Let me clarify my perspective on issue of southern uprising in 1990. I respect all human beings, cultures, religions and languages, but at the same time I denounce all extremists whatever the ethnicity, culture, religion they belong to. My wordings might sound acerbic to many. Please do not misunderstand me of pouring vengeance to humble and hardworking Sarchhops or Ngalongs. I have deep respect for those humble citizens (all ethnicities living in Bhutan) who are toiling and making an honest living. Ethnic cleansing that took place in southern Bhutan in the 1990s is not a byproduct of inter-ethnic tension or fight among ordinary citizens. It is the byproduct of arrogant, extremist group which consisted of corrupted bureaucrats, justice bias and coldblooded killers (military) who were at the helm of government then and their besmirched confidants in the districts.
My grievances are geared towards that extremist group which was responsible for ethnic cleansing in the south and covering the crime, taking the side of Buddha. Buddha and Buddhism despises these criminals because they killed a civilization and ordinary Bhutanese citizens hate these boisterous criminals because they lied the general public and played foul upon them.
In fact, they (extremist group) framed four lies to cover the crime (taking for example the facts about Dagapela):
(i) Illegal immigrants – in the census of 1982/3 to prepare for citizenship ID cards distribution, Dagapela had a clean chit as there were no complications which meant there were no illegal immigrants.
(ii) Outside marriage – Dagapela sub-division had only three outside marriage cases in 1990. Of those, one is in exile and two are still inside Bhutan
(iii) Over staying on work permit- Dagapela saw only two Nepali laborers (Nepali Citizen) named Dhan Bahadur Mukhia and Dil Bahadur Rai over stayed the work permit, but the contractor managed to bribe the then police in-charge Passang Tshering and kept them for 3-4 years. Unfortunately, both of them contracted diseases while working in the cardamom plantations and because the host (contractor) didn’t care for their treatment both of them died in the jungle in late eighties.
(iv) Voluntary migration- 12,600 citizens (refugee camp registration record October 31,1994 ) of Dagapela were staged to sign voluntary migration form, threatened of dire consequences (example given to the people of Dagapela was death penalty like Dharmaraj Gurung, Punya Prasad Dhakal,Bisweswor Lakai and Homnath Gautam ) upon denial to sign voluntary migration form, staged for a sham compensation which was 15% of actual value then, looted their property, snatched citizenship documents and evicted from the country.
Reviewing “Eviction Options – Historical Human Disaster” an article written by Santi Ram Poudel published in apfanews.com on November 23, 2011 gives clear example of the circumstances that forced the people of Dagapela to leave the country.
In fact formal settlement of Nepali speaking people in Dagapela sub-division began with appointment of Krishna Bir Gurung as Muktihar stationed in Tashidin in 1902/3. However, informal settlement said to had begun ten to fifteen years prior to that. As informal settlement had not attracted many settlers and had not generated revenue as expected by the Penlop, he commanded a formal settlement. Muktihar kept the patta (portfolio) of Tashidin mandal for himself, appointed mandals (village heads) for other blocks and initiated the settlement in Dagapela. Settlement slowed down in 1930s and ended in 1940s. Unauthorized settlement didn’t take place in Dagapela after 1945 so the propaganda floated by extremist group as ‘flushing out of illegal immigrants who have overstayed entering the country in sixties’ is farce.
Goshi School was upgraded to Junior High in 1980. Since the establishment, thousands of students attended this school and over five hundred graduated. Mr. Dorji Tamang was the longest serving local teacher; he taught in this school for about twenty years. Late K.G Nair was the second in this order; he was the headmaster for thirteen years and before retiring he taught as general teacher for two years. Late N. P Regmi was the third longest serving teacher; he taught for fourteen years. Distinguished educationists like late B. B Biswa, Mr. Krishna Tamang, Mr. Gopi Khadka, Mr. D. R Gautam, Mr. Keeran Gautam, Mr. Rajman Tamang, Mr. D. R Nepal and Mr. Tika Biswa studied in this school in the sixties and some of them started teaching in this school in the seventies. When this school was closed in 1990 there were about seven hundred twenty five students and about twenty-seven teaching staff of which ten were non-Bhutanese.
Please accept my apology for I include these names because I owe respect to them. They are not only the living pages of history of GJHS but also the living history of Dagapela sub-division, the history which the extremists have obliterated to cover the heinous crime. These personalities embrace thousands of pages of it; my effort is gently turning the pages for readers to value. These great personalities had once in their life, walked in this compound, studied in these classrooms, tilled this field, planted these trees, built terraces and garden. These are the shining stars that lit the name of this school and these are the heroes who deserve thousand pages of the glorious history of this school. Among prominent personalities MP Hemant Gurung, Dr.Tapas Gurung, Dr.Man Bir Ghishing, Dr.Basanta Rimal, Dr. Laxmi Prashad Dhakal; among engineers B. B Ghising, Shree Kumar Chhetri, Yadu Ram Acharya, Suresh Nepal, Yadunath Regmi, Bal Bir Thapa, T. B Poudel, C.B Dahal, Santiram Poudel; among advocates Jagat Subba, D. B Rimal; and among successful women Tulsa Sharma, Chandrawati Chamlagai, Bhagirathi Lakai, Krishna Pradhan, Bishnu Gurung, Bhagawati Pradhan, Bidya Chhetri,Chandra Pradhan and hundreds of other successful professionals studied in this school.
Among other schools of Dagapela, Powgang Primary School that served the children of Emerey and Dorona block for a decade has no mention of its existence at all.
All Dagapelian know that some miscreants torched the school in 1990, all Dagapelian condemn that ruthless act, but deliberately omitting its existence in a research document prepared by RUB under the leadership of Zangley Drukpa and Thinley Gyamtsho is a deplorable act, eliminating the history of people who lived for over a century.
The writer, who graduated from Goshi Junior High School in 1987, served as Camp Secretary of Goldhap, and Primary Curriculum Planner cum Teacher Trainer at the Bhutanese Refugee Education Program (BREP) run by the Caritas Nepal. He can be reached at [email protected]
Editor’s note : This was the second part of the writer’s article Bhutan: truth alone triumphs, not falsehood that the BNS carried in two parts.
Editor’s Note: Padam Rizal is one of the contributing authors at Bhutan News Service (BNS). This piece and/or his opinion doesn’t reflect the official view of BNS
