[world-vedic] Tibet and India: An Eternal Bond

[Guest guest]

Keerthi Reddy

Tibet and India: An Eternal Bond

 

On July 8, 1999 the spiritual leader of the Tibetan nation, the revered

Dalai Lama, showed his love and support for his adopted homeland of

India. In a moving statement, the Dalai Lama said, "India should get

her right for which it was forced to fight. Although the Kashmir

problem should be resolved through negotiations between India and

Pakistan, we wish success to India. No body wants violence, but

sometime circumstances make such conflicts necessary." Just last week

the venerable leader had cancelled his Birthday celebrations to show

his utmost solidarity with the Indian soldiers and the nation of India.

This week he convened a special prayer meeting at McLeod Ganj to pray

for world peace, and the Indian soldiers and civilians who are dying

due to Pakistan's aggression in Kargil. Hundreds of monks and Tibetans

converged near the temple of the Dalai Lama and prayed together with

him for this noble cause.

 

Despite his endearing affection and spiritual respect for India, the

fact is that the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan nation were sadly let down

by the government of India during the moment that they needed its

support the most. The story of the relationship between these two

nations dates back to ancient times. But during the recent history of

the forcible occupation of Tibet by the Chinese, India did not come to

the rescue of its spiritual sister nation. The reasons for this are

complex and deserve to be analyzed in some detail.

 

Tibet traditionally has been a buffer between India and China. It was

mainly because of this peaceful country and its people that there had

been no major military confrontations between India and China in the

past. The first known king of Tibet was an Indian, Nya-Tri Tsen-Po, the

fifth son of King Prasenjit of Kaushala. The earliest religion and

literature which influenced Tibet were Hinduism, followed by Buddhism

and Sanskrit. Tibet's alphabet is modeled on the DevaNagari and Bengali

scripts.

 

The first contact of Tibet with China was in 635 AD through the

marriage of a Buddhist Chinese princess with Tibetan king

Sron-btsan-sgam-po (Naradeva in Sanskrit) who was a descendant of

Nya-Tri. The marriage was in fact a symbol of the assertion of Tibetan

authority over China! In 763 AD, when the Chinese emperor refused to

pay tribute to Tibet, the Tibetans placed their own nominee on the

throne of China. In 1252, Kublai Khan conquered a major part of Tibet,

but ended up recognizing the Buddhist scholar Phagspa-Gya-tsen as his

Guru and converted to Buddhism. Neither the Yuan nor the Ming dynasties

of China (1277 AD to 1634 AD) ever exercised any political control over

Tibet in fact. Thus it was an established historical fact that Tibet

had never been a province of China and in fact the reverse was

sometimes true, where Tibet had actually controlled large portions of

China.

 

India on the other hand had always nurtured close cultural and trade

relations with Tibet. In 1947, India had the right to station an Indian

political agent in Lhasa and to maintain trade agencies at Gyantse,

Gartok and Yatung as well as post and telegraph offices along the trade

routes, and military escorts to protect the commercial highway. In

contrast the Chinese who had been allowed to station a Chinese mission

in Lhasa from 1934 were expelled by the Tibetans in July 1949 in

recognition of their hegemonistic ambitions. Soon thereafter the

Communists came to power in China and on New Year's Day, 1950, Chinese

Marshall Chu Teh declared the "Liberation" of Tibet as one of the basic

tasks of the People's Liberation Army. In March 1950, the Chinese

occupied Tachienlu, the traditional gateway to Lhasa. A large scale

program of building roads from China to Tibet was simultaneously

started. In May, Peking Radio called upon the Dalai Lama to "accept

peaceful liberation of Tibet"!.

 

Despite all the ominous portents, India's prime minister Jawaharlal

Nehru of the Congress Party made not a single protest. In what can only

be viewed as potentially anti national activities, Jawaharlal Nehru

instead chose to knowingly ignore the threat of Chinese aggression of

Tibet and the consequent security implications to India. The

insignificant half-hearted whimpers that were made by the Indian

government can at best be viewed as weak and ineffectual feeble

attempts. On 30 September, 1950, Chou En Lai formally proclaimed his

government's determination to "liberate the people of Tibet and stand

on guard at Chinese Frontiers".

 

In that same month, the Chinese Ambassador in Delhi and a Tibetan

delegation were invited to hold talks. On October 7, 1950 as the

Tibetan delegation was in Calcutta on its way to Peking, Peking Radio

announced that the "process of liberating Tibet" had started. Without

warning over 40,000 Chinese troops crossed over into Tibet and

overwhelmed the Tibetan border forces. By October 19, they had captured

the fortress town of Chamdo, 300 miles east of Lhasa and by October 22

were in control of Lhodzong and other major eastern passes. On October

25, the Chinese News Agency declared: " The Chinese Army had entered

Tibet to liberate the people, to complete the unification of China, to

prevent imperialism from invading even an inch of the territory of the

fatherland and to safeguard and build up the frontier regions of the

country." In a clear threat to India, the declaration also stated:" No

foreign interference will be tolerated. The viewpoint of the Government

of India was "deplorable" and had been affected by foreign influences

hostile to China".

 

Nehru's response was to send a conciliatory note to China reiterating

that there were "legitimate Tibetan claim to autonomy within the

framework of Chinese suzerainty". This ridiculous statement meant

nothing in concrete terms and in fact alluded to China's ownership of

Tibet!

 

On November 7, 1950 , the anguished Tibetans took the issue to the UN

repudiating China's claim to Tibet and describing the Chinese attack as

a clear aggression. The only two countries which could be expected to

support Tibet's claims on legal grounds were India and England. Thanks

to Nehru and the Congress Party, INDIA DID NOTHING to protest this

incredibly blatant violation of Tibet's sovereignty. Even a resolution

condemning the Chinese invasion was deferred by the Indian delegation.

The Tibetans sent a couple of agonized telegrams requesting the United

Nations to at least send a fact finding commission to Tibet but to no

avail.

 

It was in fact the INDIAN recommendation by Jam Sahib (Nehru's hand

picked man) that convinced the UN General assembly to not intervene.

Jam Sahib stated that Peking had informed India that Chinese forces had

ceased to advance after Chamdo and that a peaceful settlement which

would safeguard Tibet's autonomy was still possible. The Indian

government's statement was like a bullet to the head for Tibet. The

politicians of that very same India which for centuries had been

Tibet's spiritual and material supporter had ensured the destruction of

Tibet

 

This must surely go down in history as one of the most disappointing

and shameful moments of Indian History. The ignominy of bringing the

downfall of one of India's oldest friends must squarely rest on the

shoulders of Jawaharlal Nehru and the Indian National Congress. Their

actions condemned Tibet to Chinese Hegemony and India to a future

filled with grave security risks.

 

Starting in 1951, the Tibetan resistance against Chinese rule started

becoming active. By November 1956, the resistance had reached its peak,

and it was then that the Dalai Lama was allowed to visit India to

participate in the Buddha Parinirvana celebrations. However he was

accompanied by heavily armed Chinese guards everywhere. It was during

this visit, that the Dalai Lama whose life was obviously in danger from

the Chinese expressed the desire to stay on in India. But much to the

shock of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetans, India's "Chacha" Nehru

REFUSED to give the beleaguered spiritual leader sanctuary, In what

amounted to a complete negation of the Indian Hindu tradition of

treating one who seeks refuge, to be an honored guest, Nehru threw the

millennia long tradition of Indian courtesy to the dogs and curtly

informed the Dalai Lama to go back to China.

 

 

 

Potala Palace: Dalai Lama's ancestral home

 

The Dalai Lama was forced to go back to China, and in March 1959, riots

broke out in Lhasa where many monasteries and manuscripts were

destroyed by the Chinese. The situation had reached a boiling point and

the Dalai Lama knew that he was either going to be killed or used as a

helpless hostage by the ruthless Chinese regime. With the ruthless

suppression of the revolt and the increasing carnage and human

atrocities being effected on the Tibetan people, thousands upon

thousands of refugees started pouring out in droves to escape to India.

 

Thus it was that on March 17, 1959, a small procession surreptitiously

wound its way across Lhasa and disappeared under cover of darkness into

the Himalayas. The group was composed of a few strong supporters of a

slight young man, who embodied hopes of their entire nation. The group

did not rest or pause until they had safely reached within the

boundaries of India. This was the way that the Dalai Lama was forced to

flee his own beloved kingdom in exchange for a lifetime of exile.

 

On August 30, 1959, the Dalai Lama apprised the world of the

intolerable level of suffering in Tibet by stating:

 

"The picture of Tibet has become immeasurably darker and gloomier and

the sufferings of my people are truly beyond description. I take this

opportunity to make a personal appeal to all civilized countries of the

world to lend their fullest support to our cause of freedom and

justice". Chacha Nehru reacted by labeling the press reports of the

atrocities as "grossly exaggerated" and the entire event as "more of a

clash of wills at present than a clash of arms or physical bodies"

 

The Dalai Lama on his arrival, sorrowfully informed the world that over

100,000 Tibetans had been brutally massacred during the Revolt in

Tibet. All of India was shocked at the extent of brutality which had

been thrust upon the Tibetans by the Chinese.

 

On September 4, 1959 a non official resolution was moved in the Indian

Parliament urging that India should take the issue of Tibet to the

United Nations. In response Chacha Nehru made this chillingly uncaring

speech to Parliament: "It is easy enough to talk about them and it is

easy enough to find many faults in the way countries behave. But if a

country like India has to function, we have to function in a mature

way, in a considered way, in a way which at least promises some kind of

results. It is absolutely pointless for us to make brave gestures and

it is worse than pointless if these brave gestures react and rebound on

us and injure the cause which we seek to promote."

 

With these words Jawaharlal Nehru and the Congress Party threw a

centuries old bond between India and Tibet down the drain. In the

process they ensured the murder of freedom for Tibetans and a future

fraught with danger for India. Although the Dalai Lama was granted

asylum in India, his cause and the Tibetan nation were dealt a mortal

blow by these Indian politicians.

 

In the remote Indian town of Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh the

benevolent and cheerful incarnation of Karuna, the ocean of compassion,

whose face is lined with the creases of disappointment is praying with

thousands of Tibetans for the sake of Indian soldiers. He and his

people have been patiently awaiting deliverance for nearly 40 years.

Despite the memories of atrocities in the past, this man refuses to

support armed actions or other forms of violence in his campaign to win

concessions from China. His courage stems from the strength of his

principles and beliefs.

 

How long he can keep exiled Tibetans united around his nonviolent

principles is the question that envelops the Tibetans of today.

 

Whatever the answer, Indians should not forget the role their country

has played. It is time to remember the eternal spiritual bonds that tie

India to Tibet and make a change in the fate of Tibet. Let's stand

together with our Tibetan brothers who are praying for Indian soldiers

as they fight in Kargil. Let the same prayer of well being go up from

our hearts for the safety and true liberation of Tibet.