Happiness indices

In the explosion of youth and colour in the picturesque little state of Bhutan, one could willingly forget the country’s troubles and its strategic importance from South Asia’s geopolitical perspective. To be candid, Jigme Singey Wangchuck is a very clever and cautious man, with no little foresight. He had abdicated in favour of his son, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, who has just been crowned the world’s youngest monarch, in December 2006. He had then transformed Bhutan into the world’s youngest democracy, which held its first popular election earlier this year. The trajectory on which the former king has put Bhutan is to be welcomed, and not merely because we recognise the essential truth of his statement in 2005: “The best time to change a political system is when the country enjoys stability and peace.” He has thus pre-empted a Nepal on Bhutanese soil, he has saved his royal line and avoided the violence often associated with systemic change. Of course, Bhutanese “gross national happiness” didn’t apparently entail such a predicament.
But not everybody is happy with the state of the Bhutanese nation. There are justifiable complaints that the former monarch still remains very much in control of everything; and a Western education and youth don’t necessarily mean the new king will modernise faster than his father. There also remains the Nepalese refugee issue, prominently. Nevertheless, despite scepticism, Western or otherwise, it is undeniable that whatever little change has come to Bhutan is a positive development; it is a way forward. Bhutan, after all, is a small country. And it is immeasurably more difficult for a small country to preserve its identity than for a big one. The blend of tradition and cautious modernisation, although it doesn’t do much and fast enough, is still the least dangerous instrument of change. Bhutan’s significance and vulnerability also arise from the fact that it is sandwiched between India and China, with the Chinese eating into its borders and also attempting to buy it off at the same time. Therefore, India can only welcome the incremental momentum visible in Bhutan. India itself had taken the right step last year by amending the 1949 treaty to allow Bhutan greater freedom in its foreign and defence affairs. Along with that dignity provided to the Himalayan state, India now needs to support the Bhutanese establishment in this moment of transition to help itself and its colourful neighbour.