The insider-outsider debate in Sikkim and the need for a strong ILP system

Sikkim is a tiny land-locked state that shares three international borders and is home to some of the highest mountains in the world. Its rugged terrain, and oftentimes, harsh climate meant for centuries, only hardy mountain people who braved nature and the elements made it their homeland.

Before the British introduced modern administration and opened trade with India, the main occupation of the Sikkimese was agriculture.

Barter was more common than the use of currency and the plainsmen of India were least bothered about this tiny frugal country perched on the high hills of the Himalayas.

When the kingdom opened its doors to trade, the plainsmen came in with the scent of money. They came in to trade our cardamom, our ginger, our oranges, our brooms, our rice – all our produce from the unimaginable feat accomplished by our ancestors of taming our steep hills and creating our terrace fields.

The simple people of Sikkim, who had had no contact with the outside world and had no experience with dealing in money or trade, fell easy prey to the plainsmen who were generational traders in India. Sikkimese was trapped in bad debts and un-payable interests when these traders started ensnaring people by giving them loans.

The situation got so bad that the Sikkim Durbar issued a proclamation in 1933, barring plainsmen from entering the villages and restricting their businesses to notified bazaar areas.

In 1975, Sikkim merged with India, and the Sikkimese became Indian while the plainsmen who had come here to trade from India remained Indians as before.

In return for sacrificing our sovereignty, the Government of India promised to protect our unique identity and secure and uphold our social, economic and political rights. These safeguards born out of the 8th May agreement came to be enshrined in Article 371F of the Constitution of India.

For a few decades after the merger, things remained stable. The Sikkimese, mostly first-generation educated folks, took to government jobs, the younger generation pursued higher education in the best colleges in India and abroad while the plainsmen strengthened their hold over the state’s economy by expanding from simple trade to undertaking huge government infrastructure projects running into crores of rupees. But the state’s demography remained pretty much the same other than the border areas, which saw a significant increase in people coming from Bihar and West Bengal.

Tides of Change

Things changed drastically in the 90s with the opening up of tourism and the easing of ILP. Overnight hotels mushroomed all over, starting in Gangtok and then in all towns on major tourist routes.

Along with the lakhs of tourists, lakhs of others came to support this booming sector – to lease and run hotels, staff to work in these hotels, drive taxis and luxury vehicles, run travel agencies, sell snacks, fruit juice, coffee tea, momo to the tourists.

Seeing the easy money that the first wave made, more and more waves of people poured in, to the extent that there are towns in Sikkim now where the Sikkimese are a tiny minority.

Threat to our Political Rights

While 371F is meant to protect our socio-economic and political rights, our political rights have been withering away for decades. Firstly, an ordinance passed abruptly and unconstitutionally by Parliament removed the reservation of seats for Nepalis in the state legislature.

The Nepali seats were made general seats; open to anyone with voting rights in Sikkim. This ordinance goes against the very basis of 371F as any of the old Laws of Sikkim could have been amended or repealed only up to two years after 1975 i.e only until 1977.

Secondly, although the Old Laws clearly state that only Sikkim Subjects can stand for elections and only Sikkim Subjects can vote in elections, politicians and bureaucrats have never enforced this in the state for their petty gains.

Since vote bank politics has come to play a dominant role in the politics of the state, having a whole group of voters who don’t demand accountability from the govt. nor depend on govt. largesse and benefits are too tempting a voting pool for the politicians to ignore.

This is becoming a huge threat to the political rights of ethnic Sikkimese and the day is not far when outsiders will determine the political agendas of the state and the Sikkimese will have no say in their own political future.

We have already had a Non-Sikkimese Mayor in Gangtok, it is just a matter of time before we have a Non-Sikkimese Chief Minister in Sikkim.

Threat to National Security

Sikkim is located in a very sensitive tri-juncture with porous borders with three nations. While the border with Nepal has remained trouble-free, the borders with China and Bhutan have seen a lot of friction in recent years.

China is building infrastructure along the border on a war footing and India is also investing a lot to strengthen the roads along those borderlines. In this scenario, it is very dangerous for national security to not have records and antecedents of visitors entering Sikkim.

We see news reports of Pakistani and Chinese spies being caught within Sikkim or at Bagdogra, we hear reports of Bangladeshis and Nepali nationals working and residing in restricted areas where even us Sikkimese need permits to visit, Bhutanese nationals running businesses in Sikkim.

This kind of unchecked and unsupervised entry of people into Sikkim can lead to all kinds of anti-national activities being carried out within the state by vested interests.

The Sikkimese are a peace-loving people, we do not want our soil to be used to carry out activities which may shatter our centuries-old peace and tranquillity.

Changing Social Fabric

When Sikkim was a Kingdom, it had the distinction of having the world’s lowest crime rate. That was still the case a few decades after the merger but of late, the crime rate is going up. From petty crimes of theft and burglary, we now have murders, rapes, sexual assaults on children and brutal assaults – something unheard of when I was growing up.

Even our political landscape has turned violent – we may not have learnt the language of discourse, debate and ideology from mainland India but we have definitely learnt the goonda politics from there. Stone pelting, effigy burning, life-threatening assaults, the use of firearms, and the issuance of threats and abuses from political podiums have become everyday occurrences in the state.

All of this has come from the changing social fabric of our state – as our demography is changing our social values are changing too. In our homes, we Sikkimese are still a very polite people – we don’t even accept anything with one hand!

However in the larger social space, our values are getting completely eroded. If we don’t check this, our collective Sikkimese culture of politeness, humility and peacefulness will all vanish without a trace.

The author worked with NDTV and then went on to Head Communications in Multi-national companies in Delhi, Spain, Switzerland and U.K. He currently runs a Homestay in Gangtok. Views expressed are personal.

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