoners and Militaristic Monks
1.Orwell, George, Burmese Days, Penguin Classics, 2001
2.Theroux, Paul, The Great Railway Bazaar, Houghton Mifflin, 1975
3.Ghosh, Amitav, Dancing in Cambodia, At Large in Burma, Ravi Dayal, 1998.
4.Larkin, Emma, ‘The Force of a Woman’, Atlantic Magazine, 4 May 2012. Source: https://newrepublic.com/article/103083/lady-peacock-aung-san-suu-kyi
5.Larkin, Emma, Everything Is Broken: Life Inside Burma, Penguin Press, New York, 2010.
6.Suu Kyi, Aung San, Freedom from Fear, Penguin Press, 1991
NOTES ON THE CONTRIBUTORS
Sujeev Shakya transverses the Himalayas on work and pleasure. He is currently the Secretary-General of the Himalayan Consensus Institute. He is the Founder-CEO of Beed Management, a Nepal-based internal consulting and advisory firm. He is the author of Unleashing Nepal and contributes to many publications. To know more about him, visit www.sujeevshakya.com
Amish Raj Mulmi is a Nepali writer based out of New Delhi. He consults with Writers’ Side literary agency and has previously worked with Juggernaut Books and Hachette India. His writings have been published in Mint Lounge, The Wire, Record Nepal, National Geographic Traveller, Himal Southasian, and the Kathmandu Post.
Thomas Bell was born in the north of England in 1978 and studied at Oxford and the Courtauld Institute of Art. After university he moved to Kathmandu to cover the civil war in Nepal for the Daily Telegraph, the Economist, and other publications. He was the South-east Asia correspondent of the Daily Telegraph before returning to Kathmandu, where he lives with his family.
Sushma Joshi is a writer and film-maker from Kathmandu, Nepal. Her book, The End of the World, was longlisted for the Frank O’Connor short-story award in 2009. She has a BA from Brown University.
Kanak Mani Dixit is a Nepali publisher, editor and writer. He is founder of the magazine Himal Southasian and publisher of the Himal Khabarpatrika weekly. Sudhindra Sharma is a sociologist and executive director of Inter Disciplinary Analysts (IDA), a research and consulting organization based in Kathmandu.
Pushpesh Pant is Professor in Diplomatic Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. A regular columnist for national newspapers and magazines, he is also a frequent contributor to radio and television. He is the author of several books including India: The Cookbook.
John Elliott is a former Financial Times journalist. He has also written for the Economist, the New Statesman, and Fortune magazine. He is the author of the prize-winning IMPLOSION: India’s Tryst with Reality. Based in New Delhi, he writes a blog on South Asia current affairs called ‘Riding the Elephant’ that also appears on the websites of Newsweek (US), and Asia Sentinel (Hong Kong).
Tshering Tashi is a writer based in Thimphu. He is Co-Director of the Mountain Echoes Literature Festival.
Abhay K. is the editor of CAPITALS and 100 Great Indian Poems and the author of The Seduction of Delhi. He received the SAARC Literary Award 2013. His poems have appeared in Poetry Salzburg Review and Asia Literary Review among others. His Earth Anthem has been translated into thirty major languages.
Manoj Joshi is with the Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi. He is a columnist and journal
ist who has worked with many well-known newspapers in the country. He has a PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University and is the author of several books, including a study of the first decade of the Kashmir rebellion.
Catherine Anderson (FRGS) has a long history with the Indian subcontinent. In 2014 she edited India’s Disappearing Railways (Carlton Books) and curated an accompanying exhibition in London, Sydney and Melbourne. In 2017 her memoir, The End of All Our Exploring (Zabriskie Books), was published to critical acclaim. She has written for the Guardian, the Telegraph, and is a Huffington Post blogger. For more information, visit www.catherineanderson.live
One of the most prominent and best-known Nepali-language writers, Indra Bahadur Rai is the author of fourteen books spanning fiction, memoir, literary criticism, and drama. He is the recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award, the Jagdamba Shree Puraskar and the Agam Singh Giri Smriti Puraskar. Manjushree Thapa is a writer and translator. She is the author of three novels, a collection of short stories, and three books of non-fiction.
Prajwal Parajuly is a writer from Gangtok, Sikkim. He enjoys trekking around the Himalayas and wishes he could live there full time.
Andrew Duff is based in London. He has travelled in Pakistan, India, Nepal, and Tibet and has written for the Times, the Financial Times, the Sunday Telegraph, the Times of India, and India Quarterly. Sikkim: Requiem for a Himalayan Kingdom is his first book.
Chetan Raj Shrestha is a trained architect specializing in conservation architecture. He lives in Sydney. His debut work of fiction, The King’s Harvest (Aleph Book Company), won the Tata Literature Live! First Book Award 2013. The Light of his Clan (Speaking Tiger), his second book of fiction, was published in 2015.
Mamang Dai is a poet and novelist from Arunachal Pradesh. A former journalist, her first publication Arunachal Pradesh: The Hidden Land (2003) documented the culture and customs of her land, for which she received the state’s Verrier Elwin Award. Her other publications include novels, poetry and children’s literature. In 2011, Dai was awarded the Padma Shri (literature and education) and in 2017, the Sahitya Akademi award.
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