The growth in the awareness about the Nepali literature in India was undoubtedly pioneered by the Nepalese of Darjeeling. People of that expanse got enlightened about their language and literature due to their propinquity to the British. Sikkim was thence in a nap which was a sleep of illiteracy and unawareness. Very few of the Sikkimese were educated on the eve of the First World War and who belonged to the Super class and were not engrossed to make their subordinates aware about their literatures nor did they themselves had written anything. They were simply cramped in their revenue making practice. In such a state of affairs, to imagine a literary society was not less than a hallucination in the Sikkimese scenario. When Chandrika (A Nepali Newspaper edited and published by the jewel of Indian Nepali Literature lt. Paras Mani Pradhan) was widely circulated in the contiguous of Darjeeling, there were hardly a small amount of people in Sikkim who could write their names in their language. Though, the establishment of educational institutes was taken place in the first decade of the 20th century, but they were unable to produce the literary minds with their out dated theological syllabus. It was only after the arrival of Lt. Rashmi Prasad Alley to Sikkim the system of imparting education in Nepali language was started. The vigorous attempts of Lt. Alley are unforgettable and would be considered the same by every Sikkimese ceaselessly.
The credit for the prologue of the Nepali language in the Sikkimese schools goes to the then Maharaja Tashi Namgyal who allowed to approve Nepali as a language for the idea of giving out education to his Nepali subjects. With the introduction of Nepali as a vernacular language in the educational institutes, Sikkim had contributed lots in the Nepali Literary world. Many radical and rational writers were born in Sikkim among them the writers of the APATAN literary society are of importance. The Apatan Sahitya Parishad is the pioneer literary association of Sikkim founded by four eminent Sikkimese Nepali poets namely Agam Singh Tamang, Padam Singh Subba, Tulshi Bahadur Chettri and Nima Wangdi Lepcha. They had a cry in their writings a legitimate cry against the crooked practices customary in the society like landlordism and its associated vices.
Under the inventiveness of the APATAN literary society, the first literary meet was organized at White Hall Gangtok on 18th and 19th of November 1952. The important literary figures who were present in that meet were Kavi Siromani Lekh Nath Poudyal, Lt. Rashmi Prasad Alley, Bal Krishna Sama, Padam Singh Subba Apatan, Tulshi Bahadur Chettri Apatan, Lt. Kashi Raj Pradhan and among them the figure of great importance was Mahakavi Lakshmi Prasad Devkota. The conclusion of the first literary meet had a far reaching impact in the Sikkimese literature in general and the Nepali literature in particular. The essential accomplishment of the meet was the publication of the first news based journal of Sikkim Kanchanjunga from 15th of August 1957. The Newspaper was edited and published by Lt. Kashi Raj Pradhan which had played an imperative ingredient in heralding a new epoch of democracy in Sikkim.
(In the picture tall man in suit is Rashmi Prasad Alley, left to him in black suit is Kavi Tulshi Bahadur Chettri Apatan, Right to Alley is Bal Krishna Sama, next to Sama tall man in Nepali attire is Padam Singh Subba Apatan, the last man on the row in a black coat is Kavi Siromani Lekh Nath Poudyal)
Muna Madan: A Play in the Jhyaure Folk Tradition
Muna Madan: A Play in the Jhyaure Folk Tradition
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