Fashioning a ‘Buddhist’ Himalayan Cartography: Sikkim Darbar and the Cabinet Mission Plan

Abstract

In the months leading up to the transfer of power in India, the eastern Himalayan kingdom of Sikkim made several representations to the Cabinet Mission and other constitutional bodies that were giving shape to the successor Indian government. The Sikkim Darbar was worried that its ambiguous position under colonial treaties might lead India to treat it as one of the five-hundred odd princely states that were slowly merging with the union. In letters, memoranda, legal briefs, and personal meetings, the Darbar argued that it was racially, religiously, socially, and culturally distinct from India, and that its allegiance lied to its north with Tibet. This article traces the vocabulary for the Sikkim Darbar’s assertion of difference from India back to the racialised imperial writing and realpolitik that had informed colonial policy towards the Himalayan states since the nineteenth century, most notably Olaf Caroe’s 1940 thesis on the ‘Mongolian Fringe’. This archival evidence emphasises Sikkimese agency and helps excavate an imagination of the Himalaya from within the region. The article also nuances the history of the forging of Indian republic by foregrounding the processes of negotiation and compromise that continued to shape the territorial contours of the Indian nation long after the moment of decolonisation. 1