Book Review (Spotlight Weekly)

Refugee Realities

Michael Hutt, a well-known British scholar of the Nepalese language, explains various dimensions of the Bhutanese refugee crisis

By KESHAB POUDEL

With arrival of about 100,000 Bhutanese refugees of Nepali origin in eastern Nepal, two Himalayan nations divided by their big neighbor India entered into a new complex row over repatriation. In the last 12 years, the two countries have held several rounds of talks but they are yet to find a common ground.

Unbecoming Citizens
By Michael Hutt
Published by Oxford, University Press
IC Rs.595
Pages: 308

The refugee impasse has generated internal and external complications in Bhutan. The crisis has focused international attention on an isolated small Himalayan kingdom of South Asia. After three civil wars between 1868 and 1885, the refugee problem is the major internal challenges faced by Bhutan.

While many books on Bhutanese refugees have come out analyzing sectoral dimensions, Michael Hutt's is the first that covers all the dimensions. The weakness of the book is the non-inclusion of the point of view of the Bhutanese government.

Despite many ups and downs in the Indian sub-continent, Nepal and Bhutan survived in tranquility for centuries, retaining their independent status. After the Chinese entry into the Tibet, the geo-strategic status of the region as a whole has changed, as has the status of Bhutan. It has become an important part of the security of the south of the Himalayas.

"But when the British left India in 1947 and the Chinese annexed Tibet a few years later, the external environment changed radically. Trade and cultural links with Tibet were severed after the Lhasa revolt in 1959, and India suddenly come closer, offering development aid, building road which linked Thimpu with India, and training the Royal Bhutanese Army," writes Hutt.

Situated in southern face of the Himalayas and surrounded by India to the south and China to the north, Nepal and Bhutan have many similarities in terms of geography and ethnicity. The residents in the north are people of Tibetan origin and those in the south are of Indian origin. Being a linguist, Hutt discusses the role of language, culture and religion in creating the problem.

In the last five decades, the relations between Nepal and Bhutan and India have seen many ups and downs because of misunderstanding about reality of their state. Unlike Nepal, Bhutan does not face any major diplomatic problem with its southern neighbor. Given all the circumstances, it is impossible to solve Bhutanese refugee problems without some sort of involvement of India. The book shows that India has long-term interests and influence over Bhutan.

This volume has cited all historical documents to analyze the Bhutanese refugee issue. The author has gone to considerable depth, meeting Bhutanese refugees and recounting their experiences.

Based on his visit to Bhutan in 1992 and several visits to Bhutanese refugee camps in Nepal between 1999 to 2001, Hutt explains the reasons for and consequences of the crisis. "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," says Hutt.

Geographically and geo-strategically, Nepal and Bhutan fall in the area of Indian influence. The northern high mountains do not permit other powers to retain their influence in the region. Although both countries have long borders with China, both have to rely on the southern neighbor for their survival in all vital aspects. As long as policy makers from both the countries do not realize the natural course of influence, the refugee impasse will continue.

"However, although most of its territory lies to the south of the Himalayan rim, Bhutanese origins and heritage are Buddhist and their older languages are Tibeto-Burman. While Nepal absorbed cultural, political and religious influence form India over many centuries, Bhutan was remote from centers of cultural innovation, isolated by geography from Indian influence, and prevented by the facts of its foundational history from friendly interaction with Tibet after the early seventeenth century," says Hutt.

Thanks to the Hutt's extensive research and scholarly work, the readers find beauty of Bhutan and its long-standing culture and ethnic compositions. His interview with Bhutanese refugees of Nepalese origin gives another human side including pain and trauma of the life of helpless refugees waiting to go back to their homeland.

"I wanted to find out what their position and plight could teach us about the problems of minority ethnicity in a small state whose survival, it was widely asserted, depended on its reinforcement and maintenance of an ethnicized national identity. This book contains my findings," Hutt says in his preface.