A Little on Bhutan

The concept of 'Gross National Happiness' was introduced by the former Bhutanese king Jigme Singye Wangchuck in 1972 as an alternative ends to both guiding and measuring the success of modernisation. While traditional methods of development stress economic growth as the ultimate goal, 'GNH' emphasises that development which causes environmental and cultural degradation is uneconomical if it in fact infringes on human happiness. In theory it is a concept I firmly support, quality of life and happiness should ultimately be what we as societies and individuals are working to improve as opposed to pure quantitative economic gains.

Application of GNH in the Bhutanese experience, despite the positive aspects of environmental preservation, should however not be idealised and should be subjected to some criticism. Policies initiated by the Bhutanese government in accordance with GNH aimed at developing Bhutan in accordance with 'traditional values' and in harmony with traditional Bhutanese culture. Examples of such policies included the banning of television and internet until 1999, the continual outlaw of traffic lights and the forcing of citizens to dress in 14th century traditional clothing. Undoubtedly there is a certain idyllic aesthetic to this that is appealing to disillusioned Westerners. One that allows us the picture of a quaint, 'purer' place unspoiled by global influences. It is nice to reach the state of cosmopolitanism and global awareness that we are able to idealise the very opposite characteristics in a society.

A certain skepticism should be raised anytime the 'traditional value' card is played. History and tradition are often used falsely or in over simplified manners to give currency to some peoples' conception of the past as a means of dictating how things should be in the present. It is a technique commonly used by populist and conservative politicians in the West. Empower a real or imagined cultural majority by anachronistically creating or shaping the present in a pseudo-historic mold. Culture as such is something created within which dictates one is forced to belong as opposed to a living and developing expression of lifestyle. In a sense such imposed cultural belonging is a type of fascism.

In Bhutan this element of fascism was not without the extreme manifestation of enforced traditional values, ethnic cleansing. In the 1980's, concerned by the changing demographic trends of an increasing population of Hindu ethnic-Nepali Bhutanese, Jigme Singye Wangchuck initiated a programme of 'Bhutanization' aimed at unifying the country under the culture, language and religion of the Buddhist Druk majority. The Druk dress code (as mentioned above) was imposed, the Nepali language was forbidden in schools, Nepali books were burned and ethnic Nepali were deprived of there citizenship and civil rights. In the early 1990s tens of thousands were expelled from the country and to this day approximately 107 000 are living in refugee camps in Eastern Nepal. Their happiness has not been factored into GNH.

Whatever good intentions there may have been, cultural hegemony has played a strong and condemnable role in Bhutan's development of Gross National Happiness.