Interview: Gitanjali Angmo reveals chronology of 'blackmail' before Sonam Wangchuk's arrest

Gitanjali Angmo, a social entrepreneur and educationist, in this exclusive interview with Paresh Malakar provides a detailed account of the work she and her husband, the detained activist and innovator Sonam Wangchuk, have done in Ladakh, as well as the events leading up to his arrest.

Paresh Malakar: First, I'd like to know when you met Sonam-ji?

It was several years ago at a conference on education.

And how is he doing in jail now?

He's a resilient and strong person, so he's holding up very well. His spirit is high, but because he was on a fast for 15 days just on salt and water, and they took him away immediately after that (unko le gaye the), he was certainly looking a bit weak. Mentally, he's strong, but it is certainly not the right place for a person like him—someone who has worked so much for the grassroots in India for education and innovation.

Could you elaborate on the work you and Sonam Wangchuk are involved in?

We basically work in the field of education and innovation. Sonam established SECMOL 30 years ago. Then, just 8 years ago, both of us established the Himalayan Institute of Alternatives, Ladakh (HIAL), which is going to become a university.

The purpose of HIAL is to teach youth how to solve context-specific problems through grassroots innovation and how to scale those solutions into enterprises. This empowers the youth, enabling them to set up their own entrepreneurship, which benefits the community. The government also benefits from this research by being able to formulate better, more informed policies. Youth are taught not to go abroad, but to return to their villages to make them excellent and progressive.

At HIAL, we research practical solutions like:

• How to build a house in--30 degree Celsius that can remain at--20 degree Celsius without any heating? In a desert, how to bring water to a village through artificial glaciers and ice stupas?
• How to green the valleys to absorb water and prevent flash floods or cloud bursts as glaciers recede?

We scale up these experiments so that the whole of Ladakh, India, and the world can benefit. For example, our passive solar heated homes are being taken to other countries in the Tibetan plateau through the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and people want to use the artificial glaciers in Chile, Switzerland, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Nepal. HIAL is a matter of great pride because it’s an Indian institute that exports its technology through innovations rather than importing it.

That sounds very interesting. When education is abstract, it can be difficult for students to connect with it.

I understand. That is what we are trying to change. We promote contextual education—meaning local education—focusing on what that place needs. We don't take up artificial projects; we focus on how to improve what is happening around us. This is done experientially, through action research, and by solving problems using the principles of science, math, and sociology in a transdisciplinary way—learning by doing.

Do you charge students for this education?

No, we don't. Ours is probably the only institute in the world that doesn't charge fees. We believe children should pay, not with their parents' money, but with their own hard work and creativity—with their own sweat and brains. We also give them a stipend to cover their expenses. The benefit is that after working hands-on on many projects, they are highly confident and can set up their own social enterprises after just 11 months.

It feels unfortunate that we have to discuss your work, which is so valuable to education and the environment, in the context of an arrest and surveillance. Could you give the chronology of events that led to this situation?

Yes. To go back 30-40 years, after finishing his engineering, Sonam decided to return to Ladakh to work on education reform at the grassroots level, as he felt the high failure rate (95%) was due to out-of-context textbooks. This led to SECMOL. Within a few years, the pass percentage rose from 5% to 75%. For the remaining 25%, he created the SECMOL Alternative School, where 10th-grade failures were empowered to become journalists, filmmakers, and entrepreneurs. Realizing this potential, we established HIAL to apply this empowering model to university education.

Sonam’s work, including the artificial glacier, brought him the Rolex Award and many other recognitions, including the CNN-IBN Real Heroes Award, and invitations to speak at the Nobel Foundation. This work aligns with the Gandhian and Tagorean ideals of education and sustainable development, which focuses on bringing development to rural India, where 70% of our people live.

The present government even recognized our work:

• We received several awards from various ministries (Energy, Tribal Affairs) between 2018 and 2019 for energy-efficient buildings and artificial glaciers.
• Sonam and I were invited to set up the Maharashtra International Education Board.
• We were asked for recommendations for the New Education Policy.

So, when did the problem start?

The problem started after the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019. Although Sonam initially thanked the government for a separate identity from Kashmir, everyone soon realized Ladakh was made a Union Territory without a legislature. This means it is governed by Lieutenant Governors and Commissioners from Delhi, not democratically.

Ladakh is a high-altitude desert (-30 degree Celsius) , a fragile ecosystem, and the 'Third Pole'—its glaciers supply water to the entire Indo-Gangetic Plains. Local people have lived here for thousands of years with unique community practices. They want a democratic constitutional legislature (the Sixth Schedule or statehood) so that policies reflect their long-term, conscious approach to development, which may prioritize environmental and social sustainability over rapid industrialization or mining.

So, the demand for the Sixth Schedule is rooted in environmental and social concerns, not just politics?

Exactly. Sonam's decision is not just political; it is environmental and social. The Sixth Schedule is needed for people to form policies about their own development. This demand aligns with the government's own election manifesto points.

And what happened when Sonam started protesting peacefully for this demand?

The process of silencing us has been going on for three to four years. We were indirectly threatened that if Sonam didn't stop, our FCRA registration would not be renewed, and our application to become a university (under UGC) would be denied.

The government that once honored us is now against us because Sonam is speaking for the people of Ladakh and the environment. This started with slowly arm-twisting and blackmailing and intensified about two months ago.

Can you detail the intensified action and the current allegations against Sonam?

Intensified Action and Land Issue:

First, on August 20th, we received a unilateral notice from the DC's office asking us to return land given by the Hill Council because we hadn't signed the lease. This is despite our numerous letters over the past years requesting to sign the lease. The truth is, the UT administration still hasn't formulated the required lease policy in the past five years. We suspect this delay is so they can give land to industrialists without accountability. Sonam, who was recently nominated to the Apex Body of Ladakh (along with the Kargil Democratic Alliance, KDA), has been the voice for this issue, emphasizing that any development like mining or photovoltaic power should be done with the consent of the people and without displacement. He is not anti-development; he just demands conscious development that is in everyone's interest and prevents destruction.

False Narratives and Allegations:

Before his detention, an IT cell started a campaign for Sonam's character assassination by creating false narratives, often spread by paid trolls on social media. Examples include:

• Misrepresenting "food sovereignty" on our FCRA application as "national sovereignty" to imply misuse of funds.
• Spreading propaganda that the Magsaysay Award is anti-national, despite 20 of its 60 Indian recipients also having received a Padma award from the Indian government.
• False claims of 'Soros funding': An EU/UN-affiliated Danish NGO, Dan Church Aid (DCA), which was a small funder of SECMOL 15 years ago, receives only 0.05% of its own funds from George Soros's Open Society Foundation. The funds were for greenhouses (food sovereignty).
• Calling him a Pakistani or Chinese agent, despite his campaign against Chinese products and his work designing tents for the Indian Army.

We have publicly debunked these narratives and legal teams have defeated the anti-China/Pakistan, Soros funding, and FCRA violation claims. We proved that HIAL's funds from Switzerland were income from research, not donations requiring FCRA. When they had no legal ground left, they detained him. They were even considering bringing in the ED, which Sonam openly challenged, saying they should also investigate the previous UT government.