INTRODUCTION:

Governmental Organisation during Monarchy:

Khye-bum-sa and his followers are generally believed to be the first Tibetan immigrants to arrive in Sikkim in the 13^th century. When Khye-bum-sa arrived in Sikkim, the native Lepcha chief, Thekong Tek and his wife welcomed him and live in harmony¹. When the three patron lamas² (monks) of Sikkim convened at Yuksom³ and consecrated the coronation of the first Chogyal (king) Phuntsog Namgyal, the king then selected 12 Kazis (landlords) from among the Bhutia clan and likewise he selected 12 Lepcha Jongpns (head of Jong or districts) from amongst the superior Lepcha families of Sikkim.

The bureaucracy of state consisted of Chagzot (Prime Minister), Donyer (dewan), Trungyig (secretary), nyerchen (grand steward), Dingpon (Chief Officer of fort), and Chupon (chief of a ten-man force). There are various kazi (landlords) and other kinds of intermediary officers who served as the local judiciary and revenue-collecting authority⁴.

Nature of Landownership:

With the exception of a handful of aristocrats, all laymen in Sikkim were serfs hereditarily linked by ascription to estates and lords. The aristocrats were possessing class with estates, clearly demarcated from the rest of the people. There was a division of the population into two groups of g.yog (servants) and blon (ministers), which is almost identical to Goldstein’s comments on Tibetan stratification which is divided into sger pa and mi ser⁵. All the high positions in the kingdom were hereditary with certain privileged families and monks. All the land was held from the king, a large number of lands were under the control of monastic establishment and king held private estates. Land granted to these hierarchies of aristocrats was liable to revocation by the king at his own discretion. For example, in a sanad (ordinance of land endowment to a king’s subject as a reward for his or her loyalty of service) from the 5^th king Namgyal Phuntso at a Bhutia subject named Namrab for his service, it was stated that “as you are a tenant of the lands under our direct hand and seal, we give you our pasture lands temporarily, which however has not been your patrimonial property.”⁶ Thus, Kazis (landlords) only owned lands by virtue of deeds of grants from the king. Intermediary headmen listed as Mandal, Muktair, Peepons, Nagzans, and Lepcha Tassa, Gyapon, Chupon⁷ could also enjoy the estates of the king and their superior kazis. There were also non-Lhopos⁸ and Lepchas who owned lands under the direct control of the king, by virtue of royally issued deeds of grants, who were further divided into two types: a) the Nagzans (which means “private retainer” and was also known khas raiyat), who attended to the palace around the clock, and only had to pay minimal tax. Nagzan were directly appointed by the king but could also serve certain officers and b) the Zimchungpas who served the king while he was on tour or travelling or as messengers⁹. These lands owning official, though owning king’s lands, and access to a whole range of economic and legal prerogatives, just like private landlords. Often the king granted gifts of estates to various officials belonging to various factions, some in alliance with, some in opposition to, the king to diffuse rivalry and strengthen loyalty to his reign. It has been argued that, besides providing economic maintenance, the gifting of land “gives the alliance such a physical quality,” thus concretizes the association and cements the allegiance. As a result of these land grants along with the power to various officials, where money and power collude that led to the overloading of ascendency of the Sikkimese clan-based aristocrats during the reign of monarchy, exploiting the peasants of Sikkim.

Village Administration:

The villages of Sikkim were characterised by as agro pastoral subsistence pattern. The distinguishing feature of this pattern was that it encompasses both agriculture production and the maintenance of livestock. The village pattern was thus an adaptation which combined aspects of both pastoral nomadism and agricultural, and when we talk about agro pastoral complex we refer to a very broad continuum which ranged from predominantly agricultural areas to ones which were predominantly nomadic. Village represents the most typical type since the herding aspect of the economy was important but clearly secondary to the agricultural aspect. Villages were situated at a high elevation, there used to grow two varieties of dry-land paddy and maize through the practice of shifting cultivation¹⁰. Abundant forestland provided ample scope for such a simple economic formation to sustain.

It seems that there is no reliable way of knowing the early history and tribal organisation of the inhabitants before the advent of Tibetans or formation of kingdom. However, there is a mass of folklore which has come down from generations. From these sources, it is clear that a loose type of tribal organisation did exist from the early days of their settlement in Sikkim. According to Fonning, the Lepcha¹¹. society is such that ranking and gradation is completely out of place, and it could be said with emphasis that there never has been any acknowledgement of authority except those of the seniors in the Lepcha tribe¹². The whole country was divided up into numerous shifting groups of tribes, but with no group powerful enough to hold the mastery over the rest. Their legal conceptions had never been recast, but were primitive and unsuited to a progressive society. There was no machinery for making new laws. However, this rudimentary social structure was soon modified by the first Tibetan King Phuntso Namgyal, who introduced Tibetan feudal setup, where all laymen were serfs hereditarily linked by ascription to estates and lords. And land was considered most important source of economy, also social structure was based on land system. He introduced law which used the language of generalised Tibetan social customs regarding the inheritance and property ownership i.e., the practice of parallel descent whereby the son of g yog (servant) was linked to the blon (ministers) of their father and the daughter of g yog were linked to the lord of their mother. This gave the effect of introducing a system similar to feudal bondage in which vassals owe allegiance and military obligation to an overlord in return for land grants. This land was worked by people subservient to and bonded vassal, who paid other taxes in products and services in exchange for their right to use land. Initially, this system may have been organised on the ethnic lines, a hierarchical structure with the Tibeto-Sikkimese at the top. But later on, there seems to have been appointment of Lepcha and Limbu as regional officers or landlords responsible for the collection of taxes etc.¹³

As was mentioned earlier there was intermediary headmen listed as Mandal, Muktair, Peepons and Thekadars who could also enjoy the estates of the king and their superior kazis (landlords), were appointed to look after the village administration, since the Kazis (landlords) rarely visits the villages. The Muktair was superior to the Mandals¹⁴; he can deal with misdemeanours carrying a fine of not more than Rs 60, while the Mandals can only deal with the fines of Rs 30 or less; he has to supervise all tax-accounts, and visits each village twice yearly to inspect the fields and see that grain has not been planted in excess of the amount on which tax has been paid; he has also to make a register of births and deaths. At first Muktair was also responsible for the collection of taxes, but later on Muktair made a muddle of this job, and the actual collection and payment of monies reverted to Mandals.¹⁵ The office of Mandal is hereditary, the title resides in the extended family, and when the holder dies or becomes feeble through the old age, it is given to the next most suitable male in the family. The Mandal is normally spoken of as the landlord of the village, and the other householders are called tenants. The Mandal hold land under the king, who is the ultimate owner, the householders have the usufruct of the land but cannot transfer it outside their family without the Mandal’s consent. The Mandal is responsible for the maintenance of good order in the village and for the collection of taxes, he also looks after everybody’s welfare and happiness, giving advice on personal or agricultural matters where they appear needed, and acting as intermediary between the villagers and the king. Theis village officer Mandals are almost identical with the Tre-ba serfs of Tibet who were characterised by being tied to agricultural land which they held hereditary and were serfs of the central government, aristocrats or religious-monastic units.¹⁶

Likewise, there were other officials appointed for the village administration- Peepon and Thekadars. Peepon was appointed as headman of two village named-Lachen and Lachung in north Sikkim, he was appointed by higher authority. The Peepon had no allowances but he has great deal of authority. The office of Peepon was hereditary and they were selected from among the rich. Peepon were responsible for conducting public ceremonies, and arbitrate any differences and acted a judge, he along with the village assembly determines the dates for agricultural activities and for the seasonal migration, which have to be followed by every villager. Peepons had the authority to collect tax and raise it according to the amount of land under cultivation. Another duty of Peepon is to distribute each man’s share in the transportation service (u-lag)¹⁷. Lastly, there is Thekadars (contractors) who collects revenue from his tenants in his theka (revenue contract), and whose duty was to supply labourers to British official for carrying loads without any wages called Kuruwa, and in return these Thekadars were handsomely paid.

Thus, these village officials held hereditary rights in the property and administration of the villages. They held segments of the total land mass and these holdings comprised all the land, pasture and so forth. However, it is necessary to emphasize that it was not legally permissible to alienate any of king’s land to an outsider. Possession of land obligated them to fulfil a variety of duties and collect taxes on behalf of king.

Taxes in Sikkim included both corvee service as well as payments in kind and money. With this background let us now examine the tax obligations of Sikkim.

Tax Obligation:

In Sikkim, perhaps the introduction of taxation for the first time has been credited to Tibetan regent named Rabden Sherpa in the year 1747. In order to obtain an accurate population census, the first of its kind, he gave a bakshi (a plateful of salt), which was very precious at that time, to every subject who came to pay respect to him, and thus cleverly incentivized all the households to show up. He noted down all the bakshi recipients in a roll and based on this roll, carried out the assessment of tax. Sometimes during his reign at a convention called Mangsher Duma, Rabden Sherpa and minister Karwang convened a vast assembly of all the subjects of Sikkim, in which ordered all monks and laymen, headmen and raiyats to sign a constitution which defined a fixed system of state revenue such as Zolung (handful of manufacture, perhaps taxes on forest produce) and tshong-skyed (trade custom).¹⁸ The first formal population census in Sikkim was conducted much later in 1891 under the British administration.

Since then, the taxes on raiyats who lived on the estate directly under the king’s control, collected by headmen and delivered to the king’s Durbar, are as follows:

· Nag-zans and Zim-chungpas (king’s household servants): pay annual tribute called Sa-chang (wine representing land rent called Marwa)

· Well to do raiyats: one pathi of rice and one measure called Nyak (1/8 seer) of butter as holiday or pujah offerings. Later this tax was revised to 9 pathis of rice and 12 pathis of marwa (wine).

· Middle raiyats: 6 pathis of rice and 1 load of marwa from each per annum.¹⁹

· Monastery tax: as mentioned earlier for the maintenance of monasteries, king granted lands and appointed families as their chief laymen for supporting the monks called garnas. These families have to provide free labour for the transportation of the bulky Buddhist musical instruments, and bedding for the monks on their various pilgrimages and travels to conduct pujas.

Besides the above taxes every raiyats were expected to contribute butter for export the summer and winter trade, the royalty on certain industries, musk, magenta, wax and cardamom. The king also loaned out salt and tea, expecting repayment of a stipulated amount in due time. If the raiyats could not repay at the due date, interests would be levied. Taxes on the kazis themselves included a summer and winter tribute, which included a bull, a pig, loads of rice and marwa. Taxes on jongpons included frequent “contribution of stores.

Soon after, the arrival of British there was change in tax structures which was supervised by first Political Officer J.C. White in 1889 marked the turning point for land ownership in Sikkim. Under the revised regulations by the British, monasteries no longer owned lands, but only authorised to receive gifts and donations of certain villages, over which they were given religious authority. They also could own land donated by deceased laymen. J.C. White levied on every household a capitation tax of Rs. 2 in the name of labour tax, an excise tax for brewing of grain alcohol of Rs.2 and grazing tax of Rs. 2 per sheep.²⁰

In addition to these existing taxes, there were other tax obligations. Most of these taxes have nothing to do with the agricultural output from the land itself, but are merely innovative schemes to exploit the human subjects living on that land:

· Zamindari system: zamindar and thekadars (different levels of landlords) employed middlemen to entice people into their controlled territories. These settlers would then have to contribute Rs. 1 per house as a tax to the zamindars. The zamindars kept 10 annas (1/16 of a rupee) for themselves and sent the remaining 6 annas to the government as land rent. Additionally, from every house, they collected Rs. 6.75 as a dwelling tax (dhurikhazana) which was equivalent to a set of oxen, kept Rs. 5.75 and submitted Rs. 1 to the government. These taxes were then extended to even non-settlers of their lands.

· Jharlangi: unpaid labour extracted out of farmers to carry out roadwork on various trade routes carrying out road construction for the British with no compensation, while their landlords would pocket the pay. Sometimes, these landlords also compelled peasants to carry beddings of government officials on transfer for free.

· Kalobhari: British arms and ammunition traded to Tibet were “wrapped in cardboards and put inside gunny bags bedaubed with tar”, and were called kalobhari or “black load.” These weighed about 40 kilograms. On their way back, the bags were filled with gold dust. The British contracted the transportation of kalobhari to kazi-thekadar contractors, who either kept the full Rs. 2 per labour per day for themselves or only paid the labourers 6 annas.

· Theki-Bethi: mandals and karbaris are below zamindars and thekadars in terms of authority, serving as rent collectors for the latter. As middlemen, they employed thekibethi to wring money out of the people. On festive occasions, peasants had to present mandals and karbaris with gifts, packed in special receptacles called theki. Another kind of “gift” was free labour, called bethi.

· Kuruwa: literally means “a long wait.” While waiting to start their kalobhari duties and other labour obligations, peasants had to survive on their own resource. This was not a tax by itself, but indirectly increased the burden.²¹

CONCLUSION:

This, then, was the system of taxation and the structural configuration through which it was extracted. In conclusion, I would now like to examine the relationship between this structure and certain political and economic factors, specifically the manner in which political and economic parameters have shaped the village social structure in Sikkim.

As mentioned earlier, by owning land one came to own the humans living and cultivating on that land. Almost every sanad, besides stating the name of the land gift, also asserts that the gifted entity has “full rights to every raiyat, who dwells on the land”, which implies that the recipient of the land possessed both economic and legal jurisdiction over raiyats. This ambiguity as to the extent of the entitlement and administrative power of the landholders over the raiyats might have presented an opportunity for exploitation of the bonded peasants. The language of the sanads also suggests the possibility of a multi-tiered overlord system whereby every commoner was a subject to a hierarchy of authorities, from the king to the district officers to the owner of the land they cultivated in, to the intermediary fee collectors. Such a system would facilitate the proliferation of multiple forms of taxation as authorities at any level could extract money, produce and labour out of their subjects.

As the result of these rights given to the landlords and their intermediaries, peasants were exploited at every level and these landlords filled their pocket with extra taxes. Indeed, during this time in Sikkim history was characterised by the fragility and failure of state structures. This was largely because of the way, in which Sikkim was organised into semi-independent fiefdoms, where large land holders were responsible for the implementation of law, the organisation of land holdings and localised hierarchies, and could command his own tenants to work his land, provide services or even fight for him at will. As such ordinary people owed their allegiance to local lords, and not the monarch, much as their European counterparts did during the medieval periods. So, while in theory the king had the right to issue of remove land grants from the individuals in reality, he was also dependent on the local lords for tax collection and for raising armies. This balance of power caused by mutual dependence between king and his vassals meant that the king could never create for himself independent power bases. Indeed, he would only remain king as long as landlords agreed that he would be and as long as they felt they would benefit from this state structure.

REFERENCE:

1. Namgyal and Dolma, History of Sikkim, (Gangtok Sikkim, 1908) 12.

2. They are Lhatsun Namkha Jigmed, Katok Kuntu Zangpo, and Ngadag Sempa Phuntsog Ringzing.

3. First capital of Sikkim.

4. Ibid.

5. Melvyn C. Goldstein, Serfdom and Mobility of Human Lease in Traditional Tibetan Society, Journal of Asian Studies, Vol XXX, No. 3 (1971): 522.

6. Op.cit. Namgyal and Dolma: 39.

7. The common Sikkimese term for tax collector.

8. Bhutia Ethnic community were called Lhopos.

9. Tran Hong, Chogyal’s Sikkim: Tax, Land and Clan Politics, 2012 (Tibetan and Himalayan Peoples, Independent Study Project).

10. Suresh Kumar Gurung, Sikkim Ethnic Political Dynamics: A Triadic Perspective, (New Delhi: Kunal Book Publication, 2011): 99.

11. Consider as original inhabitants of Sikkim.

12. A.R. Fonning, Lepcha My Vanishing Tribe, (Kalimpong, West Bengal: Second Edition, Chyu-Pandi Farm, 2003): 8.

13. Palace Document/1.1/002, Sikkim Royal Archive, Gangtok, Sikkim, this document is the notification issued to all the lords and official of Sikkim and states that a Limbu was given the authority to collect taxes.

14. The term Mandal is not a Sikkimese word. It is the common word for the head of the village throughout Sikkim.

15. Geoffrey Gore, Himalayan Village: An account the of Lepchas of Sikkim, (Varanasi: Pilgrims Publication, 2005): 123.

16. Melvyn C Goldstein, Taxation and Structure of a Tibetan Village, (Central Asiatic Journal, Vol XV, No 1, 1971): 4.

17. Pedro Carrasco, Land and Polity in Tibet, (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1959): 58.

18. Op.cit, Namgyal and Dolma, P-37.

19. Ibid. Appendix. P-22.

20. Op.cit, Tran, P-9.

21. J.R Subba, History, Culture and Customs of Sikkim, (New Delhi: Gyan Publishing House, 2008): 62.

Received on 22.01.2020 Modified on 21.02.2020

Res. J. Humanities and Social Sciences. 2020; 11(2):117-121.

DOI: 10.5958/2321-5828.2020.00020.0