At the AGNI Forum on Religious Persecution in South Asia held at the Hague, Holland on Saturday 7th February 2004 Shri Nanda Gautam gave a vivid account of the persecution of his people in the kingdom of Bhutan.
Bhutan is a small nation nestled in the Himalayas between India and China. Her population is three quarters Buddhist Drukpas and one-quarter Lhotsampas Hindu.The latter live in the southern part adjoining India . The country is a monarchy ruled by the Wangchuk dynasty which since 1988 has been currently imposing far reaching legislative and judicial changes which has had a catastrophic effect on the Southern Bhutanese population (who are mainly Hindu).
Racial categorisation has been implemented to separate the “true” Bhutanese from the “non-Bhutanese”. Hindus have been enforced to wear not their traditional dress but that which is deemed by the emperor to be truly “Bhutanese”. Grown Hindu women were facing having their long hair forcibly sheared so as to conform with the majority population appearance.
When the Bhutanese Hindus began peaceful demonstrations in the early 1990’s to demand respect for their Human rights, they were most brutally repressed by the Army. The outcome was desperately tragic. Rape, murder and destruction of Hindu homes became widespread. Within a short time the Lhotsampas (Hindus) lost their homes, lands, and livelihood. The Bhutanese Hindus have been forced to flee to India and to Nepal where they have been languishing in camps for the past ten years.
There is well over 100,000 Bhutanese Hindus as refugees in India and Nepal-one-sixth of the entire population of Bhutan! There are people from generation to generation living in these refugee camps-all with tales of atrocities and persecutions to tell. All holding their documents to verify that they have been bonafide Bhutanese citizens. All wanting to return to their land and their livelihood (90% of Bhutanese earn their living from farming and forestry). The saddest sight of all are the Lhotsampa children their beautiful faces full of anxiety and despair-what is to be their future?
The systematic persecution and displacement of the Bhutanese Hindus by the Bhutanese monarchy is yet one more attempt to destroy and indigenous Hindu people and their Hindu way of life – they are on their way to joining the gallery of Kashmiri Hindus and Bangladeshi Hindus who have been ethnically and religiously cleansed!
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