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.
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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 29th December 1941. Both the documents bear signatures
of their respective Mandals.
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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 20th 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.
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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.
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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”.
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| 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.
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.
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