Scrapping the unequal treaty with Bhutan is a step towards modernising India’s primacy in the region
Few in India would have either heard or cared about the Treaties of Sagauli (1816), Sinchula (1865), and Punakha (1910). The first was forced on Nepal by the East India Company and the latter two imposed by Great Britain on Bhutan. There is no reason to recall these agreements, but for the fact they formed the basis for Nehruvian India’s ‘friendship’ treaties with Nepal (1950) and Bhutan (1949). No doubt, these treaties were about India’s raj legacy of protecting weak neighbouring states. Nor can anyone deny that these friendship treaties were sought by the Himalayan monarchies when they were frightened by Communist China’s entry into Tibet and on to their doorstep in the middle of the last century.
India’s friendship treaties with Bhutan and Nepal were not just unequal; they were patronising and therefore counter-productive over the longer term. The notion of protectorates was once a legitimate part of international law. Today, the concept is an anachronism. Amidst spreading nationalism, such treaties are a burden rather than benefit. Indian realists have long pointed to the declining utility of treaties with Bhutan and Nepal. Although India’s obligations remain in force — for example the commitment to national treatment of Bhutanese and Nepalese citizens — Thimpu and Kathmandu have long stopped implementing their reciprocal obligations. Worse still, citing these unequal treaties became an easy way to mobilise anti-India sentiments in both the Himalayan kingdoms. China, too, has used the rhetoric of unequal treaties to expand its influence in the region. Since the early 1960s Nepal, especially, has been tempted to play the China card against India.
The UPA government has wisely chosen to rewrite the friendship treaty with Bhutan, which is more offensive than the one with Nepal. Amidst the unfolding democratisation of both Bhutan and Nepal, South Block has rightly concluded that the old treaties are neither credible nor sustainable. Even more timely is the political recognition that our primacy in the neighbourhood could be ensured only by leveraging India’s geographic, economic, and cultural strengths and not by waving crumbling pieces of paper. India now needs a comprehensive strategy to deepen economic integration with Bhutan and Nepal and modernise its political primacy in the Himalayas.
