Agency: The Wangchuck dynasty in Bhutan was founded during a critical moment in national, regional, and global history. The leadership of our successive Kings ensured that the country’s security and sovereignty were not only protected but strengthened during a turbulent period characterized by the two World Wars, the Cold War, nationalist movements for independence, and decolonization in Asia and Africa. Many of Bhutan’s traditional neighbours found themselves as part of India and China as a result of changes, upheavals, and transformations in the region. Bhutan alone survives. According to Nirupama Rao, India’s former Foreign Secretary, “Bhutan has played this game of survival for a long, long time. Nobody does it better than them.”
Each successive King has risen to the specific challenges of their reigns concerning national security. They have preserved the country’s independence and sovereignty, which were defined, challenged, qualified, and tested for nearly a century. For example, His Majesty the King led the country through the COVID-19 pandemic, which posed an existential threat to the nation. During his reign, His Majesty the Fourth King had to deal with grave security threats posed by illegal immigrants and Indian militants. Since they were non-state actors, the situation became much more complex, involving multiple actors, both regional and international.
The demographic threat from illegal immigration, sought to transform the country’s poly ethnic character and balance. The ngolop issue was a very difficult and painful chapter in Bhutan’s recent history. The perpetrators sought to re-enact in Bhutan what had been similarly achieved in the neighbouring Indian states of Sikkim and West Bengal through demographic inundation followed by political movement. Many Northeast India states, particularly Assam, also confronted the demographic threat of illegal immigration around the same time. As late as 8th November 1998, the Governor of Assam wrote to the President of India about the threat to Assam’s identity and India’s national security posed by the large-scale, illegal migration that had occurred over many decades. In his letter, he defined the issue as “dangers arising from the continuing silent demographic invasion.” Assam, along with other Northeast Indian states, which have populations in the millions, was thus concerned about the loss of its cultural identity and the survival of indigenous people. When their expectations for redressal were not met by the central government, they took matters into their own hands and launched anti-immigrant movements, which often turned violent.
For Bhutan, the danger was even more severe, given its population, which is still less than a million. A small, poor, and landlocked country faced a problem traditionally associated with large and wealthy countries that attract immigrants. Western specialists in the region also recognized the existential threat Bhutan faced from demographic inundation.
Illegal immigration into Bhutan had occurred mainly after 1961. Bhutan launched its socio-economic modernization program to build roads, schools, hospitals, and other infrastructure. The free provision of education, health, and other social services by the government to its people, as well as the country’s peace and political stability, attracted immigrants. The growing economic opportunities in border areas, due to the establishment of businesses and industries, considering the proximity to the supply of raw materials from India and the export of finished products to the Indian market, enticed them to stay. They were able to conceal their presence by taking advantage of the similarity in ethnicity, language, and culture with the Lhotshampas who were granted citizenship in 1959 by His Majesty The Third King. In addition, the weak mechanism of state surveillance and vigilance, aggravated by a) long porous border and b) corruption and complicity of local government authorities, enhanced illegal entry into Bhutan. The government’s scarce resources and manpower were allocated to manage and oversee the development projects. By the time it became aware of the presence of illegal immigrants who had avoided detection, the numbers had swollen to alarming proportions.
The presence of thousands of illegal immigrants was identified in a nationwide census in the 1980s. Some were found to have even purchased land and property. The government asked them to leave for their country of origin. Suddenly, they realized that their illegal presence and unfounded claim of being Bhutanese were under question. So, they responded to denounce the census exercise as a state measure intended to expel Bhutanese citizens, particularly Lhotshampas. Intending to return with thousands of supporters, they crossed the border. Hundreds of Lhotshampa families also applied to the government to leave for Nepal. His Majesty personally visited their villages and asked the families to withdraw their applications. The message was that Lhotshampas are genuine Bhutanese citizens and have no reason to leave their homeland. For example, 150 families in Bhangtar and Daifam had applied to emigrate. After His Majesty spoke to them, only 26 families chose to stay back. All others left but would later accuse the Royal Government of forcibly evicting them.
The Nepalese government invited the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to establish camps for them in eastern Nepal, despite concerns and objections expressed by the Bhutanese government. The UNHCR had been heavily criticized by the international community for its failure in the early 1990s to address the refugee crisis in the Middle East during the Gulf War. So, they were looking for an opportunity to redeem their image, and found it among “people in the camps” soon after.
They provided free rations and accommodation, as well as allowances and other facilities. Suddenly, the population in the camp, which was about 231 people in January 1991, swelled to over 100,000 people in about three months. While they claimed to be “Bhutanese refugees,” most of them were, as later proven, mostly from within villages in Nepal and bordering areas. There was hardly any systematic procedure for screening and categorizing people into Bhutanese, Nepalese, or those of other nationalities. Life in the camps was more preferable for them than the challenging circumstances of their everyday lives in the villages. This was also the strategic goal of the ngolops, who sought to swell the number of people identified as “Bhutanese refugees” to strengthen their case with the international community.
This situation unfolded at a critical moment in world history when the Berlin Wall had collapsed and the Soviet Union was coming to an end, the Balkans were in flames, and international attention on the apartheid regime in South Africa was at its peak.
Aided by other external actors, the ngolops packaged their movement with emotive concepts and incendiary language that were gaining currency globally at the time. Borrowing those ideas and terminologies used to describe completely different situations in these other parts of the world, they deployed them to allege that the Bhutanese government had committed ethnic cleansing, violated human rights, trampled on the democratic movement, and imposed an apartheid-like regime. In this way, they scripted a different narrative to show ngolops as innocent victims of the Bhutanese state, while the actual victim was the tiny state of Bhutan and its distinct cultural and political identity, which the illegal immigrants sought to overwhelm and transform demographically.
They launched a terror movement in southern Bhutan, destroying lives and properties. Some of them were associated with the Maoists in Nepal. Various tactics were used to lure people from the South to join their causes. Those who refused to cooperate were attacked. A host of pseudo-political and human rights groups sprouted in Nepal and in the camps. They launched their campaign with the explicit goal of overthrowing the Bhutanese government. They were inspired by the success of the Jan Andolan movement in Nepal, as well as the support of the Nepalese media and people, and the sympathy of the international community. The threat to Bhutan’s security, sovereignty, and survival as a nation became very severe.
