Its easy to be sympathetic towards the cause of Tibet, but its hard to not be critical of the Tibetans either. The Tibetans have a government in exile running out of Mcleodganj. The structure is basic but functional. Their setup is impressive and well thought out. The Tibetans realize that a democratic structure is the only feasible solution once they get their homeland and they seem to be grooming their population in exile for the same. But, the return to homeland is going to be one long and difficult haul, and they know it.
By their own admission, the Tibetan culture and their language is more congruent with India than China. Chinese claim that historically and culturally Tibet has always been a part of china and hence the invasion of Tibet in 1949. Their language has strong links with Sanskrit even though their script is their own. Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual guru and a revered personality all over the world, has often likened India as the guru and Tibet as the Disciple.
The Indian connection explains why the Dalai Lama sought exile in India when the Chinese invaded his homeland in 1949. Since then almost two generation of Tibetans have made India their home. The younger ones have been born here and consider them as much a part of India as Tibet. Almost a decade after the invasion, in 1959, an uprising took place in Tibet. It was brutally crushed and added to the toll that Tibet had suffered during the invasion.
The Government of China is meticulously and ruthlessly destroying the unique cultural thread of Tibet. Human rights are frequently violated. Torture and media censorship is norm. The younger generation growing in Tibet haven't even seen what their spiritual guru Dalai Lama looks like owing to the blanket ban on media and information flow.
The environment is being destroyed too, bit by bit. The grasslands in Tibet are shrinking, giving way to deserts. The Chinese have also destroyed the nomadic tribes of Tibet by making them rudimentary structures and forcing them to abandon their century old lifestyle. Tibet is vital for water too as almost one quarter of the water feeding south east Asia flows from the glaciers in Tibet. The Chinese realize that and they are making dams on these rivers indiscriminately but secretly. The Tibetan environmental workers find it surprising that these issues are never at the forefront of any environmental discussions or forum even though they can potentially affect vast human population downstream.
The struggle for Tibet has become harder because of the might of China. No country wants to antagonize China, not even the current superpower, the US. Its hard for Tibetans living in Tibet to mobilize themselves because of the iron curtain that surrounds not just Tibet but also the mainland China. In these times, the exiled population is doing what it can to not let the world go complacent to the cause of Tibet.
The Tibet movement is strictly non-violent and has always been so. The fact that they are willing to fight out a long drawn battle full of sacrifices is laudatory too. But, somehow it just doesn't add up. They are too happy to remind the Indians that even their struggle took a couple of hundred century to bear results with great sacrifices from the population. They, however, seem to forget that the Indian struggle was not based out of some friendly neighboring country but it was based in India. The mass movement triggered by the appeal of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi brought the mighty British Empire to its feet. The Tibetans don't even know the status of protests in their homeland. Any movement that is going to crack China enough in yielding Tibet has to be in Tibet itself. The Tibetan dispensation working here in India seems to have no clue about how to go about it. They also mildly accuse India of being too neutral, which is a euphemism for India not pitching the case of Tibet strong enough at different international fora. They, however, seems to be oblivious of the fact that India does its best not to rub china the wrong way. China claims Arunachal as its own and we hardly even make a noise. The Chinese incursion into our territory is often reported but we sit back and review the situation. The scar that China inflicted on Indian minds in the 1962 war still haunts the decision makers here in India.
Tibet must realize that India can support them covertly as they have been doing for close to sixty years but its not yet ready to take China by the horns. Tibetans must be pro-active and learn lessons from history and other freedom struggles. They have to infiltrate the Tibet mainland in order to have an impact, which is a lot harder that it may even sound. However, that is their only recourse if they want to thwart the neo-imperialist expansionist designs of China in their neighborhood.
