Slavery in Bhutan

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Slavery in Bhutan was a common

By the 19th century, Bhutan had developed a slave trade with Sikkim and Tibet. During this time, the kidnapping of British subjects as slaves, as well as the repatriation of escaped Bhutanese slaves, became major points of contention amid rising hostilities between Bhutan and the British Empire. The position adopted by Britain was to allow enslaved British subjects to return of their own free will, but refrain from repatriating escaped Bhutanese slaves back to Bhutan. (Cf. non-refoulement)^[1][2][6][7]

During the 19th century, the British government also grappled with slavery in neighboring Sikkim and Cooch Behar. By 1877, slaves from Bhutan were regarded by the British government as Bhutanese refugees. Meanwhile, the slave trade remained a lucrative source of profit to local Bhutanese officials near the Indian border.^{[1][2][7][8][9]}

In the early 20th century, Bhutan limited the slave trade as it developed laws reflecting the

Culturally and linguistically part of the populations of West Bengal or Assam, these slaves were mostly caste Hindus and practiced wet-rice and dry-rice agriculture. Indian slaves were generally brought to Bhutan from tribal areas.^[5] Many slaves who arrived since the 1800s were the forefathers of modern Lhotshampa, a heterogeneous community of Nepalese origin in southern Bhutan.^[12]

As slaves of the state, many slave communities were concentrated in traditional population centres such as Thimphu and Punakha.^[5]

Treatment of slaves

The majority of slaves in Bhutan were bound to government service. Others cleared the humid

As part of King Jigme Dorji Wangchuck's modernization efforts, land reform was accompanied by the abolition of slavery and serfdom.^[14] After abolition, many ex-slave communities were near traditional population centres because it was there that they had been pressed into service to the state. Many of these former slaves and their descendants have remained in urban centres, supporting and joining an emerging rentier class.^[5]

Rural slaves including many Lhotshampa, who had developed malarial jungles into productive agricultural lands, feared eviction and deportation. With the enactment of land reform and the Nationality Act of 1958, they were granted citizenship and began to prosper. In part because the manumission of slaves and serfs was accompanied by land redistribution awarding them outright ownership, slavery left no legacy in Bhutan comparable to that of African Americans in the United States and Brazil.^[12][15]

The Nationality Act of 1958 was repealed by the Citizenship Act of 1985. After this the first nationwide census was implemented from 1988. The largest group within the country affected by the enforcement of the Citizenship Act were the Lhotshampa people; this group, a generalized term for those of Nepalese descent, comprised 43% of the total population of Bhutan in 1988. Bhutanese security forces moved through the southern regions of the country, home to most of the Lhotshampa, forcing them from their homes and across the southern borders into Nepal. Because most of the people exiled did not speak Dzongkha, they were classified as illegal aliens, thus able to be removed from the country. In total, between 100,000 and 150,000, 1/6 of Bhutan's population in 1988, ended up in Nepalese refugee camps. By 2015 over 100,000 Bhutanese refugees in Nepal were settled in third nations.^[16]

See also

• History of Bhutan
• Human rights in Bhutan
• Immigration in Bhutan
• Rentier capitalism
• Rentier state
• Slave trade
• Slavery in China
  • Serfdom in Tibet controversy
• Slavery in India
• Citizenship Act of 1985

References