Ups and downs in a relationship By Sonam Peldon Kuensel Indo-Bhutan: The history of Bhutan is ‘really’ the story of Bhutan’s exchanges and interactions with India, historian and author of History of Bhutan, Dr Karma Phuntsho said at the literary festival that ended recently in the capital. Dr Karma Phuntsho, in his session titled, ‘The Mirror of the Past’, said that it was important for cultural and educational exchanges like the literary festival for the Indo-Bhutan friendship, because ‘sometimes unfortunate incidents, like in the recent past, happens.’ “Perhaps the Bhutanese didn’t quite like India’s interference into our local politics, but states make mistakes because they have their own self interests,” Dr Karma Phuntsho said. “States or governments normally take self interests as their priority, and do things that can be detrimental to a very unique friendship.” India withdrew subsidies on LPG and kerosene a fortnight before Bhutan went to the polls last month, that resulted in the doubling and tripling of prices of these essential commodities. The withdrawal was one of the most talked about issues in the campaigns by the winning party, as the former government was alleged to have strained Indo-Bhutan relations by ‘shaking hands’ with China. The historian and founder of Loden Foundation, who also teaches Buddhism and Bhutan studies around the world, said Bhutan’s isolation is often exaggerated when Bhutan’s history is talked about. “Bhutan was isolated, geographically, socially and economically compared to other countries, but it was also in between major cultural centers,” he said adding that there was also a lot of cultural flow going up and down the Bhutanese valleys, like Paro and Bumtang valleys, which were both trade and cultural routes going north to south. Among those external influences, the Indian influence, he was very important and strong. “In the initial phase of Bhutan’s history, you have personalities like Padmasambhava and lot of Indian personalities coming to Bhutan with their ideas and practices,” he said. “We don’t have historical evidence to really prove how far and to what extent they have really influenced Bhutan but we can roughly refer from the outcomes, that they did have a great deal of influence.” In the second phase, the Indian influence came to Bhutan when Buddhism came, via Tibet. “There was not much coming directly from India because the Buddhist religion was declining in India due to Muslim invasion,” Dr Karma Phuntsho said. “So the Buddhist heritage that came via Tibet was actually Indian or Indic in nature.” The academician differentiates the two and calls it Indian when it comes directly from India, and Indic when it’s Indian but a derivation coming via some other culture. In the initial phase, the Bhutanese looked up to India as a holy land and the Indians as the superior race. “But after the Muslims invasion, and decline of Buddhism, there was almost no interaction until Zhabdrung came in and revived the exchange with the Kamtapur and Koochbihar kingdoms,” he said. “But with the entry of East India company, we again open a very unfriendly unhappy chapter with India.” Dr Karma Phuntsho said that with the entry of East India company, British India, the relationship between Bhutan and India became little unhealthy and unfriendly because of the disputes over territory. “So that unfriendly and sometimes even hostile relationship even resulted in loss of about one fifth of our country, the Duar areas, to India,” he said. “But since the beginning of the 20th century, Ugyen Wangchuck, started a new chapter of relationship with India, which was much more friendly, much more far sighted and Bhutan started to change its direction, in terms of economic and political orientation from the north to the south.” According to the academician, the relationship became a very unique and very special friendship between Bhutan and India towards the end of the 20th century. “Especially after the rewriting of the treaty in 2007, Bhutan and India has mutual trust, mutual cordial relationship that was based on a very special connection, on the level of people particularly,” he said. But despite the “special unique friendship,” Dr Karma Phuntsho admits that Bhutan’s relation with India, at the moment is not on equal terms or footing. “We know India is still the dominant force, but that’s unavoidable because India is a thousand times bigger than us – demographically, geographically and so we wouldn’t reach a stage to be on an equal footing for a long time,” he said. But he cautioned that Bhutan has to be very careful in terms of what it takes or receives from India. “As it is, Indo-Bhutan relation has become a channel for Indian influence – culturally, economically, politically and the worse I think is economic dependence on India, which we really have to address,” he said. “If the current dependence continues, then the friendship that we have with India will never be an equally mutual friendship,” he said. “There will always be little problem in power dynamics.”
Posted on: Wed, 14 Aug 2013 23:10:55 +0000
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