THE YAKHA: CULTURE, ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT IN ...

Ths school was a central forum for meetings and debate, and some
students began to get fed up with the disruption to their timetables
caused by political rallies and we were told some became aggressive
towards teachers who missed classes becal~se of their pol i t ical
activities. Others in Tamaphok who had originally supported the changes
brought by the movement in terms of freedom of speech, became less
impressed with other aspects of the communist line. Our family was
critical about the way communists in the community went round canvassing
people to become members of this or that organization, since they felt
people did not really know what they were signing for. However, the
main criticism levelled against communism by many Yakha, apart from the
quest ion of why someone who had perhaps become impoverished playing .iuwa
or other gambling games should be supported by the hard work of others,
was the travel restrictions countries like China placed on their
citizens. "How would people go outside to work?" our sister wondered
one day. It seemed as if she saw communism as threatening a (to her)
fundamental part of Yakha identity,
Other parties, such as the Congress party, were slower to mobi lize,
but as they did they offered some sort of alternative to the Communist
party, but without their clear policy aims. In addition, the ex-pradhan
DB-c received letters from people like Surya Bahadur Thapa, an old
political hand who had formed a party which was seeking to reinstate the
panc5yat system and was counting on representatives of the old system
for their support. (He refused to have anything to do with this party
since, he said, Surya Bahadur Thape's behaviour had been 'bad' during
the pancayat regime).
As political debate deve!oped, issues were discussed which