Displaced but not Disempowered: Bhutanese Refugees and Grassroots Activism

Abstract

In the early 1990s, about 80,000 ethnic Nepalis fled their home country of Bhutan and found refuge in Nepal. For more than a decade, activists from the refugee community used a variety of tactics to try to reverse the position of the Bhutanese government so they could return to Bhutan. Two of these tactics, a series of marches and digital documentation, are explored below. In this interview, Susan Banki speaks with Bhakta Ghimire and Hari Khanal, two grassroots activists from the Bhutanese Nepali refugee population.