Peasants’ Resentment and Resistance in Sikkim during World Wars

The everyday resistance of the peasants in Sikkim can be looked upon as the pre-political activities of the peasants to safeguard their interest against any kind of unfairness by the state. How did the Sikkimese agrarian class resisted notorious feudal setup, how far they had been able to defy feudalism with their hidden transcripts during the World Wars and how did the everyday resistance of Sikkimese peasants got converted into a full-fledged political movement are some of the important points that have been discussed in this paper. The proposed article is aimed to understand various factors responsible for the rise and growth of the individual resistance in Sikkim during the reign of its reformist ruler Sir Tashi Namgyal (1914–1963) that covers both the World Wars. This paper is divided into five sections. The first section of the paper deals with introduction of feudalism in Sikkim during colonial era, division of lands, intermediaries between the state and the peasants and mode of assessment of land revenue. Likewise, the second part examines the methodology used for the wring of this article. Similarly, third part deals with the hidden transcript of Sikkimese peasantry and its sense of revulsion against the asymmetrical feudal setup, while the fourth part of the paper focuses on the nature of peasant resistance in Sikkim as well as the various modes and methods devised by them to counter feudalism. Similarly, the last part of the paper draws the conclusion.