India's Tibet Travails

For several years now, Tibetans activists have tried to elicit global support for their campaign against China's cultural genocide. They accuse Beijing of killing hundreds of peacefully protesting Buddhist monks in Tibet and systematically destroying symbols of Tibetan culture. One of the more non-violent ways that Beijing has used to suppress the Tibetans is to promote the migration of the Han community (China's biggest ethnic group), who have grabbed economic opportunities at the expense of the native Tibetans. To draw the world's attention to their plight, since January 2011, 29 Tibetans have burnt themselves to death in India. 

Tibet, before its occupation by China in 1959, was a Buddhist theocracy. China's occupation saw the killing of thousands of Buddhist monks by Beijing’s military. In the years after the escape of the Dalai Lama, the besieged nation’s top spiritual leader, on horseback to India in 1959, almost all symbols of the ancient heritage of Tibet have been systematically erased. 

Today there is a Tibetan government-in-exile with its headquarters in McLeodganj in Himachal Pradesh. Thousands of Tibetans—both first generation refugees and their descendants—have made India their home. Over the years, India has extended moral and diplomatic support to the Tibetans. 

All that is changing and how. 

For fear of antagonising China, the Government of India (GoI) has often asked its ministers (& top bureaucrats) to avoid meeting the Dalai Lama or other Tibetan representatives. In fact, the GoI said that, “We will continue to extend the Dalai Lama all hospitality, but during his stay in India, he should not do any political activity that could adversely affect relations between India and China”. In short, India ‘advised’ the Dalai Lama not to conduct any political activities from India. 

I believe that this policy of publicly distancing herself from the Tibetans is a deliberate move by the Government of India. The reasons for this significant shift are not far to seek: 

(a) Trade. Burgeoning trade between the two nations – as of now, China is one of India’s top two trade partners;

(b) Reciprocity. Kashmir is India’s bugbear just as Tibet is China’s.

(c) 1962 defeat. Rarely acknowledged but nevertheless our humiliating defeat continues to shape our almost condescending attitude towards China. 

However,
what worries me more is that if this could happen when the Dalai Lama is
around, imagine what would happen after his death. As of now, the Tibetan
community (including in Tibet) does not boast of even a single individual with the
charisma, and more importantly, spiritual hold, to replace the Dalai Lama. So
is the Tibetan movement doomed? Let me not sit in judgement here. 

I hate to
sound pessimistic, but maybe the Indian government is simply waiting for the
Dalai Lama to pass away. At least then, we would not have to put up the charade
of standing up for the freedom-loving, oppressed, and repressed Tibetans.