Sikkim: An Insurgency Free State

Abstract

Sikkim is the only insurgency free state in North- East India apart from Meghalaya. The paper attempts to determine the factors that have led to Sikkim being free of insurgency while the entire area is infested by insurgent groups. Owing to the relative lack of analytical research on the State, the question has never been answered before. Sikkim has turned out to be the only state in the North- Eastern region which has no history of insurgency. As such it may act as a medicine for the problem of insurgency in the North- East despite marked differences in the conditions of Sikkim and other North- Eastern states. The 'Sikkim Approach' to solve the problem of Insurgency might prove very useful in the long run. The Sikkim story is a story of development and security which should be the ideal approach of governance in any state. If this approach is successfully adopted in other states as well the problem of insurgency might soon be a thing of the past. The 'North-Eastern Region' of India is one of the most disturbed regions of India. Ethinically diverse it is severely gripped by insurgency and terrorist movements and is a home to more than 200 insurgent groups. 1 The region comprises of the seven contiguous sister-states and their brother i.e. Sikkim. Unlike the turbulent sister-states, Sikkim was always a peaceful state since its incorporation in India. Sikkim, till date, has not witnessed any insurgency movements. The lone incident of spill over of Insurgency from neighbouring states has been the arrest of National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) vice- president Dhiren Boro alias Bipul Sonowal on 1 st January 2003 along with his wife, two children and two body guards. 2 Apart from this sole incident Sikkim has never had any reported incidents of Insurgency.