Skip to main content

Kingdom without a king

By himalayanreview


30 years ago in India Today
 

Our jeep jolted to a halt before the border town of Rangpo. The Nepalese driver leapt out to survey the scene and said, “We will cross into Sikkim now. All this was India.” “But Sikkim is a part of India,” we said. “That is what they say,” he replied. It was under the shrewd gaze of New Delhi thousands of miles away that Sikkim changed governments.
In April 1975, the Government of India introduced the 36th Amendment Act making Sikkim the 22nd state of the Indian Union. The Sikkim issue, which had earlier developed into a national debate a year ago, never got complete hearing due to the declaration of Emergency.
In Gangtok, the deposed Chogyal’s eldest son’s death has caused a sudden tightening of political reflexes all around. The Sikkimese continue to recognise Chogyal as the divine defender of their faith. — Sunil Sethi
http://indiatoday.digitaltoday.in/index.php?option=com_registration&task=home_30yearsinit&issueid=46&assignedid=5&home=1
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rongli my birthplace

By himalayanreview
BY SHITAL PRADHAN A small hamlet in an eastern side Silent raush on its way, The old silk route, More older it look Upon which I stay, Hey that’s Rongli, Rongli my birthplace Years went by, years dried up, Yet the small village is as it was, Silent, peaceful and introvert Today’s picture of Rongli, Houses as station bogie, Looks a cradle, from Chujachen, Upon which the blue sky, As if I can touch thee, Roaring River, As the legend we hear, Still watch with glee, The terror of 1890 somewhat forgotten, Yet another terrorizing moment, 68 was the year… 1968, When sky too wasn’t pleased. That was Rongli, Rongli of the past. Playing along the Baar-Pepal tree, Hiding in the Shivalaya, Watching videos and aloft Is a decent memory, now? Sweet time in treasure, Yet when I am in Rongli, I am happy, in whither sweet. Rongli my birthplace !
10 comments
Read more

India’s illegal occupation of independent Sikkim has to be reversed

By himalayanreview
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 thic...
19 comments
Read more

The coinage system of Sikkim

By himalayanreview
It is more or less a forgotten part of the development process of the then-small Himalayan kingdom, Sikkim . The introduction of the coinage system in Sikkim ceased the way it started. A study of the coinage system of Sikkim sheds light on the socio-economic and political history of the then-small state. The coins of Sikkim ended the way they appeared; they came from nowhere, and finally, they got lost out in the darkness. A handful of people around Sikkim and in the districts of Darjeeling now have these rare items in their collections. The coin of Sikkim is much sought after by numismatists interested in countries that no longer exist today. Before the British invasion of the land of Sikkim, the capital revenue system was never heard. Sikkim, being an agricultural foreground, had some parts of food grains given to the king as tax. Trade was carried out where things were exchanged between individuals. This system was prevalent even in the mid-19th century; oranges were exchan...
5 comments
Read more