What's happening in Ladakh

Episode 60: Unveiling Ladakh's Fight for Statehood & Remembering Jane Goodall

In this 60th episode of Takaro Kids, Kiran and Debbie dive into the ongoing protests in Ladakh, India for statehood and self-representation. The episode explores the historical context of the region's transition to a union territory and its implications, highlighting the role of prominent activist Sonam Wangchuk. Also featured is a tribute to the late Jane Goodall, the renowned primatologist. Tune in to understand the socio-political dynamics of Ladakh and celebrate the life and contributions of Jane Goodall.

00:00 Introduction and Episode Overview
00:40 Exploring Ladakh: A Beautiful Region in India
01:35 Protests in Ladakh: The Fight for Representation
07:36 Sonam Wangchuk: The Voice of Ladakh
13:32 Jane Goodall: A Tribute to the Chimpanzee Lady
16:33 Quiz Time and Episode Conclusion

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Transcript

Debkanya 0:10

​Mics camera, action. It's episode 60 off to Takaro Kids. If you are tuning in for the first time today, then you have 59 episodes that you can actually listen to whenever you want. We different topics in every episode. We go really deep try to explain what's happening in the world around you, why it's happening, and how it impacts all of us.

Kiran Menon 0:36

And today we are actually gonna cover something closer to home. Something that's been going on in Ladakh, a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful region of India. I have never been Debbie. Have you been there?

Debkanya 0:50

I've actually been to Leh, which is the

Kiran Menon 0:52

Mm-hmm.

Debkanya 0:52

city, and it is stunning. It's absolutely

Kiran Menon 0:55

I've heard so much about it.

Debkanya 0:57

time I saw snow.

Kiran Menon 0:59

Ooh.

Debkanya 0:59

extremely exciting for me.

Kiran Menon 1:01

Yeah. I.

Debkanya 1:02

So Ladakh, for everyone who's listening, it's on the northernmost part of India. Like Kiran said, it's got mountains, it's a high altitude region. It is bordered by China to the East by Himachal Pradesh to the south, and pakistan occupied Kashmir to the West. And there's also the Xinjiang region of China, I think, which is to the west and the north.

Kiran Menon 1:26

Okay. Yeah.

Debkanya 1:27

Yeah. I'm sorry if I've said it wrong, but yeah. It's a very, very important region because it is a border, border territory.

Kiran Menon 1:35

And, and so why are we kind of covering the Ladakh region this time is primarily because there have been protests that have been happening in and around Ladakh and fundamentally the protests have been, again, about freedom, you know, and, and we've covered a few of these, right? We've covered the one in you know, whether it is Sri Lanka, Nepal? We've covered quite a few of them in different episodes. And, and, and again, all of them have to do with the freedom and. Sort of a movement against the government to a large extent in each one of these places. So explain what's been happening, Debbie.

Debkanya 2:10

So. There have been heavy protests that broke out in Ladakh why it happened. Let's go back a little bit into, you know, a few years ago, actually way back in 2019. Now, we've covered this story in one of our previous episodes where we spoke about Kashmir.

Kiran Menon 2:25

Yep.

Debkanya 2:25

Right.

Kiran Menon 2:26

Correct.

Debkanya 2:26

on in Kashmir? So this is when Article 370, the abrogation of Article 370 took place. Basically it said that Ladakh is now a union territory.

Kiran Menon 2:36

Mm-hmm.

Debkanya 2:37

you know, we've got many states in India. Some of them are full states, which means they have their own state governments.

Kiran Menon 2:42

Yep.

Debkanya 2:43

they have their own representatives who can speak about, you know, what that state wants, their needs at the national level.

Kiran Menon 2:50

Yeah.

Debkanya 2:50

if you're at a union territory, it means that you are governed by the central government.

Kiran Menon 2:55

Mm-hmm.

Debkanya 2:55

all decisions that have to do with what's happening in your location or locality or your territory are going to be taken by people who sit in Delhi, right? The central government.

Kiran Menon 3:06

Yeah.

Debkanya 3:06

And that's exactly why the people in Ladakh the Ladakhis are protesting because they're saying that we want a representative of our own to sit at the national level and help our voice get heard, right? We have very specific needs. Now, Ladakh is a mountainous region, there are lots of tribes. So the way they work and their culture and their, their way of life, their way of looking at things is quite different from the way it would be in, say, for example Karnataka or in Maharashtra or in Madhya Pradesh

Kiran Menon 3:34

Mm-hmm.

Debkanya 3:34

These are all different states. So what the Ladakhis are saying is we want our own representation. So this is the root cause of what's been happening. They've been asking for full statehood. Now, Ladakh has never been a state before. It has always been part of Jammu and Kashmir. So they've had a representative, but through Jammu and Kashmir, now for the first time, they're saying we don't have anyone to speak, speak for us at the legislative level.

Kiran Menon 3:57

Yeah, and I think that's really important, right? They're not fighting for independence or they're not fighting for any of that. What they're just saying is, can we have our own statehood? Can we kind of have our own government, which are, which is a government that has been elected by the people of Ladakh, right? Like in Karnataka, like in Mahara, when you go into state elections, you have a chief minister, and that chief minister is elected by the people of the state. So if you are a Maharashtrian, you cannot vote in the Karnataka elections, right? For example, right? You need to be, you need to vote where your voter ID is from. So that's what Ladakh is basically trying to fight for, or the Ladakhis are trying to fight for. And it has been something that's been happening for a while. It's not new. They've been fighting for this since when they became a union territory, even before that. They've been talking about the fact that you know, they want local government jobs for Ladakhis. As a union territory. It's almost impossible for them to get those jobs or those departments. Think about it, a state will have its own. Electricity department will have its own water department, will have its own land department, will have its own sort of cultural department, but as a union territory, you don't have any of that because the center controls all of that from From Delhi,

Debkanya 5:18

There were some protections that have been given to Ladakh, right? So for example, they have protection under something that's called the sixth schedule of the Constitution. Now, let's go back. Constitution of India is what determines how the country of India is run, right? What

Kiran Menon 5:33

Yep.

Debkanya 5:33

you have as citizens have in India. How things should work in our country. There's something called the Sixth Schedule which basically says that there's a special, framework or there's special rules that apply to certain areas. Like I mentioned, Ladakh has a lot of tribes and there are lots of tribal states, especially in the northeast of our country of India.

Kiran Menon 5:51

Mm-hmm.

Debkanya 5:52

specifically, if you look at Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram, all of these places are protected under the sixth schedule, which basically means they have their own councils and they can make, you know, a lot of decisions. They can manage local affairs, like what to do with their land, with their forests, what are the laws that they should be following. Cultural nuances of, you know, why certain things are done in a certain way in these areas, right? So there is that protection, you know, people in Ladakh believe it's not enough.

Kiran Menon 6:20

Yeah.

Debkanya 6:20

not being done. Especially because, you know, they also have lot of respect for their environment. It's a very fragile ecosystem, right? And the way it's been working is, you know, people come together and they take care of their own

Kiran Menon 6:34

Yeah.

Debkanya 6:35

Now suddenly that right is not entirely theirs. Because a government gets to say, okay, what's going to happen with this region? What's gonna happen with this mountain or this lake or this river? So those kind of decisions, they feel like cannot be taken away from them because they've been protecting and maintaining this for years. So these protests started actually in 2021, it really took off, right? I mean, were multiple hunger strikes done by activists. Multiple times that people came out and started, you know, speaking up. And the government has been engaging with them. So for example, in 2023 2023 we are just talking about, a couple of years ago, they formed something called a high powered committee. Which basically was what it was a committee that said, okay, we will sit with the local leaders, local Ladakhi bodies, and we will talk to them, and we will make rules that work for both, right? So we will consult and then we will make decisions. But even that felt, you know, it was just not enough because their voices were not really being heard and you

Kiran Menon 7:32

Yeah.

Debkanya 7:32

getting exactly what they wanted.

Kiran Menon 7:35

And so now there's this Ladakhi. Sonam Wangchuk who's again, come into prominence, right? Why is he important? Sonam Wangchuk is fundamentally an activist. He is an engineer, he's a teacher. He's done a lot of cool things for the region. I think one of the coolest things that I was looking at is the Ice Stupa, which is, which is so cool, right? So it's basically a stupa is kind of like a big column, if you think about it. It's like a big, yeah, it's kind of a conish column ish whatever structure. And it's usually seen in religious places. But what he's done is he's taken the stupa formation or that shape and made ice stupas. The reason for that is when it's winter, you can create these ice stupas and then when it becomes summer, you can actually have these ice stupas delivering water to different parts of the region, which is fairly cool. So when you had an abundance of water, which is in the form of snow or ice, you store it, it's kind of like rainwater harvesting. And then when you have it in summer when there is less water, it melts and it becomes your, yeah, it becomes your water source, which is very cool. He's also done a lot from a school perspective, built schools. He's done a lot for the youth in Ladakh. And he's also become a very, very popular voice for Ladakh's rights. Right? So even in this case, very recently, he actually. Or led a hunger strike. And that's how a lot of the visibility into the problems from a Ladakh perspective also came in and why we are talking about it this time. So in September of 2025, which is just last month they basically started a hunger strike to demand the statehood. Wangchuk actually joined them for that hunger strike and obviously with his presence, with his name, it got a lot more media attention.

Debkanya 9:30

Sonam Wangchuk has actually been working with the government as well.

Kiran Menon 9:34

Yeah.

Debkanya 9:34

he is, I mean the, the people of Ladakh, because he's such an influential person, they have always looked at him as a leader,

Kiran Menon 9:41

Mm-hmm.

Debkanya 9:42

traditionally somebody who was extremely educated, was extremely well regarded even by the international community because his eyes super have actually inspired a lot of other eco activists to actually follow a similar kind of method in their areas as well. So he's an inspiration. And therefore the government has been working with him, Sonam Wangchuk has been consulting with the

Kiran Menon 10:03

Yeah,

Debkanya 10:03

know, like we spoke about right earlier, that they've been part of that committee. But I guess it came to a point where even he felt that it was not enough. The youth were very upset. So they came together, started protesting. But these protests again, you know, I think every time something like this happens, the minute it goes into, you know, becoming violent, it hurts the cause more than helps it. In this case also there was the stone pelting. They set fire to an office. They attacked vehicles. I mean, the police had to come out and they started using tear gas, you know, on people. People died. Four people lost their lives during these protests. So it got pretty, pretty bad. So bad that, Sonam Wangchuk finally said, listen guys, this is getting too far outta hand. I'm gonna stop my hunger strike, please you guys stopped this protest as well. He

Kiran Menon 10:50

Yeah.

Debkanya 10:51

for calm, soon after he did this, he got arrested. The government said, you know what? You are not helping the cause at all. You are making things worse by supporting them in the first place. So they arrested him under the National Security Act and sent him off to a jail in Jodhpur, which has really, really shocked a lot of people.

Kiran Menon 11:10

Yeah. And I think the whole point is like you said, when violence comes in, it kind of mars the entire message that's being, portrayed or that's being kind of promoted, right? And you'll start seeing people kind of going both ways now saying, Hey. They had just not, you know, gotten into the whole violence angle, then maybe we could have had a conversation and had a chat about it. But now it's become violent and therefore it needs to be something that needs to be suppressed. So it just takes a very different turn, which is unfortunate. And now suddenly it becomes like, you know, who is supporting who and who's right and who's not, instead of actually thinking about the actual issue. Which was what everyone was trying to do in the first place. Right? So, so I think because Sonam Wangchuk is you know, someone who is so well known, he did inspire a movie as well though. You know, even that is controversial. Whether he it he did or not. But because of which I think he's also kind of created that buzz about akan, which is why we're talking about it. It's important.

Debkanya 12:15

Absolutely. There's a, there's a group of people that are so unhappy. And intervention is required. But the other part that is kind of sad in this entire story is Sonam Wangchuk has been targeted and kind of called the ringleader

Kiran Menon 12:30

Mm-hmm.

Debkanya 12:31

that broke out, which again, we have to find out what comes out because there is an investigation that's going on. There is a court, you know, the courts are talking about it. So, he is in jail right now. But the government has also revoked his license. Now he runs an NGO in, in, in any country to run an NGO, which is a non-government organization or a nonprofit organization, basically, like we said, right? He runs a school, he does a lot of work for the climate. So the government took away his license to run this nonprofit because they believe that this, that there is some wrongdoing that's been happening even there. So overall, Wangshuk is. Unfortunately in a lot of trouble we have to wait and watch. Now what happens? I think there's a report that's pending very soon we will find out where it's going, but there's a lot of people who are speaking up in support of him and saying, Hey, listen, he's not done anything wrong. You need to let him go. So we have to find out now

Kiran Menon 13:23

Yep, and we'll keep you posted but before we end this episode, we have to talk about another really, really important activist. And I'm sure many of you have already heard about her, Jane Goodall. Jane Goodall is such an inspirational woman, right? And she unfortunately passed away October 1st at the age of 91, she has been known as the, the chimpanzee lady, right? That's what she's very commonly and socially known as. But that's because she spent her whole life studying chimpanzees and apes in particular. Right? She was one of the leading primatologists and anthropologists. She has, inspired many documentaries she has created and made many documentaries. She has actually gone and lived in the forest so that she can get closer to these animals, understand them, and, and really live their lives and become friends to them, which is amazing. So if you haven't heard of Jane Goodall, please go check out some videos on YouTube. Check out how her early life, she lived in Africa in the jungles and you know, understood these chimpanzees. A lot of what we understand today is thanks to her.

Debkanya 14:32

Do you know Jane Goodall did not have like a real degree

Kiran Menon 14:36

Yeah. Yeah.

Debkanya 14:38

education

Kiran Menon 14:39

Not at all. Yeah.

Debkanya 14:40

she did?

Kiran Menon 14:41

Yeah. It was just her passion.

Debkanya 14:43

yeah, her passion, everything she learned, she learned on the ground actually working with

Kiran Menon 14:48

Yeah.

Debkanya 14:49

with apes and you know, she has created an entire body of work, which is referred to and referenced by all the greatest scientists today,

Kiran Menon 14:58

Yep.

Debkanya 14:59

who's working on primates and you know, on primatology, will refer to Jane Goodall's, findings.

Kiran Menon 15:04

Yeah.

Debkanya 15:04

incredible what she's done. And she's worked very closely with children as well, because I think at the core of it, because again, she didn't go in. Saying that, Hey, I'm a scientist and I'm gonna study this. She went because she was curious. She wanted to know, and she also loved animals, right? Therefore, she worked with kids. She has a program called the Roots and Shoots program, where she helps young people take action for animals and for the environment. So it's inspiring to, look at how she, planned her life and what she did with it. So, so much similarity between her and Sonam Wangchuk, right? In that sense that they are both fundamentally committed to, making the world a better place. I think

Kiran Menon 15:41

Yeah,

Debkanya 15:42

what's special about people like them.

Kiran Menon 15:44

it is. And and, and again, I'll say this once again, if you haven't heard of Jane Goodall or watched any of her stuff, go ask your parents to kind of go onto YouTube and find some of the documentaries or some of her work. She's the person who discovered that chimpanzees actually use tools like we do, like, you know, using sticks to poke stuff and take their termites out or to

Debkanya 16:08

Yeah.

Kiran Menon 16:09

or, or even almost like a hammer and chisel. She's seen how and studied how these chimpanzees do it. So, talking about evolution and that we came from apes she's kind of helped develop that theory a lot more

Debkanya 16:22

Yeah, she, she's a phenomenal lady and she died at the age of 91 very peacefully. She will be remembered very fondly by many,

Kiran Menon 16:30

Yes,

Debkanya 16:31

around the world.

Kiran Menon 16:32

a hundred percent.

Debkanya 16:33

And that brings us to the end of this episode, but we are not going to go before we give you your quiz question for the 60th episode of Takaro Kids.

Kiran Menon 16:43

The quiz question, and this time I will ask the quiz question and you can give the options. Debbie,

Debkanya 16:49

Okay. Done?

Kiran Menon 16:50

I referred to it in the episode that Sonam Wangchuk.

Debkanya 16:55

Thankfully, you did not give it away

Kiran Menon 16:57

I know, I know I usually do,

Debkanya 16:59

back.

Kiran Menon 16:59

but Sonam Wangchuk is an inspiration for a movie, a very, very famous Hindi movie. Now, can you name that Hindi movie?

Debkanya 17:10

So the four options for this quiz question today. Option one, A beautiful Mind,

Kiran Menon 17:16

Eh

Debkanya 17:17

option two, Catch Me If You Can.

Kiran Menon 17:19

Hmm

Debkanya 17:19

Option three. Three Idiots

Kiran Menon 17:22

hmm.

Debkanya 17:22

and option four 12 Monkeys. So tell us which one of these is the movie that was inspired by the life and work of Wangchuk, you can send in your answers to us at www.takarokids.com or you can send us a message on Instagram. Get an adult to help you do that. And you can win something really special. What are they winning? Kiran?

Kiran Menon 17:50

You will win a gift certificate worth 500 rupees and you will also win a special Takaro Kids T-shirt. Only the winners get these T-shirts, right? So. And they are

Debkanya 18:04

so cute. So yes, send in your answers,

Kiran Menon 18:07

before we go, we do have to talk about who the winner was last week. So the question was. Which of the following are some famous H1B visa holders who are now tech leaders in the US? The problem is the question gave away the answer. It asked about tech leaders. The second point though, is that there are multiple folks. The options were Elon Musk, Donald Trump. Sundar Pichai or Kamala Harris. And the answer is Elon Musk and Sundar Pichai. And we have a winner. Woo-hoo. The winner is 13-year-old Ritika from Delhi. So congratulations, Ritika, and your gift card is on its way to you soon, and so is your shirt. So congratulations.

Debkanya 18:54

congratulations, Ritika. So glad you've been listening, and we hope everyone who's listened to this episode as well do send in your answers and you could win something special. On that note, it's time to say goodbye from both of us here.

Kiran Menon 19:10

Bye bye.