Unbecoming Citizens

This book was prompted by the arrival in Nepal during the early 1990s of some 95,000 people of Nepal ethnic origin who claimed to be citizens of Bhutan (a Buddhist Himalayan kingdom with a population of less than a million) who had been wrongfully evicted from their country. Bhutan is popularly regarded as a Himalyan Shangri-la, and very few outside Nepal believed the refugees allegations in the early years of their exile. Even twelve years later, not a single refugee had returned to Bhutan.

The book is based on research conducted in Bhutan and Nepal during seven visits to the region between 1992 and 2001, and particularly on interview-based life history research in the refugee camps in Nepal. It reconstructs the history of the Nepali community in
Bhutan, from the first settlers migration to its southern belt in the late 19th century up to the exodus of many of their descendants to Nepal in the late 20th century. It analyses the new policies on citizenship, language, a nd dress which were adopted by the Bhutanese government in the 1980s, and the political resistance to these measures which led ultimately to the denationalisation and flight of many erstwhile citizens. As it describes these developments, the narrative also pauses at intervals to reflect on the relationship between national, cultural and ethnic identities, and on the ways in which history can be constructed and utilised to buttress competing claims. It deals with the specificities of the Bhutanese issue in detail and draws out its broader implications for a world awash with refugees.

Readership: Scholars of politics, culture studies, history, refuge studies and those working on displacement theories and its resultant implications.

Michael Hutt, Dr, Reader in Nepali and Himalayan Studies and Associate dean in Faculty of Languages and Cultures, SOAS, University of London

Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Contexts: Land on a rim, Bhutan and the Bhutanese, Authenticity and historical truth, Unbecomign citizens
Matters of history
The history of Umbho, Nepali migration: The historical context, Since the time of the Shabdrung, priests, and patrons, To Protect the land of Bharmadeva
Southern Bhutan in early British accounts
Early encounters, A narrow slip of land, Bhutan and the Younghusband mission, First sightings
The legend of Garjaman Gurung
Ponlops and thekadars, D.B. Gurung s memoir, Using the legend, Questions of historicity
The Settlement and Administration of the South
A chronology of Nepali settlement, The ethnic boundary, The adminstraion of southern Bhutan, The Paro Ponlop and the Dorjes, The Mandals, Land ownership and registration, 5.7 The payment of taxes, 5.8 Revenue from below, 5.9 The contribution of labour
The changing bases of subjecthood
Calkling the raiyats back home, the case of Akhal Singh
Lhotshampa culture
Bh
utanese Nepaliness, Caste and ethnicity, Assumed characteristics, Ascribed characteristics, The absence of Nepali literature, Of pandits and pathshalas
The first activists
Jai Gorkha, The death of Masur Chetri, The Bhutan State Congress
Coming closer to the king
Coming down from Tonga, Political representation, The granting of citizenship, Opening the schools, Building the roads, Moving east, A sense of belonging
The conditions for belonging
Legislation on citizenship, Censues, the 1988 census
11. Becoming the same
A homogenizing nationalism, Driglam namzha, A national costume, Enforcing culture, Anxieties and dissent, A national language, Demoting Nepali, Bhutanizing buildings
Now we will all be cirminals
Nepali politics in India, The petition to the king, Early Lhotshampa dissidence, Arrests and reprisals, Demonstrations
The Ngolops
The creation of the ngolop, Becoming afraid, The closure of schools, Voluntary emigrants, The punishment of Tek Nath Rizal
Dil Maya: fragm
en
ts of a life
Refugees and life histories, Introducing Dil Maya , Dil Maya s life, The spread of fear, Leaving Bhutan, The future, Refugees from Shangri-la, A postscript, The gaps between nation-states, The construction of national cultures, A small state, a Shangri-la, Repairing the tear in the fabric, Some legal perspectives, The Brahmans of Shambhala
Appendix
Bibliography