“All that is needed for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing” -  Edmund Burke

“The growth of reason and the advance of truth, while in themselves sufficient to conquer the forces of prejudice and ignorance, cannot occur until enlightened men are found ready to devote their whole lives to the task of educating the vast benighted mass of mankind.” - Isaiah Berlin

“It is better to be a dissatisfied man than to be a satisfied pig” -  John Stuart Mill

     Over the past three decades or so since Sikkim became a part of Indian Union the ushering of democratic process in this tiny state has not been without much political turmoil. In it's last hours, Sikkim’s tottering monarchy could not withstand the force that had identified itself with the forces of democracy. Unlike those power- hungry monarchs of all human history who have displayed their extraordinary zeal to fight back the growth of reason and advancement of democratic ideals, the last king (Chogyal) of this tiny Himalayan kingdom had as much admiration for the democratic values as he had for his people and the land. However, his failure to appreciate the timely clamor of his people for certain democratic rights and to concede over them made his very institution i.e., Chogyal an arch enemy of democracy for the posterity to come.

     In spite of the fact that the common masses of Sikkim remained utterly untouched by what was happening in its neighboring country India, which was gripped by the movement of freedom struggle against the British raj, there were few individuals and groups who were rather passively watching the political developments in India and were trying to correlate it with Sikkim’s political situation. The demand for certain democratic rights coupled with anti-feudal and anti-monarch mood which were reverberating in the minds of some of the educated individuals of Sikkim could be considered as a direct impact of the democratic ideals which had ultimately shaped India’s freedom struggle.

     Ever since the formation of some political parties in Sikkim during it's monarchy rules, the demands these parties raised were all democratic in nature. Demands like the abolition of landlordism, formation of an interim government, popular representation in the king’s council and so forth all reflected the same mass disposition that people wanted to have their adequate say and share in the kingdom’s administration. The last Maharaja turned Chogyal, P. T. Namgyal towards the fag end of his regime, when faced with the host of such demands, did not realize that these demands had their very inception as early as in 1947 when the Sikkim State Congress under the president ship of Tashi Tshering (popularly known as Tashi Babu) had made the “three fold demands”, (a) abolition of landlordism,(b) formation of an interim government as a prelude to a democratic and responsible government and (c) accession of Sikkim to the Indian Union. A long term negotiation with these demands along with short term concession could have definitely saved Chogyal and his kingdom. But at the last hour of crisis reason did not prevail over him and thus came the end of 333 years of monarchy in Sikkim. Chogyal having failed to yield to the democratic demands of his people, however, yielded to the political intrigue of the Indian diplomats which ultimately resulted into the accession of Sikkim into the Indian Union.

     It makes a great deal of sense to say that Sikkim has been a place where the people have bestowed absolute faith on their so called leaders. This must be one of the reasons behind the success of one-man-show politics in Sikkim.

>> Kazi Lhendup Dorji -a Liberal Democrat

>> Nar Bahadur Bhandari and his metamorphosis

>> Pawan Chamling and the Elusive Democracy in Sikkim