In between Mao’s ‘Five Fingers’ and Hindutva India’s ‘Akhand Bharat’
As we head towards our 112 th National Day, it is a moment of pride for us that we never have to celebrate an ‘Independence Day,’ with Bhutan never being colonized in its history, but it is also a time to reflect and not take our security and sovereignty for granted. Many Bhutanese are familiar with a term attributed to Chairman Mao who in the 1950s is reported to have said, ‘Tibet is the palm of China and Ladakh, Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan and NEFA (Arunachal) are its five fingers.’ There was also talk among the Chinese troops in Tibet in the 1950s to also ‘liberate’ the five fingers. The Chinese later expunged this from its official government position and carried on a much more conciliatory policy towards Nepal and Bhutan, especially after the 1960s, emphasizing on the sovereign status of both the countries. While relations today are much better and the above is history, it did, however, betray an expansionist mindset in the early stages of the People’s Republi