J. C. White the First British Political Officer of Sikkim
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| J.C White Sitting cross leg position, on his right Sir Ugen Wangchuk Prime Minister of Bhutan. This picture abides copyright of British Library, London (www.bl.uk) |
Rajen Upadhyay
Being sandwiched between warring nations, Sikkim lost much of its
territory to the Bhutanese invaders in 1788, to the Nepalese invaders in
1789 and was forced to cede beautiful hills of Darjeeling in 1835 to
the British for their ‘selfless’ help in repelling the Gorkha invaders.
The un-demarcated Sikkim-Tibet frontier also greatly suffered the
sandwiched Sikkim. In 1885, British Indian Government sent Macaulay
Mission to Tibet but had to abort due to the Tibetan occupation of a
fort at Lingtu. For almost five years from 1885 to 1890 Sikkim had to
resist pressure from both North and the South. It was only after the
Anglo-Chinese Convention the frontier between Sikkim and Tibet was
delimited.
It was at this
juncture, the British Indian Government appointed J.C. White as a
Political Officer in Sikkim. An Engineer by profession Mr. White had a
huge responsibility to solace the confrontational powers i.e. Tibet and
India and to maintain peace and security in the Sangri-la. It was in the
month of November 1887 Mr. White first visited Sikkim. On the outbreak
of Sikkim-Tibet war 1888, he was sent as an Assistant Political Officer
with peditionary force, and on conclusion of peace the following year he
was offered the post of Political Officer in administrative charge of
the State of Sikkim. On the subject of his appointment as the Political
Officer he comments- “Naturally
I gladly accepted an appointment which would give me an opportunity of
living in a country I was sp anxious to see more of, and I have never
regretted my decision; although in consequence of the view taken by the
Government of India of my special employment oon the frontier, and the
fact that I left the Public Works Department to take up this
appointment, I have been a looser from a pecuniary point of view to a
very large extent”…
Regarding his service in Sikkim he writes “ At
the conclusion of hostilities the Government of India made a proposal
that I should remain in Sikkim, with the title of Political Officer, and
administer the affaires of the state in conjunction with a Council
composed of the Chief Dewans, Lamas and Kazis, and of which I was to be
President”.
After the appointment of Mr. White as the Political Officer of Sikkim the British Government decided to remove Maharaja Thotub
Namgyal and Maharani Yeshey Dolma from Sikkim to Kurseong, in
Darjeeling District of British India. After their removal, Mr. White
became the de-facto ruler of the Kingdom. It was during his tenure as a Political Officer Sikkim witnessed the birth of Zamindari System, Thikadari System Kalobhari, Jharlangi and Theki-bethi.
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