Gross National Happiness

Gross National Happiness, (GNH; Dzongkha: རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་དགའ་སྐྱིད་དཔལ་འཛོམས།) sometimes called Gross Domestic Happiness (GDH), is a philosophy that the government of Bhutan says it follows. It includes an index used to measure a population's collective happiness and well-being. The Gross National Happiness Index was instituted as the goal of the government of Bhutan in the Constitution of Bhutan, enacted on 18 July 2008.

GNH has been described by critics as a propaganda tool used by the Bhutanese government to distract from ethnic cleansing and human rights abuses it has committed. In an article written in 2004 in the Economist magazine, "The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan is not in fact an idyll in a fairy tale. It is home to perhaps 900,000 people most of whom live in grinding poverty." The Bhutanese government has undertaken an ethnic cleansing campaign. According to Human Rights Watch, "Over 100,000 or 1/6 of the population of Bhutan of Nepalese origin and Hindu faith were expelled from the country because they would not integrate with Bhutan's Buddhist culture."