Extracted from Pakistan Defence
India’s “Chief Executive” in Gangtok wrote: “Sikkim’s merger was necessary for Indian national interest. And we worked to that end. Maybe if the Chogyal had been smarter, and played his cards better, it wouldn’t have turned out the way it did.”
It is also said that the real battle was not between the Chogyal and Kazi Lendup Dorji, but between their wives. On one side was Queen Hope Cook, the American wife of the Chogyal and on the other was the Belgian wife of the Kazi, Elisa-Maria Standford. “This was a proxy war between the American and the Belgian,” says former chief minister, BB Gurung. But there was a third woman involved: Indira Gandhi in New Delhi.
Chogyal Palden met the 24-year-old New Yorker, Hope Cook, in Darjeeling in 1963 and married her. For Cook, this was a dream come true: to become the queen of an independent kingdom in Shangrila. She started taking the message of Sikkimese independence to the youth, and the allegations started flying thick and fast that she was a CIA agent. These were the coldest years of the Cold War, and there was a tendency in India to see a “foreign hand” behind everything so it was not unusual for the American queen to be labelled a CIA agent. However, as Hope Cook’s relations with Delhi deteriorated, so did her marriage with the Chogyal. In 1973, she took her two children and went back to New York. She hasn’t returned to Sikkim since.
Then there was Elisa-Maria, daughter of a Belgian father and German mother who left her Scottish husband in Burma and married LD Kaji in Delhi in 1957. The two couldn’t have been more different. Elisa-Maria wanted to be Sikkim’s First Lady, but Hope Cook stood in the way. “She didn’t just want to be the wife of an Indian chief minister, she wanted to be the wife of the prime minister of an independent Sikkim.” With that kind of an ambition, it was not surprising that with annexation, neither Hope Cook nor Elisa-Maria got what they wanted.
Meanwhile in New Delhi, Indira Gandhi was going from strength to strength, and India was flexing its muscles. The 1971 Bangladesh war and the atomic test in 1974 gave Delhi the confidence to take care of Sikkim once and for all. Indira Gandhi was concerned that Sikkim may show independent tendencies and become a UN member like Bhutan did in 1971, and she also didn’t take kindly to the three Himalayan kingdoms, Bhutan, Sikkim and Nepal, getting too cosy with each other. The Chogyal attended King Birendra’s coronation in Kathmandu in 1975 and hobnobbed with the Pakistanis and the Chinese, and there was a lobby in Delhi that felt Sikkim may get Chinese help to become independent.
In his book on the Indian intelligence agency, Inside RAW, The story of India’s secret service, Ashok Raina writes that New Delhi had taken the decision to annex Sikkim in 1971, andthat the RAW used the next two years to create the right conditions within Sikkim to make that happen. The key here was to use the predominantly-Hindu Sikkimese of Nepali origin who complained of discrimination from the Buddhist king and elite to rise up. “What we felt then was that the Chogyal was unjust to us,” says CD Rai, editor of Gangtok Times and ex-minister. “We thought it may be better to be Indian than to be oppressed by the king.”
So, when the Indian troops moved in there was general jubilation on the streets of Gangtok. It was in fact in faraway Kathmandu that there were reverberations. Beijing expressed grave concern. But in the absence of popular protests against the Indian move, there was only muted reaction at the United Nations in New York. It was only later that there were contrary opinions within India-Morarji Desai said in 1978 that the merger was a mistake. Even Sikkimese political leaders who fought for the merger said it was a blunder and worked to roll it back. But by then it was too late.
India’s “Chief Executive” in Gangtok wrote: “Sikkim’s merger was necessary for Indian national interest. And we worked to that end. Maybe if the Chogyal had been smarter, and played his cards better, it wouldn’t have turned out the way it did.”
It is also said that the real battle was not between the Chogyal and Kazi Lendup Dorji, but between their wives. On one side was Queen Hope Cook, the American wife of the Chogyal and on the other was the Belgian wife of the Kazi, Elisa-Maria Standford. “This was a proxy war between the American and the Belgian,” says former chief minister, BB Gurung. But there was a third woman involved: Indira Gandhi in New Delhi.
Chogyal Palden met the 24-year-old New Yorker, Hope Cook, in Darjeeling in 1963 and married her. For Cook, this was a dream come true: to become the queen of an independent kingdom in Shangrila. She started taking the message of Sikkimese independence to the youth, and the allegations started flying thick and fast that she was a CIA agent. These were the coldest years of the Cold War, and there was a tendency in India to see a “foreign hand” behind everything so it was not unusual for the American queen to be labelled a CIA agent. However, as Hope Cook’s relations with Delhi deteriorated, so did her marriage with the Chogyal. In 1973, she took her two children and went back to New York. She hasn’t returned to Sikkim since.
Then there was Elisa-Maria, daughter of a Belgian father and German mother who left her Scottish husband in Burma and married LD Kaji in Delhi in 1957. The two couldn’t have been more different. Elisa-Maria wanted to be Sikkim’s First Lady, but Hope Cook stood in the way. “She didn’t just want to be the wife of an Indian chief minister, she wanted to be the wife of the prime minister of an independent Sikkim.” With that kind of an ambition, it was not surprising that with annexation, neither Hope Cook nor Elisa-Maria got what they wanted.
Meanwhile in New Delhi, Indira Gandhi was going from strength to strength, and India was flexing its muscles. The 1971 Bangladesh war and the atomic test in 1974 gave Delhi the confidence to take care of Sikkim once and for all. Indira Gandhi was concerned that Sikkim may show independent tendencies and become a UN member like Bhutan did in 1971, and she also didn’t take kindly to the three Himalayan kingdoms, Bhutan, Sikkim and Nepal, getting too cosy with each other. The Chogyal attended King Birendra’s coronation in Kathmandu in 1975 and hobnobbed with the Pakistanis and the Chinese, and there was a lobby in Delhi that felt Sikkim may get Chinese help to become independent.
In his book on the Indian intelligence agency, Inside RAW, The story of India’s secret service, Ashok Raina writes that New Delhi had taken the decision to annex Sikkim in 1971, andthat the RAW used the next two years to create the right conditions within Sikkim to make that happen. The key here was to use the predominantly-Hindu Sikkimese of Nepali origin who complained of discrimination from the Buddhist king and elite to rise up. “What we felt then was that the Chogyal was unjust to us,” says CD Rai, editor of Gangtok Times and ex-minister. “We thought it may be better to be Indian than to be oppressed by the king.”
So, when the Indian troops moved in there was general jubilation on the streets of Gangtok. It was in fact in faraway Kathmandu that there were reverberations. Beijing expressed grave concern. But in the absence of popular protests against the Indian move, there was only muted reaction at the United Nations in New York. It was only later that there were contrary opinions within India-Morarji Desai said in 1978 that the merger was a mistake. Even Sikkimese political leaders who fought for the merger said it was a blunder and worked to roll it back. But by then it was too late.
Like the last line says, it is too late :(
ReplyDeleteOne thing I dont understand though - why do people automatically assume that, "had Sikkim remained un-annexed, India or China would have swallowed it up"
Bhutan still remains an independent country to this day.
This article makes me sad.
Yes madam....Bhutan had never been touched by anyone but Sikkim is more a smaller region.
ReplyDeletethough the entire episode of the annexation to India was very dirty affair but to some extent it was necessary.....it may have been a curse for the families and communities that considered themselves to be close to the ruling house but the remaining citizens had to face hardships of unimaginable proportions.its very easy to condemn the mergers today after relishing the taste of democracy but a little research into the participation of the innocent citizens will surely mean washing dirty linen in public. conspiracy theorists claim the absurd but the truth was that the sufferers under the yoke of attrocities committed by the haves against the have nots were the main impetus behind the entire saga.....and irony ..the very people who exploited the anti-merger wave stood to gain the most from the annexation.....look around
ReplyDeleteya i agree to you Zorbo.....merger was necessary but i believe it wasn't the complete justice done towards Sikkim.
ReplyDeletePeople die for the sovereignty of their nation, they fight for their mother land, they fight for their future, for their children, for generations to come....And we have people who believe "merger was necessary?" "getting wiped out from the world map was necessary?" "loosing our future was necessary?"
DeleteWhy do people always think that during the Monarchy things were hard, only upper class people enjoyed....
Why don't we accept the fact that we were a poor nation then and things are hard in poor economy..but that doesn't mean we should quit and give away not only our pride but our future as well.
Upper Class exists every where...even in Afghanistan there are a set of upper class people who are not facing hardship like others...
About our future??
Next Chief Secretary is bound to be a plainsman and after that hopefully not..its going to be a long chain...We are not certain about our future..Honestly are we??? But people in Afghanistan dare to think about a brighter future for their children and generations to come...
Things like Sikkim Subjects are useless, we have tunnels all under our mountains, our Sikkim is being raped and we are as usual not doing nothing about it(no politics please)
Within a span of 38 years our Sikkim has seen a major change...God knows what will happen 20 years from now...
Words of Chogyal: "Today is a very sad day for me, I lost my dear Sikkim and my people. God save my Sikkim and my people."
I have been to Bhutan recently and was amazed at the conservation of their culture and rich heritage even to this day.
ReplyDeletePeople wear their national costume with pride and there is a widespread, undying love for their King, which was almost contagious, even to a visiting outsider.
After all thats said and done, this article brings back vivid imaginings as to what would Sikkim be like as a modern day independent himalayan kingdom in the 21st century. Imaginings being the operative word.
Read books like The Sikkim Saga ...written by MR. BS DAS...who had a prominent hand in the annexation of Sikkim..his personal feeling about the annexation was that it was a correct decision in the larger interest of India at that moment....then i have also read SMASH AND GRAB:Annexation Of Sikkim..written by Sunanda Kumar Dutta Ray..his picture of that moment shows a different picture of Sikkim..his closeness to the then Chogyal is surely visible in what he has written..read another book too...IN SIKKIM:AGAINST THE TIDE...this book has some of its portions dedicated to the Chogyal...Mr.Kazi had his own sayings...
ReplyDeletelooking into all these..my personal feeling is that..Chogyal and his family was a national treasure ..they were our pride and shall always remain to be so..losing a country's identity is a shame for all of us..we sikkimese have always been selfish..we have never been able to have a collective view..we always tend to quarrel among ourselves with reasons that serve only our personal interests.....
This thinking of ours made us lose our country and our King
but one thing has been common...Late Chogyal Palden Thondup Namgyal has been a hero for all of us...till his last breath he did not leave his country..his palace...just look at the condition of the palace right now...its terrible...it chould have been a national treasure...lets introduce a chapter in our school books as a tribute to late Chogyal...that would be a great step...why do we learn about other leaders when that had no significance at all in the making of Sikkim's history...
ReplyDeleteone more point..we must also remember that immigration is not something that can be condemned...every country has a history of immigrants...every country has been ruled by others at some point of time..just take the example of Mughals...just look at America at the moment..it is ruled by the Europeans and not the real ethnic americans...so what i feels is..quarreling among ourselves is not a gud idea....lets stay together..WE SHOULD HAVE REALISED THE IMPORTANCE OF CHOGYAL THEN..LETS REALISE IT NOW.....
Nehru and Patel could have decided on Sikkim's fate earlier than it eventually happened,but they deemed it unnecessary,and later Indira with her so called "liberation of Bangladesh" campaign saw another opportunity in Sikkim to bolster her image as the unparalled leader of the world's largest democratic institution. It was a hypocritical move on the part of the Indian government which had been been founded on the basic principle of anti colonialism barely three decades back, and this trait had shades of cowardice as well when we consider that the Indian government chose not to get involved in the cases of China and Myanmar.(where people are even denied many of their basic human rights,forget democratic rights) But when it came to smaller and weaker countries like Nepal,erstwhile Sikkim and Maldives, it couldn't stop sticking its soiled hands into their affairs.
ReplyDeleteThree decades have passed since, maybe our politicians back then could have demanded for more provisions,(like separate constitution in J&K,4 or 5 seats each in RS n LS, and so on..)but it hasn't been all bad,there's peace and stability,communal harmony unlike anywhere in the country..the only major problem I really see is the unchecked influx of mostly labourers from neighbouring states and countries(which infact has played a role in disharmony and later, violence in many parts of the country). It is for the state government and more importantly centre to ensure the security and welfare of the Sikkim Subjects to the best, afterall we are Indians too, and the price we paid for it was too dear...our identity!
Nehru and Patel could have decided on Sikkim's fate earlier than it eventually happened,but they deemed it unnecessary,and later Indira with her so called "liberation of Bangladesh" campaign saw another opportunity in Sikkim to bolster her image as the unparalled leader of the world's largest democratic institution. It was a hypocritical move on the part of the Indian government which had been been founded on the basic principle of anti colonialism barely three decades back, and this trait had shades of cowardice as well when we consider that the Indian government chose not to get involved in the cases of China and Myanmar.(where people are even denied many of their basic human rights,forget democratic rights) But when it came to smaller and weaker countries like Nepal,erstwhile Sikkim and Maldives, it couldn't stop sticking its soiled hands into their affairs.
ReplyDeleteThree decades have passed since, maybe our politicians back then could have demanded for more provisions,(like separate constitution in J&K,4 or 5 seats each in RS n LS, and so on..)but it hasn't been all bad,there's peace and stability,communal harmony unlike anywhere in the country..the only major problem I really see is the unchecked influx of mostly labourers from neighbouring states and countries(which infact has played a role in disharmony and later, violence in many parts of the country). It is for the state government and more importantly centre to ensure the security and welfare of the Sikkim Subjects to the best, afterall we are Indians too, and the price we paid for it was too dear...our identity!
I am Indian and live in US (studied and now work in NY). I like your blog never been to Sikkim, i wish to come and visit there. Its beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI belong to MP State. I thin you are right we should give equal weighted to North East also, which is on its way eventually.Now Indian is realizing the importance of their own asserts.
Thanks for this one
A new book "Sikkim: The wounds of History" written by Biraj Adhikari is a new and a hard look at what happened during those two years before annexation. In the book he has exposed the manupulations undertaken by the Indian establishment to make it look like a natural progression.
ReplyDeleteSome of the stuff in the book is startling and you would wonder how India can hold up its head high as the "largest democracy" in the world. The book also points out the Indian presumptousness when the parliament of India convienently decided that the International treaty of 1950 is no longer valid. Did the Indians have the authority? questions the book.
India is a bully. She even bullied China. Listen to this podcast:
ReplyDeletehttp://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/podcasts/India_China_Border.mp3
and read up on this link:
http://www.gregoryclark.net/redif.html
Here is an article that is somewhat related to Sikkim:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/dec/01/karmapa-exile-india-political-game
India’s Foreign Policies are extremely aggressive, deceptive and fearful to her neighboring countries. None of the neighboring countries of India has good impression or relation with India- people of these Indian neighbors hate India like anything worst although some government of these countries feel secured about them and their power to be prostrated upon India’s feet.
ReplyDeleteTo accomplish the mission of Nehru Doctrine-
“India will inevitably exercise an important influence. India will also develop as the centre of economic and political activity in the Indian Ocean area. The small national state is doomed. It may survive as a culturally autonomous area but not as an independent political unit.”
India would definitely go for merging more small independent neighboring nations with her like Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Maldives and Sri Lanka but at the same time would also be at a very high risk of dissolution and collapse on herself, yielding into 15 to 25 independent nations.
India is a bully. Here is an article describing how India annexed a Tibetan town, Tawang, that the British India deliberately left alone and not incorporated it into British India.
ReplyDeletehttp://kanglaonline.com/2011/06/khathing-the-taking-of-tawang/
The annexation of this Tibetan town, Tawang, took place in 1951, 4 years after independent India was created.
India can't even think of Nepal merging..Even British couldn't annex Nepal who slaved Indians for centuries..Chinese Railway touches Nepalese borders already now..13000 ppl lost lives to abolish monarchy in Nepal.India is a good country bt it is very coward..Nepalese are very proud of their history..Pppl of Sikkim are coward..Fact!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI am a Proud Nepali..I am just a young boy bt m extremely happy to be a citizen of an independent country..Nepal is poor economically bt i will take it even if it becomes the poorest of d world then to be called an DHOTI...My country has lots of potential n gifted naturally than whole of india combined..I simply like China more than dirty India.
ReplyDeleteindia is a british legacy. their policies are colonial and imperialistic. if us sikkimese could get our heads out of the sand and the pointless lepcha bhutia nepali arguments we would have seen what india did to manipur in 1949, india's annexation of kashmir, etc. the chogyal asking his people not to take up arms was justified as the import of arms had been banned by a treaty signed between sikkim and delhi. on another note the chogyal's hands were tied as he was a buddhist king and his holiness the dalai lama had been given sanctuary by india. it is up to modern, forward looking sikkimese youth to bring forward a freedom movement!
ReplyDeleteI am a Goan. In 1961 India Invaded Goa under false pretenses and says they have Liberated Goa. Visit http://goa-invasion-1961.blogspot.com/
ReplyDelete