Word: gangtok
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...process of annexation actually began in April 1973, when the Chogyal asked Indian troops to help control demonstrators who were threatening to storm his palace in Gangtok. The riots stemmed from a controversy over the nation's electoral procedures-a system that inadequately represented the settlers from neighboring Nepal, who make up 75% of Sikkim's population of 210,000. India subdued the demonstrators -whom they may have instigated in the first place-and then pressured the Chogyal into accepting a constitutional agreement that virtually stripped him of all power...
Thousands of angry demonstrators stormed into Gangtok to lay siege to the King's palace. They demanded his removal, as well as a written constitution and various administrative reforms. Though Indian officials in Sikkim barred foreign reporters from the country, a few details of the fighting filtered out. In a telephone interview from Gangtok, 20-year-old Crown Prince Tenzing Namgyal made a series of oblique references to "the element outside us that has been causing problems ... we have several times been approached by the political officer to hand over all power to the government of ....," at which point...