CHOGYAL PALDEN THONDUP NAMGYAL MEMORIAL LECTURE (Speech delivered by Sri G.S. Lama aka Sanu Lama on the occasion of the Concluding Function of Chogyal Palden Thondup Namgyal’s Centenary Birth Celebration, 2023)

PART-II

However, destiny sometime finds devastating ways to interfere with human plans. Such interferences, both men made or designed by destiny, keep happening in human life. But these interferences are rarely on the scale of changing the entire course of history of a nation however big or small that nation may be. To cut the story short, we couldn’t release the disc record in the manner we had thought of.

          The reason was, a nasty political situation suddenly erupted right out the blue catching the ancient land of Beyul Demazong by total surprise. I wouldn’t like to go into the detail of it not only because everything is on record, but also because it is not relevant to the topic of today’s deliberation. The topic of my talk today, as you already know, is the song Jahan Bagchha Teesta Rangit and its impact on the Sikkimese people and on their psyche.      

          As the political agitation of the year 1973 slowly escalated, people from the districts of Sikkim started pouring into Gangtok. Suddenly the people had turned into anti monarchy mob and were demanding political as well as electoral reforms in Sikkim. Gangtok was soon teeming with people shouting the anti Chogyal and anti establishment slogans. In the midst of all this, a couple of days before the 4^th of April, I led a small group of member?artistes of Sangeet Kala Kendra to the Palace where the Chogyal kindly released the disc record of Jahan Bagchha without any fanfare. Why because, the Sikkim situation was worsening by the day. I was concerned for the marketing of the disc records. But, since the song had already become popular, I had been thinking that there would be no problem in its sale in the local markets.

However, it was not to be so. Since there is a mention of the words “Raja ? Rani” in the song, I soon started receiving threatening calls on my telephone from people unknown to me. One day, the person to whom I had entrusted the task of distributing the records in the local markets came to me to return all the unsold records. He too had been receiving threatening calls. The poor man was too scared to market the records.

Ladies and Gentlemen, this brings me to another chapter of the song as to how the song Jahan Bagchha was able to establish an intimate sort of relationship with the Sikkimese people. I would like to describe few of these anecdotes here in the form of montages or short sashaying accounts.  

Account No. 1:

The date was 15^th of May, 1975. Time: Evening.

The Doctors of the STNM Hospital residing in the Doctors’ Quarters just above the hospital had assembled in one of their colleagues’ sitting room. Sikkim’s National Flag was hung on one of the walls. Below the flag was a small table on which a record player was kept. As the evening progressed, all the doctors and some members of their family assembled in the room. All were visibly upset and, most of the time, they were silent. The only sound that was coming was from the record player. The song being played was Jahan Bagchha Teesta Rangit. With their eyes moist and the voice choked, those doctors spent the whole night looking at the National Flag of Sikkim on the wall and listening to as well as singing the song Jahan Bagchha. Why because, the next day, the 16^th of May, 1975, the National Flag of Sikkim was scheduled to be pulled down and replaced with the Indian Tricolour!

Account No. 2:

           Venue: Gangtok’s Old Market.

           During the peak of the Sikkim’s political agitation of the 1970s, a huge pro merger crowd assembled in the town to counter the anti merger group. Between the two rival groups, a strong contingent of Sikkim Police was making sure that the two groups don’t end up bashing each other. Whereas the pro merger people were raising slogans in support of their cause, and were also lambasting the rival group in abusive language, the rival group was simply singing Jahan Bagchha Teesta Rangit all the time. The face-off between the two groups continued throughout the day, and the rival group kept singing Jahan Bagchha all through the day.

Account No. 3:

Venue: Jorethang Petrol Pump.

Year: late 1979.

I was returning from my official tour of West Sikkim and was refueling the vehicle at the Jorethang petrol pump. A group of four men recognised me and started coming towards me. I could recognise them as members of the 1973 agitation. They were from the pro merger group who had resented the Jahan Bagchha song.

After the exchange of greetings, one of them said to me that they have formed a political party and would like the song Jahan Bagchha Teesta-Rangit to be their party’s signature song. They wanted my permission in this regard.

I was wholly surprised, but I didn’t let them know I was surprised. Instead, while congratulating them for their new party, I politely told them that the song is already in the public domain. I also told them that I have dedicated the song to the people of Sikkim and, therefore, it is now the property of the Sikkimese people. As members of Sikkimese society, they do not require my permission to use the song in any way.

          However, in my mind I was playing with the thought:  “What a change of heart!”

Account No. 4:

          Venue: A Cruise Ship in Thailand.

          Year 2018.

          Two Sikkimese ladies, Mrs. Samten Doma and Ms. Mala Rai, former Secretary and Deputy Director to the Government of Sikkim respectively, boarded a cruise ship in Thailand to enjoy the famous Golden Triangle Tour. The ship was brimming with people from many nations.

          In the evening, while the boat was cruising through the serene waters, a couple of people stepped onto the stage of the ship and started singing a song in their native language. They were followed by another group from another country who also sang their country’s song in their native tongue. Some even broke into impromptu dancing while singing. This went for a long time. The atmosphere in there was quite delightful. Tourists were taking turn to sing their respective country’s songs in their own languages.

          Our Samten Doma also became extremely enthusiastic to sing a Sikkimese song. She climbed onto the podium and started belting out a song into the microphone in her full throated voice. Nobody must have understood a word of the song but there were loud cheers all round when the song ended. Mala Rai told my niece Shova Lama that Mrs. Samten was presented with some cash by the cruise ship’s management for her performance! The song she sang was Jahan Bagchha Teesta Rangit! The brave lady sang the complete song and felt like “Hum kisise kam nahin”, meaning “We are not less than anyone!”

          Ladies and Gentlemen, the cruise ship montage in the series of Jahan Bagchha story brings me to the last of the narrative. This narrative is related to a personality no less than the Chogyal of Sikkim, His Majesty Palden Thondup Namgyal.

Account No. 4:                             

It was early April, 1980.

I was in my office at the Tashling Secretariat when my telephone rang. I picked up the receiver. Caller was the ADC to the Chogyal. He said that the Chogyal Chempo desires to have twelve numbers of the disc records of Teesta-Rangeet song, and added that the Zungkhyang will shortly be on a visit to the United States of America, and wishes to carry the records with him.

It was something very big for me. It was nothing short of a miracle, actually. It would be an understatement to say that I was thrilled. In the evening I told my wife that the Chogyal wants to take twelve numbers of Jahan Bagchha records to the USA. At this breaking news, the whole family became very excited. My wife and the children helped me gift-pack the twelve disc records.

I promptly made it to the Palace the next day, and met the ADC in his office adjacent to the Palace building. I handed over the packet containing the disc records to him. The ADC took the packet and, asking me to take a seat, went out of the room. I sat on a chair. When the ADC came back after some time, he said, ”Mr. Lama, Chogyal wants to see you. Please wait.”

Somewhere deep in my heart I had hoped to see the Chogyal. And, my hope was about to turn into reality. I didn’t have to wait for long. Chogyal Chempo was in the ADC office sooner than I had expected. I hurriedly stood up and, most respectfully, paid my obeisance. Extending an envelope towards me, the Chogyal said, “Thank you, Mr. Lama. . . Take it.”

I instantly knew what was inside that envelope. So, therefore, I politely refused to take it murmuring that the records are my respectful gift to the Chogyal Chempo. The Chogyal didn’t say anything. He simply gave me a caring smile and retired from the room.       

Two days later, around noontime, I received a letter in my office. It was from the Palace. The Chogyal had left for the States early that morning. I opened the envelope with shaking hands. It contained a letter and some cash. I was truly dumbstruck. I guessed that the Chogyal had ensured that the envelope was delivered to me only when he had left Gangtok lest I refused to accept it again. However it was just a thought. As for the letter, it was a “Thank You” note signed by the Chogyal. I was really touched by the Chogyal’s gesture.

Ladies and Gentlemen, When I had met the Chogyal two days earlier, how was I to know or realise that that was going to be my last meeting with him? But that was how an unkind destiny had designed it. Severely ailing in a far away land and surrounded by strangers, the Chogyal breathed his last on the 29^th of January, 1982. It was exactly seven hundred and seventy-two days since my meeting with the Chogyal that he had passed away.

So, therefore, in a way, I want to tell our young Sikkimese generation that “no”, it has not been a fairy tale-like “they lived happily ever after” ending for our royal family. As for us, with the Chogyal gone, the kingdom gone, the monarchy gone, the national anthem and the national flag gone, we had become the sort of people whom a most unkind history had rendered orphans.

However, talking of the national flag of Sikkim, have you noticed, Ladies and Gentleman, that the erstwhile national flag of Sikkim and the national flag of India bear a significant similarity? Of course the colours and the designs of the two flags are different. However, there is one significant similarity in both the flags. This strikingly common feature is the image of the Dhamma Chakra, also called the Asoka Chakra, at the centre of the two flags!

What this means is quite interesting!

This means that our core Sikkimese values and principles still fly high on India’s national flag. Sikkim’s core principles and values, as signified by the Dhamma Chakra in respect of being an independent kingdom, trace their origin to the Buddha’s teaching of samata meaning “of equal measure” or “equality” among the ranks and file of the human race. The Buddha’s idea of samata in human affairs, which is also symbolised by the Dhamma Chakra at the centre of the Tricolour, has most gloriously been translated into words in the Preamble of the nation’s Constitution. It was Baba Saheb Bhim Rao Ambedkar, the architect of the Nation’s Constitution, who had the vision and intellect to redraft and redesign the Buddha’s teaching on samata as the Preamble to the nation’s Constitution.   

 So, therefore, Ladies and Gentlemen, let us rejoice in the knowledge that the core Sikkimese principles and values have found a new abode in India’s national flag as well as in the Preamble of the nation’s Constitution. Let us stop bemoaning of the past. Instead, carrying pristine hope, pride, and conviction in our hearts, let us put our best foot forward in making our Su-Him a Shangri-La in the truest sense of the term.

Thank you all. 

(Concluded. Contributed by Mandeep Lama)