Sunday, September 02, 2007

Weekend Reading


Himal Magazine Cover feature
Lepcha v hydropower
Do Gangtok and New Delhi policymakers view the Lepcha ancestral homeland as sacrosanct or not? The answer cannot be both.


By : Soumik Dutta


Sikkim has recently been witness to what may be the longest satyagraha in its history. The indefinite hunger strike was called on 20 June 2007 by the Affected Citizens of Teesta, an ostensibly apolitical organisation formed to fight the Gangtok government’s decision to build seven large-scale hydroelectric projects within the ancestral lands of the indigenous Lepcha community. Since then, at any given time passers-by at the Bhutia Lepcha House in Gangtok have seen at least ten satyagrahis lying down in silent protest – young women and men, as well as a host of Buddhist lamas.READ MORE ABOUT IT @http://www.himalmag.com/2007/september/sikkim_hydropower.htm