BOOK REVIEW
Compiling nearly 60 essays and presentations by 39 leading experts on Tibet and China, which were discussed in over 30 international webinars over 2020-23, Vijay Kranti’s “China’s Colonial Games in Tibet” is a useful work for all scholars, diplomats and security experts keen to have a clear understanding of China’s game inside its other colonies as well, writes award-winning journalist Nava Thakuria.*
China may be diplomatically recognised as a neighbour by the Union government in New Delhi, but for many Indians, it’s nothing but an aggressor which occupied the sacred land of Tibet seven decades back to come closer to Bharat. Millions of them still believe that Tibet will surely emerge as a sovereign land someday when the Dalai Lama would rule the Himalayan Shangri-la from Potala palace. The global Tibetan Buddhist population is ready for any sacrifice to make their original motherland as an independent country, not a colony of China. In contrast, the Communist regime in Beijing will not leave the Tibetan Plateau and it will seek to demolish every movement to sustain their rule over the Tibetan people.
A new book, titled ‘China’s Colonial Games in Tibet’, is coming to the market exposing the evil designs of Beijing inside Tibet for decades. Edited by veteran journalist-author Vijay Kranti and published by VK Media group for the Centre for Himalayan Asia Studies and Engagement (CHASE), the book comprises nearly 60 essays and presentations by 39 leading experts on Tibet and China, which were discussed in over 30 international webinars in between 2020 and 2023. The hard-bound 486-page book (priced at Rs 2500 and USD 40) emerges as an act of collective courage and wisdom while providing comprehensive information to the scholars, researchers, diplomats and policy makers on security, strategy, defense matters across the globe.
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, In his foreword message for this book, writes that Tibet is situated on the Roof of the World and it remains the source of many of Asia’s great rivers. Therefore, protecting the environment of the Tibetan plateau is of utmost importance. The plateau plays a crucial role in the global climate system – so much so that scientists have called it the globe’s ‘Third Pole’. The rivers which flow from Tibet sustain the lives of over a billion people across Asia, said the spiritual leader with concern for global environmental problems.
Having himself authored or co-authored over 100 books, the Dalai Lama adds, “I have made repeated efforts to safeguard my homeland and my people. Because our cause is grounded in truth and justice, I remain hopeful that we will achieve a peaceful and mutually acceptable resolution to our long-standing struggle.” He has hoped that this book will help raise greater awareness about Tibet and the ongoing efforts to find a lasting solution through dialogue, conducted in a spirit of understanding and mutual respect.
Born as Lhamo Dhondup to a farmer’s family in a remote locality of north-eastern Tibet on 6 July 1935, the present Dalai Lama was recognized as the reincarnation of the 13rd Dalai Lama as a four year old child. He was installed as the 14th Dalai Lama (renamed as Tenzin Gyatso) in Lhasa’s Potala palace during 1940. Following the Chinese invasion in 1950, the Dalai Lama assumed absolute political powers in 1950 when he was just 15 year old. He tried his best to negotiate with the Chinese regime in Beijing by personal visits and sending envoys, but gained little success. As the dominance of Beijing’s communist regime intensified, a national uprising of Tibetan people against the Chinese occupation spread across Tibet by 1959. The Dalai Lama had to escape to India following events in Lhasa during March of that year. No less than 87,000 Tibetans were killed by the Chinese army, finally leading to full fledged control of China over Tibet.
On 31 March 1959, the Dalai Lama and his associates crossed the Indian border through Khenzimane pass in Tawang district of Arunachal. Later, the Dalai Lama established the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) in Himachal Pradesh to look after the Tibetan refugees and make efforts for a peaceful solution to the Tibet-China dispute. Despite a series of half-hearted dialogue and irregular contact between Dharamshala and Beijing, there has been hardly any measurable progress. Rather, Beijing has consistently gone ahead with tightening its grip on Tibet through development of defence infrastructure, expanding internal security network in Tibet and changing the demographic structure of Tibet through massive settlement of Hans from the mainland. This has only added to the already simmering frustration among Tibetan masses.
This frustration has reflected itself through a long chain of over 160 self-immolations by Tibetans – most of them young boys, girls, monks and nuns. A section of this book is focused on the magnitude of and reasons for this problem. In one of these essays, the writer also underlines the international community’s near complete indifference to this unending wave of self-immolations as against the outburst of international concerns at a single act of self immolation by a Tunisian hawker which led to a widespread public uprising and the fall of about a dozen regimes in the middle-east. He also refers to the humiliating withdrawal of the American Army from Vietnam following a monk’s self immolation. The book also compares the international outrage against the Taliban in Afghanistan following the blasting of Buddha statues in Bamiyan vis-à-vis mass destruction of Buddha statues across Tibet on orders of Xi Jinping.
Author Kranti, a hardcore admirer of the Dalai Lama, has acknowledged the support from Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC) in the process. The celebrated Tibetologist and a professional photographer also reveals that the collective of essays and commentaries covers all relevant issues, especially the colonial games, being played relentlessly by the Beijing administration in Tibet. The book can be seen as an attempt to draw world attention towards various colonial games being played by Beijing on the Tibetan people – like the mass level brainwashing of Tibetan children through the Chinese Communist Party’s network of residential schools. The world needs to wake up against the unprecedented cultural genocide which is going on inside occupied Tibet under the command of the Chinese President. All this makes this book useful for all those scholars, diplomats and security experts who are keen to have a clear understanding of China’s game inside its other colonies as well.
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* Mr Nava Thakuria is a Guwahati-based journalist covering northeast India and its surrounding neighbours namely Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet/China, Myanmar and Bangladesh. His journalistic focus include socio-political, cultural and environmental degradations taking place in the entire region. An alumnus of Assam Engineering College (under Gauhati University), Thakuria was honoured with a number of fellowships and honours including the Geneva-based Press Emblem Campaign’s annual award in 2021 and the Devarshi Narad Jayanti award this year.