China’s Shadow Over Sikkim

This book brings together some of the major events between the mid-nineteenth century when the British started making inroads into Sikkim, and the merger of Sikkim with India in 1975. During this period of about 100 years, Sikkim changed its status from an independent feudal state to a protectorate of the British Empire, then as a protectorate of independent India and finally as the 22nd state of the Union of India. When all, the factors and events of that period are put together and all that the people at that time had thought, done and gained and all their mischief, crimes, follies and misfortunes are viewed in the context of destiny of that region, they combine to form a picture which is at once tense and kaleidoscopic.

It begins with the historical background with a brief history of the situation as it prevailed in Sikkim, Tibet, Bhutan & Nepal in the early 18th Century; with Sikkim becoming a British protectorate; examines the implications of the Anglo-Chinese Convention of 1890 followed by Lord Elgin with regard to the demarcation of the Sikkim-Tibet border; forward policy of Lord Curzon, the bogey of Russian intrigues in Tibet and the Younghusband expedition to Tibet; period of harmony and conflict of interests; Sino-Pak collusion and the Chinese ultimatum to open a second front in the Sikkim sector in support of Pakistan in its war against India in 1965; the pattern of Chinese propaganda & psychological warfare launched on the Sikkim-Tibet border; China’s unprovoked heavy firing at Nathu La and Cho La; internal turmoil during the decade of 1965-75, a period of fever, unrest, extreme tension and political changes.