Abstract
This chapter aims to give an elaborate understanding of the raison d’être of the vertical and horizontal links between the overall planning and policy-making ideology and objectives . This is exemplified with reference to an analysis of education policies and government promotion of Gross National Happiness (GNH), Bhutanization , decentralization , and guided democracy . The first part gives an overview of what can be defined as “dependency through self-reliance and selection.” The second part deals with the vernaculars of ethnic nationalism as a means to establish Drukpa national and cultural unity as a vehicle for modernization and progress. This section also looks at the ideology of Bhutanization and how it is linked with GNH, decentralization, and the introduction of democracy and good governance . The third focuses on the function of education policies and analyzes links and synergies at the level of discursive input into planning to discern the intent and possible output of education policies. Finally some concluding remarks are offered.
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Notes
- 1.
Data from hospitals and health centers, as well as from community surveys, indicate that alcohol is a leading cause of mortality and morbidity of middle-aged men and women . Alcohol is one of the five leading causes of deaths (all age groups) and responsible for as many as 30 % of deaths in the hospital wards. “It is the Number One killer of adult men in Bhutan today” (Dorji 2005: 8).
- 2.
In a recommendation to the government , four scholars note that the importance of SEZs cannot be underestimated and the advantages of the one already in operation and another in the pipe clearly illustrate that “the flexibility of the government with respect to policies, rules and regulations offers appropriate amount of liberty to the businesses to operate and function. In SEZs many laws specially related to industry, labour , and ecology are exempted” (Khan et al. 2012: 12).
- 3.
As one Bhutanese scholar notes “Education is the one most powerful tool to bring about the necessary change of mind set and of behaviour” (Tho 2012: 2).
- 4.
Vertical links come in the form of input from international treaties and multilateral and bilateral organizations, for instance, the Human Rights Declaration (although Bhutan has only signed two treaties … and not ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ) (de Varennes 2008: 54). Horizontal links refer to attempt to address complex problems by collaborating across public departments, with donors, with organizations, and with citizens (including children and parents) and other actors at central, regional , and local levels.
- 5.
Historian Leo Rose (1977) notes that less than 37 years ago, Bhutan was virtually “data free”: After three centuries of isolation, written resources are absent, but this has changed considerably in the past decades although there is enforcement and control of local and foreign scholar’s access to do research in the country.
- 6.
These figures are disputed as some sources claim that India is financing much more.
- 7.
For instance, Bhutan does not wish to mingle with the United States and Russia. On the other hand, one anonymous reader who comments an interview with an American guest professor Luechauer: “Americans make up the vast majority of tourists to Bhutan, the second largest source of revenue in our economy, and provide much needed jobs. Remittances from thousands of Bhutanese working in America provide one of the largest sources of foreign currency. American taxpayers provide the majority of aid to the World Food Program (2011; over one billion a year), without which we would not have a functioning School Feeding Programme or any enrollment to speak of in the off-road schools that the majority of our children attend. American taxpayers contribute over 1 billion dollars a year for refugees and resettlement , the majority of which has gone to Bhutanese refugees over the last several years” (Bhutanese 12 September, 2012).
- 8.
Levels of dependency can be measured as a percentage of government budget (i.e., the higher the percentage, the higher vulnerability to sharp fluctuations in aid flows) and the procyclicality, volatility, and use of aid (UNDP 2011: 146–147).
- 9.
60 % of ODA from India is provided as grants, while the rest consists of loans that have to be returned with interest payments. However one commentator Prof. Mehta is wary of India’s foreign aid because of Bhutan’s heavy reliance on their imports leading to many of the loans returning to the Indian economy. “There is a misconception about foreign aid because the money that you receive is not spent [domestically] but goes back to India.” Bhutan relies on India for materials, labor , and experts, resulting in rupee outflows (Tay 2012).
- 10.
In 2011, 72 % of Bhutan’s total imports and 85 % of its exports or 90 % of total trade was conducted with India .
- 11.
As mentioned in the introduction of this book PM Jigme Thinley catches the contradictions involved here when he implicitly notes: “A GNH-educated graduate will have no doubt that his or her happiness derives only from contributing to the happiness of others.” Furthermore, he sees “We have now clearly distinguished the ‘happiness’ in GNH from the fleeting, pleasurable ‘feel good’ moods so often associated with that term. We know that true abiding happiness cannot exist while others suffer, and comes only from serving others, living in harmony with nature, and realizing our innate wisdom and the true and brilliant nature of our own mind” (Tho 2012: 6 and 7).
- 12.
One consultant psychiatrist notes that “The truth is, alcohol-related problems have reached alarming proportions in Bhutan today and are a threat to our Gross National Happiness.” “Bhutan has perhaps one of the highest per-capita alcohol consumption rates in the developing world,” but it is very difficult to measure and link directly to real happiness (Dorji 2005: 7 and 8).
- 13.
Approximately one sixth of the population can talk Dzongkha , while a majority of Bhutanese cannot write (de Varennes 2008: 68).
- 14.
“It is imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion… it is imagined as a community, because, regardless of the actual inequality and exploitation that may prevail in each, the nation is always conceived as a deep, horizontal comradeship” (Anderson 1991: 6 and 7).
- 15.
The population comprises of three major ethnic groups – Bhutiya (50 %), Nepalese Lhotshampas (35 %), and Sharchops (15 %).
- 16.
However, on July 17, 2009, the National Assembly decided that the government did not intend to implement the controversial Driglam Namzha program by force but by education. The Bhutan government took note of the fact that the strict implementation of the program in the mid-1980s alienated large pockets of the population and resulted in the uprising of Lhotshampas in southern Bhutan (Sharma 2010).
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Schmidt, J.D. (2017). Donor-Assisted Ethno-nationalism and Education Policy in Bhutan. In: Schmidt, J. (eds) Development Challenges in Bhutan. Contemporary South Asian Studies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47925-5_3
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