Southern Bhutanese, who are Nepali by ethnicity, have become the victims of government’s arbitrary action in 1950s and 1990s. In neither of the eviction, they were allowed to return and settle in their original lands. The repatriation attempts of those evicted in 1990 is underway but there are no any remarkable progress made.
Many writers mentioned that first batch of Nepalis reached Bhutan in 1624. “Advent of Hinduism in Bhutan started in seventh century when Bhrikuti sent some architect to built Buddhist monasteries in Bhutan” in about 649 AD. It is said that there was a Hindu King named Darpudev Lama in ancient Bhutan. Though those collections consist of a small community, the bond gang of Hindu advent in Druk Yul was in 1624 AD. Bhutanese incarnatory Lama Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal visited Gorkha principality in Nepal ruled by Ram Shah and 45-50 families were sent with him under the captainship of Bishnu Thapa (some says Bishun Thapa). He also visited Kathmandu and taken some art and craftsmen from Shiva Simha Malla. However, large section of them had migrated to the country in late 19th and early 20th century. They became the medium in building and strengthening relation of Bhutan with Britishers in India. A British official noted: “we cannot afford to let the Chinese establish influence in Bhutan. However, it is fast becoming a Nepali state. Already 3/4 of the population of Sikkim are Nepalese and Gorkhas who are multiplying fast are streaming over into a vacant places in Bhutan. In obvious reasons, it is of real importance to keep the Gorkha State under our control.”
The term upon which members of this community cultivate land and pay taxes in southern Bhutan are now broadly equivalent to those of other Bhutanese. Thus, while discriminatory have not been totally eliminated, the community’s economical and political status have been greatly improved over what it was in 1950s.
In the report on his visit Weir, British political officer in Sikkim, expressed some anxiety about the future for Bhutan as the population could be in decline owing to in breeding and the reduction of immigration from Tibet. The problem of a declining indigenous population was accentuated by the great increase of Nepalese coming into the south. Such and other evidences encouraged the present Bhutanese authority to evict the southern Bhutanese. The government claimed that more than 100,000 people in the south are non-nationals who entered the country in early 1960 when the economic development in the kingdom began.
