OPINION
Given the recent US adoption of the ‘Resolve Tibet Act’ and the passing of significant resolutions on Tibet by the parliaments of the EU, Canada, and Australia in recent times, Tenzin Sherab* quotes US House Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi that “Now things have changed” to argue that India too should adopt a more robust policy on Tibet in keeping with its historical ties with the Chinese occupied Himalayan territory and its current geopolitical concerns.
Two recent Tibet related events have made Tibetans jubilant and Xi worried. Seventy-year-old conflict between Tibet and China has now surfaced prominently through media and on various social platforms.
In his recent speech at upper Indian Parliament (Rajya Sabha), a member from Sikkim State, Shri Dorjee Tshering Lepcha made a pragmatic demand to the Government of India to refer the border of 1,400 km stretching from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh as “Tibet border” rather than China border. Since 1962, India and China have held 30 border meetings, the latest one in July 2024 in New Delhi, which yielded no tangible result for both sides. Historically, there never existed borders between India and China. MP Mr. Lepcha urged the Indian Government to issue a directive to its agencies to officially rename the border as “Tibet border” as it affected India’s national identity and territorial integrity.
And another significant event was the recent passage of the ‘Resolve Tibet Act’ by the US Congress, which is a legislative milestone and unprecedented bipartisan support for the Tibetan cause. This important bill is to end an impasse in negotiation with Beijing which has stalled since 2010. The US delegation who met with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and their subsequent statement refuting the Chinese claim of “Tibet being a part of China”, rattled the communist regime.
A delegation of seven influential US lawmakers led by Republican Congressman Michael McCaul, former Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, and long-time Tibet supporter and human rights champion and Democrat Congressman Jim McGovern, made headlines across the globe on June 19, 2024. They brought the issue of Tibet to the forefront. The law not only underscores renewed US support for Tibet but also challenges the core issue of the “One China Policy” which many countries have adhered to over the years.
However, the immediate counter-reactions from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to the “Resolve Tibet Act” included shutting down the renowned private Tibetan School in Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai Province and surveil and suppress every movement of Tibetans. Unless the Joe Biden administration steps up to implement the Act in letter and spirit, Tibetans inside Tibet will continually be put in inconceivable harm’s way and their lives and identity would be seriously jeopardized.
Catastrophic Miscalculation
A look back at the international playbook of politics and diplomacy reminds us Tibetans, who have been perennial and hapless victims of oppression and misinformation, how the CCP had twisted the credibility of even acclaimed leaders such as Britain’s Tony Blair, David Miliband and the Clintons, to name a few stalwarts. China misguided them to the extent that they gave in to the CCP’s narrative of the “One China Policy”. In doing so, they looked the other way to decades of China’s iron-grip control of Tibet.
Even former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her visit to Beijing in 2009 hushed up severe rights violations in Tibet that occurred in the aftermath of widespread protests in Tibet against Chinese rule and in the run-up to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Her widely reported press statement in Beijing, saying human rights violations in China can’t interfere with or take precedence over other economic issues, was unnerving and totally distressing. Her stoic silence on human rights issues caused extensive damage and distress to the Tibetan struggle and to other minorities who were suffering under the regime. The catastrophic miscalculations of such Western leaders that China will become liberal after it is brought into the WTO fell flat in the face of a more belligerent and assertive China. Instead, the Chinese regime – not its citizens who are hardworking and freedom loving – became a more aggressive and existential threat to peace-loving peoples and rule-based international democratic systems.
And so, the radical change in the legislative US policy towards Tibet gives Tibetans a huge sigh of relief and hope. It also aligns well with what India might have perceived lately to counter the Chinese cartographic warfare concerning the Indian State of Arunachal Pradesh and China’s growing influence in the region.
The Significant Bond
Pundits in Delhi, I believe, are aware of how profound cultural and spiritual affinity between India and Tibet evolved over the centuries. It is not just Buddhism that binds the two nations together. The Tibetan language, with its letters originally based on Brahmi Gupta scripts, is the foundational basis of mastering the Tibetan language, and the Buddhist sutras and tantras. More than two hundred volumes of the Buddha’s teachings, a few hundred years ago, were translated into Tibetan by Indian and Tibetan scholars.
The 38th Tibetan Emperor Trisong Detsen (8th century AD) invited Indian masters such as Padmasambhava, Acharya Shanta Rakshita, etc, to Tibet. Buddhism, therefore, took a firm root and flourished. Worship of deities such as Tara Devi, Saraswati, Vajrapani, Bhairava, Hayagriva, etc, have been an integral part of Tibetan practices and way of life. Mount Kailash and Lake Mansarovar are not only considered sacred, they are a significant bond between the Indian and Tibetan civilizations. However, peace, calm, and tranquillity that historically prevailed between the two sides on the border were rudely disrupted by the forceful Chinese annexation of Tibet in 1951. There were hardly any soldiers patrolling the India-Tibet border until then. In fact, it was Tibet’s independence which ensured India’s security. More than 1.2 million Tibetans died as a result of Chinese occupation, and many are still languishing in prison for as simple a reason as displaying a picture of H. H the Dalai Lama.
It is time for India to initiate a more significant and robust Tibet policy, to strike while the iron is hot, as old saying goes. As a great admirer of the visionary trio (Prime Minister Modi-ji, Mr. Doval & Dr. Jaishankar), I, for one, appeal to them to meet with His Holiness the Dalai Lama at least in his capacity as religious and spiritual leader of the Tibetans and millions of his followers worldwide.
USA aside, Canada, the EU, and Australia have also pledged their support for Tibet in a manner no one has ever imagined a decade ago. As per Asian News Network, Japan will hold its first ever International Conference next year in support of Tibetans. In short, it is fair to say that what matters to the leaders depends entirely on the self-serving interest of their concerned nation when it comes to chalking a policy direction. It only needs to be understood that the Tibet issue is not only for Tibetans, rather, it involves long-term geopolitical interest of the global community as well.
As Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi rightly said, “Now things have changed.” So does the law of impermanence, as per Buddhist belief, is inevitable, and only time will tell what fate lies ahead for Tibet.
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* Tenzin Sherab is a former Principal of Sera Je Secondary School (CBSE), Bylakuppe, Karnataka; holds PhD in Philosophy from University of Mysore, is a former member of Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile, and currently lives in California, USA.