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In 1975, a small country in South Asia hoisted the bright five-star red flag and declared itself part of the new China. However, three hours later, this small country disappeared from the world!
This small country is called Sikkim. Why did Sikkim take the initiative to hang the five-star red flag? What exactly does it have to do with China? And how did Sikkim disappear?
Take a look and uncover the history of the fall of Sikkim.
It has a long history
On April 10, 1975, the bright five-star red flag was raised in the royal palace of Sikkim. The King of Sikkim solemnly announced to the world that Sikkim would become part of the new China.
But before the declaration could reach the world, just three hours later, Indian troops openly marched into the royal palace of Sikkim. The Indians expelled King Palden of Sikkim and subsequently called a national referendum that made Sikkim the 22nd state of India.
What exactly does Sikkim have to do with China? At the moment of survival, why did Sikkim voluntarily announce its accession to China?
It all started in the seventh century AD.
On the edge of Tibet on the mainland, there are three neighbors, Bhutan, Nepal and Sikkim. Sikkim is in the middle of the other two countries and is also the smallest.
Although both are adjacent to Tibet, Sikkim has a unique geographical advantage, with an average altitude of nearly a kilometer lower than the other two countries, making it easier to walk. Throughout the ages, people who came to Tibet from South Asia liked to go through Sikkim.
The main ethnic group in Sikkim is the Rebcha, a branch of the Tibetan ethnic group on the mainland by blood. For nearly two thousand years, the Sikkim people have maintained close exchanges with their Tibetan compatriots in Tibet on the mainland.
In the seventh century, Songtsen Gampo unified the snowy lands and surrounding tribes, and Sikkim became part of the Tubo dynasty. It was not until two hundred years later, when the Tubo dynasty collapsed, and Sikkim became an independent state, the Kingdom of Sikkim.
Although Sikkim has become independent politically, culturally they have always been part of the mainland, because the state religion of Sikkim is Tibetan Buddhism, so they have always respected Lhasa and attached themselves to the mainland.
Later, as China's national strength became stronger, Sikkim took the initiative to become a vassal of the Ming and Qing dynasties, becoming one of its vassal states.
Under the protection of the Ming and Qing dynasties, Sikkim lived a stable life for hundreds of years. This state of friendship lasted until the 17th century. At that time, the Western industrial revolution was developing rapidly, and Western Europe set off an industrial boom. In the factory, all kinds of goods were produced day and night, and the European market quickly became saturated.
In search of a wider market, Europeans set off a colonial frenzy around the world. Far from the ancient east, they naturally will not let go.
Soon, India became a British colony, but the British, who had completely controlled India, were not satisfied and wanted to dump their goods on the vast expanse of China.
In order to smoothly open the Chinese market, the British chose two paths, one is dumping by sea. But the road did not go smoothly, for which they even started the infamous Opium War.
Britain, on the other hand, wants to use Tibet as a gateway to open up China's inland market. However, the mountains in Tibet are far away, and in order to successfully colonize Tibet, the British colonized three small border countries including Sikkim.
Although Sikkim had fallen to a colonial Power, its people had always considered themselves Chinese. The Sikkim royal family is also in constant contact with China, hoping to free itself from the control of the British government.
In order to increase their control over Sikkim, the British immigrated a large number of Nepalis to live in Sikkim. Although Nepal was also one of China's vassal states in the early days, because its national belief was mainly Hinduism, Nepal was more inclined to India in terms of cultural identity.
As India became a British colony, Nepal followed suit as a pawn of Britain in the southern Himalayas.
After Nepalese moved to Sikkim, they began to transform and influence the culture of Sikkim. These Sikkim-Nepalese grew in number and soon equaled the Sikkim.
As a result, Britain's influence in South Asia grew. But soon, after the end of World War I, Britain's position in the capitalist world was challenged, and Britain had to reduce its colonies in order to stabilize its country. Small places like Sikkim were naturally abandoned.
The Sikkim government took advantage of this opportunity to start developing its own industry. However, the system is backward and the national strength is too weak, and after several decades, Sikkim's reforms have not achieved much results.
Moreover, the ambitious British did not completely let Sikkim become independent. Before leaving South Asia, Britain had ceded its rights in Sikkim to its loyal younger brother, India.
India has been colonized by the British for nearly two hundred years, and its culture, ideology, politics and other aspects have been thoroughly influenced by the British.
After India's independence, they did not reflect on the harm that colonization brought to their country, but felt that they had turned over and became masters, and should be big brothers, and even extended their claws to their neighbors and continued to carry forward the British colonial spirit. Both Pakistan and Sikkim have been victims.
However, Pakistan's comprehensive national strength is stronger, India has been tossing and turning for decades without success, but the weak Sikkim has suffered disaster.
India continued to strengthen its leverage in Sikkim, which was eventually annexed by India in 1975.
What remedies did Sikkim itself do in the process of destruction?
The hatred of the country
Before Sikkim was destroyed, it applied 149 times to join the People's Republic of China, why did the mainland never agree?
After nearly two hundred years of British colonization, Sikkim finally ushered in independence. But beneath the surface of independence, there is a bigger crisis.
After India's independence, it felt that it had British support and actually followed the old British road. Not only that, he is even more arrogant than Britain, and even wants to directly annex neighboring countries.
India's growing power in South Asia soon became a hegemon in South Asia. At this time, the Indian government began to plan its expansion, targeting Pakistan and Sikkim.
Pakistan and India were originally one family, but due to complex historical reasons, India and Pakistan eventually separated and became two independent countries. So India has always wanted to annex Pakistan.
But Pakistan has been independent for many years, has developed its own culture and system, and does not want to merge with India at all. The two countries have fought for many years, but because their comprehensive strength is equal, they have not been able to distinguish between victory and defeat.
Seeing no hope of annexing Pakistan, India turned its finger to the weaker Sikkim.
India's hostility towards Sikkim is not unfounded.
India has always had its eyes on the Tibetan region of the mainland, and Sikkim, as the gateway to Tibet, is naturally a thorn in India's side.
Second, India and the mainland have always been at odds, but Sikkim and the mainland have always been very close. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Sikkim government applied to join China many times. These actions also made India kill Sikkim.
At that time, Sikkim was still a very traditional absolute monarchy, and the head of state was the king himself. In order to stir up the situation in Sikkim, the Indians incited the people to launch a non-cooperation movement, demanding that the king change the absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy.
Although democracy is the trend of the world, few people voluntarily give up supreme power. The non-cooperation movement caused a violent reaction in the royal chamber of Sikkim.
At India's instigation, the Democratic Party in Sikkim formed a new government, called the Congress government. Since then, the old and new forces in Sikkim have been constantly confronting, and conflicts have been frequent.
In June 1949, dozens of assassins openly assassinated three senior Congress officials at a rally, which had a very bad impact in Sikkim. For a time, the internal contradictions in Sikkim became more intense, and armed conflict broke out at two ends in three days.
At this time, under the pretext of maintaining peace in Sikkim, India sent troops to invade Sikkim, forcibly took over the Congress government, which had been established for less than a month, and even directly appointed Indians as prime ministers.
On December 5, 1950, India coerced the King of Sikkim by force and signed the Peace Treaty of Sikkim, which humiliated the country. Although the treaty was nominally "peaceful", it actually violated Sikkim's sovereignty through various unequal regulations.
Sikkim became a de facto colony of India.
Sikkim's dissatisfaction with India grew, and from 1968 onwards, anti-Indian demonstrations broke out in Sikkim. But these people did not have strong leaders, nor did they have the right approach to struggle, and in the end, they were unable to reverse the decline.
At this time, India did not want to wait. In April 1973, India imposed martial law on Sikkim and launched a high-pressure white terror notice in Sikkim.
June 20, 1974. Sikkim adopted the Constitution of Sikkim, as drafted by India. All the heads of government in Sikkim have been replaced by the Indian government, which even has seats in the Sikkim parliament.
Watching India's behavior become more and more excessive, the king of Sikkim suddenly remembered his big brother, China.
After the founding of New China, Sikkim launched several requests for incorporation into New China. However, at that time, the mainland was in ruins, and it was on the cusp of the world's storm, and there was really no power to help Sikkim. Moreover, interfering in the internal affairs of other countries is not in line with the mainland's foreign policy. Therefore, despite the enthusiasm of the people of Sikkim, they did not become part of the new China in the end.
10 April 1975. The King of Sikkim raised a bright five-star red flag in the royal palace to announce Sikkim's official accession to China. However, before the news could reach the world, it was already known by the Indian troops stationed in Sikkim, India.
Three hours later, the Indian army staged a coup d'état, disbanded the Sikkim King's court guard, and placed him under house arrest.
Subsequently, Sikkim's Indian Prime Minister Lal launched a referendum on whether Sikkim should be incorporated into India. Yet more than half of Sikkim's citizens are Nepalese under Indian control.
With the advantage of Nepalese numbers, the king of Sikkim was deposed and expelled, and Sikkim became the 22nd state of India.
India so blatantly annexed a small country. It stands to reason that such behavior should be severely condemned around the world, but because India's strength was greatly increased at that time, it was friendly with the Soviet Union, and Sikkim was really weak, so no one paid attention to it.
At that time, Sino-Soviet relations had broken down, and the Soviet Union believed that India's annexation of Sikkim would have a certain impact on the mainland, so it allowed India's arrogant behavior.
Descendants of Sikkim
After Sikkim disappeared from the map, where did tens of thousands of people go?
After Sikkim was annexed by India, King Parden went into exile in the United States to save his life. He established a government-in-exile in the United States and declared India's annexation of Sikkim illegal. But he is now just a powerless king, and this announcement has not stirred up a splash.
In order to restore the country, Parden continued to travel and give speeches in the United States, hoping to raise funds. But his dream seemed to others to be nothing less than a fool's dream, and no one funded him at all, even his queen Hope Cook thought he was crazy.
Hope Cook was originally the daughter of a wealthy American businessman and was a well-known celebrity in the United States. In order to obtain the financial support of wealthy businessmen, Palden married Hope.
Although Hope indulged in the name of the queen, she was not a fool. Seeing that Sikkim's restoration was hopeless, King Parden also suffered from cancer, and in 1980, Hope filed for divorce and soon remarried an American philosopher.
In 1982, Parden harbored longing for his homeland and hatred for his country. Died a painful death. His second son, Wangchuk, succeeded to the throne and became the new King of Sikkim.
The first thing Wangchuk did when he was registered was to announce to the world that India's annexation of Sikkim was illegal.
Yet Wangchuk is now even inferior to the dead Palden. Although he constantly taught his children to find a way to restore the country, even the people of Sikkim have gradually forgotten the hatred of the country.
After India annexed Sikkim, for a long time, many bloody Sikkim planned to restore the country and constantly provoked struggles in Sikkim. After a few times, the Indians realized that they had to find a way to get tin finance into India.
The Government of India has opened many schools in Sikkim. These schools have erased the history and culture of Sikkim. Over the decades, the newly grown Sikkimians have become indistinguishable in behavior and religion from the native-born Indians. They have long forgotten that Sikkim was once an independent country, not a state of India.
However, in recent years, due to the backward development of Sikkim, the gap between the rich and the poor per capita is very large, and many people have begun to miss the former Kingdom of Sikkim. Although the weak country is poor and backward, everyone is similar, and there is a "sense of happiness" brought by average.
Perhaps, decades later, we can really see the revenge of the royal family of Sikkim.
It is worth mentioning that the mainland has always been opposed to India's annexation of Sikkim. So on maps published by the mainland, Sikkim has always existed as a separate country, and it was not until 2003 that the mainland recognized India's rule over Sikkim. That's why, some people saw Sikkim on a map when they were children, only to grow up to find that Sikkim had disappeared.
epilogue
We often say that weak countries have no diplomacy, but in fact, weak countries sometimes lose not only diplomacy, such as Sikkim, but even the most basic land.
Before the founding of New China, our China was also a piece of fragrant food that everyone wanted to share. It was our ancestors who spent countless sweats and painstaking efforts to build the country so strong that everyone did not dare to covet and despise it.
What we need to do now is to protect and build our strong motherland and not let the tragedy of Sikkim repeat itself in any corner of the mainland.