Sikkim has recently been witness to what may be the longest satyagraha in its history. The indefinite hunger strike was called on 20 June 2007 by the Affected Citizens of Teesta, an ostensibly apolitical organisation formed to fight the Gangtok government's decision to build seven large-scale hydroelectric projects within the ancestral lands of the indigenous Lepcha community. Since then, at any given time passers-by at the Bhutia Lepcha House in Gangtok have seen at least ten satyagrahis lying down in silent protest – young women and men, as well as a host of Buddhist lamas.
Meanwhile, at the state hospital nearby, two young men lie on infirmary cots, their bodies slowly breaking down. These are Dawa Lepcha and Tenzing Gyatso Lepcha, the two who initiated the strike. "We are optimistic that the path set by Dawa and Tenzing will eventually lead the government to rethink and stop the destruction of our sacred land," one young protestor said recently, echoing the sentiments of his fellow strikers. (On 22 August, after 63 days, Dawa and Tenzing tearfully halted their strike, citing health issues and the recent offer of talks by the state's chief minister.)
The concern motivating the protests is that the hydropower projects, if implemented, will have a drastic effect on the social, cultural and religious well-being of Lepchas, not to mention on the fragile environment of Dzongu, their ancestral lands in north Sikkim. Although the Lepcha are also found in other parts of India and in Nepal, around 86 percent of their 9000-strong population resides in Dzongu; the area is not only their spiritual homeland, but also their current one.
Central to Dzongu, both physically and spiritually, is the mighty Teesta River, which originates in the Tso-Lhamo Lake at an altitude of 17,500 feet. It is on the Teesta, in Dzongu, where these seven hydroelectric projects are to be constructed. The Teesta is also the lifeline of Sikkim state as a whole, flowing down its very spine, and the ramifications of the hunger strike reach far beyond just Dzongu: a currently pending proposal would eventually build 26 power installations along the entire course of the river. But although the beneficiaries conceived by the project planners include those living in Dzongu and the Teesta Valley, the Lepcha look set to lose the most and gain the least from these projects. The likely beneficiaries in fact are the myriad companies, contractors, labourers, suppliers, bureaucrats, politicians and ministers involved – all of them concentrated in Gangtok and everywhere else but in Dzongu.