The Lost Kingdom: Sikkim

Sikkim is a landlocked state of India.It is in the Himalayan mountains. Sikkim is bordered by Nepal to the west, Tibet to the north, Bhutan to the east, Indian state of west Bengal to the south. Since 1642, Sikkim was under the rule of "Namgyal" dynasty. King of Sikkim is called as “Chogyal”. Phuntsog Namgyal was the first Chogyal of Sikkim in 1642. After independence of India, Sikkim had retained guarantees of independence from Britain. Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru agreed to a special status for Sikkim. Sikkim was to be attributary of India in which India control its external defense, diplomacy and communication.  King of Sikkim Tashi Namgyal died in 1963 after suffering from cancer. His son Palden Thondup Namgyal became new Chogyal of Sikkim in 1965. This new king was viewed by India as politically dangerous, due to his wife. His second wife Hope Cooke was American citizen. She was suspected to be a CIA agent. Indian government didn’t want USA interference in Sikkim, India also have concern that unstable Sikkim will invite china to claim Sikkim as a part of Tibet/china. so, India decided to take covert steps for the merger of Sikkim. Indian government sent Ajit Doval as an undercover agent in Sikkim in 1970. He was assigned the job of merger of Sikkim in India. Ajit Doval succeed to unite small political parties of Sikkim under the leadership of Sikkim National Congress Party (Who was in favor of merging Sikkim into India). In 1974, Sikkim national congress party won an election and Lhendup Dorje became prime minister of Sikkim. Tensed relation between new prime minister and king resulted unstable environment in Sikkim. In 1975, Sikkim Prime minister Dorji appealed to the Indian Parliament for intervention. Indian police moved and take control over Sikkim and palace of king seized, all the Sikkim borders were closed. On 14 April 1975, referendum was held, in which Sikkim voted to merge with the India with more than 95% votes. Sikkim became the 22nd Indian State on 26 April 1975 and Lhendup Dorji became chief minister of Sikkim.

The indigenous people of Sikkim are not Nepalese, but lepchas and bhutias. But due to illegal immigration from Nepal, the demography changed to such an extent that more than 70% of the population became Nepali and the indigenous people a minority in their own land. When the king of Sikkim wanted to address this issue of large illegal Nepali immigrants, the Nepalese of Sikkim engineered a coup with the help of RAW, which led to toppling of the king and illegal annexation of Sikkim with India with the support of illegal Nepali immigrants who were facing eviction from that country and against the wishes of the king and indigenous people of Sikkim.