Need For Balancing Acts
(One India, One People, May 2009)

In the case of Tibet we have made one blunder after another. In order to secure its northern borders India must play its cards well to ensure that the Sino-Tibetan dispute works in favour of India. By Prof. Avinash Kolhe

It was exactly 50 years ago that the Dalai Lama marched into Indian territory to escape persecution at the hands of Chinese authorities. Since then he along with his entourage has been staying in India. Till today despite so many rounds of negotiations between Lama and Chinese authorities, the dispute has not been solved. Not only this, there seems to be increasing bitterness on both sides. For example, in a recently held press conference in New Delhi the Dalai Lama publicly asked, “Is there no Chinese journalist in the audience?”

And when the Chinese journalist asked the much expected question about Tibetan leaders’ position on the talks with the Chinese authorities, the Dalai Lama commented with visible irritation, “Everybody knows our position very clearly. North America knows very clearly. Japan, New Zealand, and India all know except the Chinese government.” He went further to say, “It is your responsibility to make a clear report to your government. I know your government. I know there is censorship. Your report is meaningless.” This was quite un-Dalai Lama-like. It surprised the entire media fraternity present at the press conference.

But then one can hardly blame Dalai Lama (born 1935) who has been negotiating and dreaming of going back to his motherland that he had to abandon some 50 years ago. He, like many, suspect that the Chinese authorities are waiting for his death. Once he is removed from the scene, they feel, they will have less formidable foe to deal with. No one can dispute that over a long period of time the Dalai Lama has built unenviable international reputation as the spiritual and political leader of Tibetans, a community of five million which is facing heavy discrimination in their own homeland. The Dalai Lama has managed to keep alive the issue of Tibetans and give the anti-Chinese forces a ready handle to beat China with. On the other hand, in March 2009, the European Parliament passed a resolution calling for ‘real autonomy for Tibet’ and the US House Representatives passed a separate resolution demanding that Beijing ‘lift immediately the harsh policies imposed on Tibetans’.

Both the bodies backed the Dalai Lama’s initiatives for a durable political solution to the Tibet issue. Since Tibet is India’s direct neighbour we have solid stakes in this problem. We must ensure that the Tibet issue is resolved in such a manner that our interests are protected. Instead of working in this direction, it seems we, like South Africa, are going all out to placate China. During Olympic Games 2008 hosted by China, the Olympic torch was to be relayed across a two kilometers stretch in New Delhi - from Vijay Chowk to India Gate. The government stationed over 20,000 troops, paramilitary personnel, policemen and plain-clothes men in and around that short stretch. The Tibetan refugees were beaten, roads were blocked, and the metro was shut down. It was clear that all this was out of fear of China. And despite such regular gestures from us, the Chinese Back then, the Dalai Lama had no choice but to flee to India. Since then there has been a see-saw between China and the Dalai Lama which goes on even today.

Recently, the Chinese managed to brow-beat South Africa and got them to ban Dalai Lama’s entry authorities routinely try to put India in trouble. As recently as June 2007, China had gone to great lengths to coordinate efforts with Pakistan to ensure that the African governments stuck to a stand that would make it impossible for India to play a greater role in the Security Council of the United Nations! For years Tibet played the role of ‘buffer state’ between Asia’s two giants, India and China. Once Mao Zedong successfully led the Communist revolution in China, the situation changed drastically. The People’s Republic of China came into existence in 1949. From the day they came to power, the Communists maintained that soon they shall ‘liberate’ Tibet. Accordingly on October 7, 1950, as many as 40,000 Chinese troops invaded eastern Tibet and very soon brought the entire Tibet under Chinese control. On the night of March 17, 1959, the Dalai Lama had to escape from Norbulingka Palace in Lhasa with a handful of trusted people. On March 31, he reached India after a 14-day trek through the Himalayas. Since then ‘31st March’ is observed by the Tibetans in exile as the National Uprising Day.

It was not that all Indians were blind to the reality of Chinese intervention in Tibet. Sardar Patel, the pragmatic leader, had warned that we shall have trouble on Indo-Tibet border. In his prophetic letter written in 1950 he wrote that ‘this invasion has brought China almost up to our gates and this will have a host of consequences.’ All of this came true in later years. In the case of Tibet, India made one blunder after the other. Initially, we accepted the sovereign status of Tibet. Right up to 1949 in all his communications to officials, Pandit Nehru referred to it as ‘The Tibetan Government’. Soon after independence he organised the Asian Relations Conference, to which the Government of Tibet was invited to send its representatives, which it did. We should have sustained this position but we gave this up and accepted Chinese suzerainty over Tibet.

Since 1954, New Delhi has consistently held that Tibet is a region of China. Despite this, the Chinese fears of the Dalai Lama were so intense that it culminated into Indo- China war of 1962. The presence of the Tibetan government-in-exile stationed at Dharmashala on Indian territory has been a cause for concern to Beijing. The Indian government has not recognised the government-in-exile and has stated often that it would not allow the Tibetans to undertake political activities. But the Chinese remain skeptical. Initially the Dalai Lama was asking for independence of Tibet. By 1979 discussions began between Beijing and the Dalai Lama. The then Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping suggested that short of independence the Tibet problem could be resolved through negotiations. A decade later, the Dalai Lama moved away from his earlier position of seeking independence for Tibet towards the ‘middle way’ which meant ‘autonomy under Chinese rule’. This did not enthuse the Chinese authorities. His concept of Tibetan autonomy aroused Chinese suspicion. A key component of the Dalai Lama’s idea of autonomy is to unite under a single administrative entity all the areas populated by ethnic Tibetans. More specifically the regions of Kham and Amdo, that currently fall under four different provinces of China, should be grouped with the area that is now called Tibetan Autonomous Region.

The Chinese feel that this demand is tactical in nature. The creation of such an entity would merely serve as a stepping stone to eventual independence for Tibet. Hence the deadlock! For India, Tibet is one issue that has become a stumbling block, in its relations with China. Here we must play our cards well. While the question of Tibet’s independence seems to be permanently sealed, we must use the Tibetan issue to derive maximum advantages from China. This demands a lot of balancing acts. On one hand, we must continue our dialogue with China and on the other hand, we must take active interest in the succession issue of the spiritual/political leadership of Tibetan community. We must try to ensure that a pro-India person becomes the 15th Lama. The succession process will start soon. That will test our political skills. Chinese are unlikely to accept the demand of Greater Tibet as demanded by the Dalai Lama and the latter is unlikely to settle for anything less than that. He has already given up the demand for independence. Now if he dilutes his demand for autonomy for Greater Tibet, he will lose face among his faithfuls.

It is a no-win situation where India is willy-nilly involved. To secure our northern borders we must play our cards well.

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CA Kallianpur, National Coordinator of Friends of Tibet Responds to Prof. Avinash Kolhe's article “Our Neighbours-Tibet”

This has reference to the article “Our Neighbours-Tibet” (One India, One People, May 2009 issue) by Prof. Avinash Kolhe.

The learned Sr. Lecturer in Political Science does not seem to be very conversant with the state of affairs when he refers to the “demand of Greater Tibet as demanded by the Dalai Lama”. As far as Tibetans are concerned there is no such thing called ‘Greater Tibet’, it is only the Chinese who refer to it.

The British idea of convening the Tripartite (British India, China and Tibet) 1913-1914 Simla Conference was two fold

(1) To make McMahon Line as the India-China boundary and

(2) To officially divide Tibet into Inner and Outer Tibet. The plan went haywire when China did not sign the 1914 Simla Convention. When the Chinese did not sign the Simla Convention, the British went and signed bilaterally with the Tibetans the Anglo-Tibetan Declaration on 3rd July 1914. As a result the McMahon Line not only became the Indo-Tibetan boundary but neither divided Tibet into Inner and Outer Tibet. The Chinese only talk of Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) which is actually Outer Tibet as Tibet but do not talk at all of Inner Tibet (Kham And Amdo), which they call ‘Greater Tibet’, and which they have continued to occupy illegally since the warlord revolution of 1911-1912.

Again the learned Sr. Lecturer says that 31st March is observed as Tibetan National Uprising Day. The Tibetan National Uprising Day is observed on 10th March.

CA Kallianpur,

National Co-ordinator,

Friends of Tibet (India), Mumbai

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Prof. Avinash Kolhe replies One India, One People (July 2009):

"I must thank Mr. Kallianpur for sparing time to comment on my article. It is clear that theirs is a body which is created to propagate the cause of Tibet. No wonder they will refuse to look at any other view but theirs only. Hence the dispute about what is to be called ‘inner Tibet’ and what is to be called ‘Greater Tibet’. The ‘Friends of Tibet’ is a body of people with missionary zeal. One need not go into the merit of their cause or its relevance in today’s world. The error regarding ‘Tibetan National Uprising Day’ is indeed regretted."

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A Rejoinder

(One India, One People, August edition)

This is our rejoinder to Prof. Kolhe’s counter-reply (OIOP July 2009 issue).

Except calling the “Friends of Tibet as a body of people with a missionary zeal”, Prof. Kolhe seems to have missed the wood for the trees and has not answered the main point that we have raised: Immediately after the Chinese Warlord’s Revolution of 1911-1912, the Warlords had straightaway occupied part of eastern Tibet (Kham and Amdo). The British convened the Simla Conference in 1913-1914 with the idea of formalising this occupation i.e. giving legal formality to this occupation but failed in their attempt.

Friends of Tibet (India), Mumbai