A schoolmaster like no other

The passing of three-time CM of Sikkim Nar Bahadur Bhandari marks the end of an era

In another world at another time, Nar Bahadur Bhandari, three-time chief minister of Sikkim, who died in a Delhi hospital last Sunday, would have been hailed as a freedom fighter. Denied that accolade, he might still be remembered for saying famously, “Sikkim has merged but will not be submerged.”

He was referring to suggestions that Darjeeling, now gripped by Gorkhaland frenzy, should be restored to Sikkim. The British pressured the kingdom to part with the district in the 1830s; independent India ignored Gangtok’s memorandum in 1947 asking for its return. Bhandari knew there was no going back in time. Darjeeling had