Mandals as the boosters of peasants' resistance in Feudal Sikkim

The Mandals or the village heads played a vital role in igniting the idea of resistance among the slumbered conscience of the Sikkimese peasantry. They were appointed by the Kazis or in some cases by the Mukhtiyars. Their machinery role was to work as a village headman and to collect taxes from the peasants of their respective villages. A peasant had to deposit his taxes in time, which included house tax and land tax known as Dhurikhajana and Jamin Khajana. If he fails to pay his taxes on time, he would be given a chance to pay his taxes the following year. But, during his payment the peasant had to pay his tax with a huge interest.However, some provisions were maintained by the Kingdom to rebate interests of the past year’s dues if a peasant made a full payment to his landlord. 25% of reimbursements were to be made by the landlords to the peasants. But, it appears that the feudal officials never implemented these provisions in a sincere manner. The Mandals had to issue a receipt confirming the payment of land tax and house tax to the peasant. Counterfoils of such receipts would be recorded in a register of demand and collection.

 Document written with pen is a tax receipt of the year 1929 of Late Ravilal Pyakurel of Tareythang Busty East Sikkim, Date of payment of Jaminkhazana 8th March 1930. Document written with pencil is tax receipt of Late Man Bahadur Limboo of Rabitar Namchi, Date of payment of Zamin Khajana 29^th December 1941. Both the documents bear signatures of their respective Mandals.

Such receipts were mostly written with pencils which bore the Mandal’s signature. If the Mandal had any grudge against the peasants, they would issue a wrong receipt taking advantage of the illiteracy of the latter.This would lead to a big trouble for the peasants as whatever they earned had to be deposited as land tax. More pathetically, if the amount of tax happened to be registered wrongly, they had no option to appeal. There were several such cases in the various villages of feudalistic Sikkim. A Mandal named Chatur Singh Rai of Assam Lingzey had made such false entry against one Dal Dhoj Rai of his village. The victim made an appeal to Gyaltsen Kazi, the landlord of his village but his appeal remained unheard to the authority. In frustration, the victim openly challenged his Mandal during a feast at the village for this act of “disobedience” Dal Dhoj Rai had to pay Rs. 25/- as fine to the Mandal. Keeping aside the outcome of the outburst of anger, it is now evident that the hidden transcript of the Sikkimese peasantry was taking a shape of a full throated expression.

The Mandals also had the litigation rights and were appointed to provide justice to the needy in the village. But, most of the peasants today believe that their verdict was not satisfying for them as most of the Mandals spoke languages of the higher officials. A notice issued by a Mandal Brihaspati Upadhyay of Tareythang village in East Sikkim to one peasant Late Ravilal Pyakurel affirms this. Written in an intimidating language, the notice asks the latter to be present on 20^th December 1945 at Danak Adda court without fail. However, few cases related to land and taxation of the villagers was forwarded to the Durbar by the Mandals through written complaints.

Notice issued by a Mandal Brihaspati Upadhyay of Tareythang village to one of his villagers Late Ravilal Pyakurel on 18th December 1945 against a report made by another villager Sarvey Bidhyapati Kafley stating that the accused had chopped off a tree.

Due to their proximity to power, these Mandals also exploited the Sikkimese peasants in the same manner as by the Kazis and the Thikadars. It has been revealed by the victims and the descendents of such victims that commoners were heavily exploited by the Mandals especially during special occasions in the palace like the birthdays of Kings and the Princes. During such occasions, these Mandals ordered the peasants to offer some kind of gifts to them which they would give to the Kazis as a memento from the peasants of their respective villages. The peasant had to gift rice, maize, butter, curd, wine and in some cases meat, fish, and other valuable edibles. Yearly collection of such gifts was made during Meshu Purnima in the month of Bhadra (July-August) also known as Bhadau Purnima in Nepali.

Apart from such cupidity, the Mandals, during the process of collection, used to keep a portion out of the collected gifts leaving nearly 85% to the palace. Again, those gifts were deducted by the Mukhtiyars and Kazis leaving hardly 25% for the occasion in the palace. The justification about keeping such gifts is also interesting “Maha Kadnele Haat ta chatcha nai” meaning ‘a person who takes out honey from the hives definitely licks his hands’. Further, the peasants had to send a member of his household to assist the Mandal during farming in the form of Bethi Khetala. This Bethi Khetala was a free service to be rendered by a villager to the Mandals. The sufferers remind their black years in these words:

“We had to go to the fields of the Kazi Thikadars and Mandals for the harvest or for farming; they gave a fistful of dry maize to work for the whole day”.

Receipt issued to a peasant Man Bahadur Limboo in 1945 by a Mandal Kharga Singh 

Auxiliary, when the peasants needed monetary help, they would visit the Mandals for debt to be used for the marriage, or in the death rites of the peasants. If a peasant took loan of Rs 100/- he had to pay interest of 1 Muri of Rice to the Mandal from whom he had taken the loan. Hence, in feudal Sikkim, the Mandals had designated themselves as Kazi and proved to be the one who were directly responsible for the exploitation which ultimately gave birth to the peasant resistance in the secluded Kingdom of Sikkim.

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References:

Tax receipts collected from Harka Bahadur Limboo aka Khukurey Bajey of Chota Singtam East Sikkim on 21st January 2012

  Information collected through personal interview from erstwhile Mandals Kharga Bahadur Chauhan of Temi, Chandra Bahadur Basnett of Namli, Passang Tshering Bhutia of Namin and Phur Tshering Lepcha of Marchak villages during field survey in December 2011 and January 2012

Sikkim State, Office of the Dewan, Order No.4, Revenue Administration, Dated 19th August 1949, Gangtok

 Information collected through personal interview from Ash Man Rai of Assam Lingzey on 27th January 2012

 Scan Copy of the Notice issued on 18th December 1945 by Mandal Brihaspati Upadhyay to Ravilal Pyakurel of Tareythang village, East Sikkim. The document is an important credential to understand the judicial rights enjoyed by the village Mandals.

Trilochan Pokhrel- The forgotten Gandhian of Sikkim

For the first time when I heard his name I was in III Standard. It was in a Nepali book called Kathamala there was a collected story about Gandhi Pokhrel. My toddler mind did not know who this person was and what was his contribution for Indian independence? As an average student I might have mugged up his name many times to write a proper answer about him during our annual assessment. I still can remember the sentence written in the book “Purba Sikkim Tareythang ka Gandhi Pokhrel....” (Gandhi Pokhrel from Tareythang East Sikkim). This was the only knowledge we have gained about the great Gandhian Soul of Sikkim Late Shree Trilochan Pokhrel a.k.a Gandhi Pokhrel or Bande Pokhrel.

Late Trilochan Pokhrel- The Forgotten Gandhian of Sikkim

Late Gandhi Pokhrel was born at Tareythang Busty in Eastern Sikkim possibly in the last decade of 19^th Century (We do not have any evidence to assert his year of birth). During his youth he was greatly influenced by the movements of Mahatma Gandhi which were based on the fundamental principles of non violence. We do not have much information about his involvements in the earlier movements of Mahatma Gandhi like Non Co-operation Movement and Civil Disobedience Movement. But, we can firmly claim his involvement in the famous Bharat Chhodo Aandolan (Quit India Movement) of 1942 from his contemporaries. His contemporaries inform us about his stay with Gandhiji at Sabarmati Ashram in Gujarat and Sarvodaya Ashram in Bihar. During his stay with Gandhiji he used to spin the Charkha, rendered his service for the Ashrams and assisted the Mahatma in his daily affairs. Late Trilochan Pokhrel had an immense faith in the teachings of simple life by Mahatma Gandhi which is manifested on the picture posted with this post. His contemporaries inform us that he used to visit his native village very infrequently in the costumes of the naked fakir Gandhi. Akin to Gandhiji he too wear a piece of cotton Dhoti, with a pair of Khadau (an Indian slipper made up of wood). Hence, they began to call him Gandhi Pokhrel. Further, few legends are still alive in the village of Tareythang about late Trilochan Pokhrel. It is said that he used to say Bande Mataram while greeting his elders at the village. Therefore, they began to refer him as Bande Pokhrel. Still there is a piece of land at the said village which once belong to this Gandhian known as Pokhrel Bari (Land of Pokhrel). But, he never used to stay at his home for a long time. Few elders of this village claim about their meeting with this Gandhian soul of Sikkim. In one of the stories I have heard about his involvement in propagating the concept of Swadeshi of Mahatma Gandhi among the Sikkimese peasantry. During his leisure he used to go to Rongli Bazar and sit there a side with his charkha (spinning wheel) to make cotton threads. Somebody told us that during Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s visit to Sikkim in 1957 he had come to his native place and used to talk about the enigmatic Indian Prime Minister in a voluminous manner. Perhaps this was his last visit to his native land and possibly he is the lone Sikkimese to take part in the Indian Struggle for independence.

Mr. Tara Prasad Bhattarai of Tareythang Pic: Binod Bhattarai

While inquiring about his descendants we were told that all his family members were migrated to Assam long time back. Hence, we could not gather much information about his other part of life. The only person from whom we can secure good information about late Pokhrel is Mr. Tara Prasad Bhattarai of Kapurpatey village. This retired teacher has still preserved few sources related to him. He has maintained one of his photographs and an envelop which he received 43 years ago from Bihar. The said envelop was posted from Purnia in Bihar which contains the death confirmation of this Sikkimese Gandhian which read thus “Expired on 27-1-69 at Prakritik Chikitsalaya, Ranipatra, P.O Ranipatra District Purunia Bihar at 9 AM”.

I am greatly thankful to Mr. Binod Bhattarai Research Scholar in Sociology Pondicherry University for sharing this photograph and additional information about this Gandhian Sikkimese. Further information about Late Trilochan Pokhrel the Sikkimese Gandhian soul shall be updated in the blog. 

Inside the Old Wooden Box of my Great Grandfather

Legal Notice sent by the Mandal 

I had seen that box since my childhood, but never had any curiosity to know what is hidden inside the locked old box. Probably, I did not have any interest in the history of Sikkim during all those years. As a Student of Pune University I was greatly interested in studying the Ancient Indian History which is a hallmark of the Aryan culture and Civilization. My ideas of studying the subject of my choice got smashed after I got a job as a Lecturer at Namchi Government College in September 2004. Now I could not go to other Universities to pursue a research on the subject of my choice due to the nature of my job. Even after knowing the base reality, I still was having a hallucination to go for the research in the said subject. I was trying everything to avail stipend from some Universities and the State Government of Sikkim, but could not succeed in securing them. Thus, my high dreams of studying Ancient Indian History were landed in the  erstwhile Himalayan Kingdom for the study of our own History.

Though, I am a Sikkimese but I never had any opportunity to study the History, Culture and Civilization of the Sangri-La during my student life. In the beginning it was very tough for me to cope up with the terminologies which were unsullied to me. But, after studying many books and journals the curiosity to know much about my own state got doubled. Therefore, I began to dream about the old and Independent Sikkim, where my forefathers had done so many things to make it a real one.

The Ration Card for Cloth

It was in October 2006, on the propitious occasion of Bada Dashain when I went to receive Tika from my elderly relatives at Tareythang (a typical Brahmin Village in East Sikkim) I again saw the old box after a long gap. With the help of my grandmother I thought of opening it. As I was assured, it contained few but important documents related to my Great Grandfather in particular and Independent Sikkim in general. The most amazing among them was a legal notice sent to my Great Grandfather by the then Mandal of Tarethang Village Late Brihaspati Upadhyay in 1945. It seems that there was a report made by one Vidhyapati Kafley of the same village against Late Ravi Lal Pyakurel (My Great Grandfather) who had allegedly cut down a tree of the former. Written in a bucolic Nepali, the document is very important for the study of legal system of Sikkim in the pre-independence period.

The oldest document among them is a tax receipt of 1928, followed by other receipts, letters and some personal documents. All these receipts have the signature of the village Mandals, who were then regarded as the Village Head Man in Sikkim. The system of Mandal was abolished in 1986 by Mr. N.B. Bhandari's Government. Another important document that was preserved by my Great Grandfather was a Ration Card for Cloth which was issued in 1948 from Gangtok.

Inside the Ration Card of 1948

The Ration Card has its own unique features. In order to get it an individual had to pay 25 Piase.  Further, the beneficiary had to show his Dhuri Ticket Number to avail the facility of a subsidized cloth. The card also reveals that 6 Gaj (1 ½) meter cloth was issued to an adult and 3 Gaj (75 Cms.) of cloth was given to a child in a family. In the card, the name of the Shop Keeper from where the recipient had to get his cloth is also given. It is clearly mentioned in Nepali that if somebody losses it the authority would not allow him to get another Card. Further, the beneficiary had to avail the facility of subsidized cloth in every three months.  It was issued from the Office of the Textile Commissioner, Gangtok and the Card was non transferable.  

Apart from the above documents, there are some other old receipts, letters and personal papers associated with my great grandfather. But, most unfortunately, I was unable to find any document or pamphlets related to the political development of Sikkim. Probably, Tareythang being a secluded place in those days those papers were not received by my great grandfather.