In 1951, a tragedy was played out on the Roof of the World, on the most peaceful people on Earth. Irony died in shame as Tibet’s annexation by brute force, by one of the most ruthless regimes in the history of the planet, was termed a ‘peaceful liberation'.
India and China both have several thousand years old civilisational histories but never along the nearly 4,000-km long borders did they ever have a common boundary.
It was only after the annexation of Tibet and trampling of the rights of the majority Buddhists that Beijing (then Peking) forced a common frontier with India.
The invasion and the subsequent subjugation of the Tibetan Buddhists is one of the darkest chapters in history on how a ruthless Maoist party-government wreaked havoc on the fundamental and natural rights of the original inhabitants.
In one of the worst genocides in history, according to a UNHCR report, over 87,000 Tibetans were killed between March 1959 and October 1960 alone. Ninety-eight percent of monasteries and nunneries were destroyed, and 99 percent of the monks and nuns were disrobed.
With Galwan clashes fresh in memory and the negotiations over disengagement moving at a snail’s pace, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent visit to Tibet in July this year ruffled many feathers in India.
The first presidential visit to Tibet in 30 years was loaded with messages for India. The visit took place soon after the inauguration of a bullet train between Tibetan capital Lhasa and Nyingchi City, close to Arunachal Pradesh. This served as a build-up to the centenary celebrations of the Chinese Communist Party.
During the visit, he talked about the development of Tibet. However, the fact remains that development has caused enormous damage to Tibet’s environment and also poses a serious threat to India. The extent of the destruction is so extreme that it is said after the genocide, Tibet is now facing ‘ecocide’.
In the book ‘Meltdown in Tibet: China’s Reckless Destruction of Ecosystems from the Highlands of Tibet to the Deltas of Asia’, Michael Buckley writes “the mighty rivers of Tibet are being dammed by Chinese engineering consortiums to feed the mainland’s thirst for power, and the land is being relentlessly mined in search of minerals to feed China’s industrial complex.”
As part of its ongoing 14th Five Year Plan, a super dam over Yarlung Tsangpo (upper stream of the Brahmputra river) has been approved, triggering debates about China soon starting hydropower potential of the great canyon of the mighty river. It is targeted to produce 300 billion kilowatts of electricity each year.
The Brahmaputra is of great importance to India. According to a report, it accounts for nearly 30 percent of the country’s freshwater resources and 44 percent of its total hydropower potential.
China’s position as the upper riparian state for several rivers makes India’s position vulnerable.
While India has many a time conveyed its concerns about China diverting the waters from the river to its drought-prone regions through the Grand Western Water Diversion Project (or Shuotian Canal) and the Red Flag River Project, there are six hydropower projects already on its upper reaches, with three close to the Indian borders.
The environmental destruction caused on the Tibetan plateau is a matter the global community must be concerned about.
India is still paying the price of not opposing the Tibet takeover by China
We often forget the clear asymmetry between India and China. We are a thriving democracy while China is an authoritarian party-state. And understandably, therefore, despite India consistently trying not to ruffle Chinese feathers, the latter has carried a clearly “unfriendly” policy, be it on Jammu & Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh, or providing support to the insurgency in the Northeast.
The founder of Communist China, Mao-Tse-Tung, had said, “Tibet is the palm we take over, then we go after five fingers; Ladakh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh.”
The price of India not opposing the takeover of Tibet is being paid to date, Galwan clashes being the latest in series while the list is long — 2013 (Chumar), 2014 (Depsang), 2017 (Doklam), and not to forget the 1962 invasion.
The Galwan misadventure, however, took the Chinese establishment by surprise. It did not expect India to stand up to its expansionism with such resolve and might. While Beijing doesn’t want to budge from the areas it has trespassed, there is also the little possibility it will take the same chance again, especially because of the massive deployment of forces on the Indian side.
It is also a fact, however, that except for military repulsion, New Delhi is yet to find the right geo-strategic tools of deterrence. Tibet may be a ‘card’ for many, it is certainly a cause that India needs to actively take up.
It is, therefore, high time India revisited its Tibet policy and recognised the Tibetan government-in-exile. It must immediately start calling the Himalayan border the Indo-Tibet border. India must strongly assert that the 1914 McMohan Line was ratified by Tibet and that China was nowhere in the picture then.
‘Tibet Was At The Very Least A De Facto Independent State’
The International Court of Justice report, the basis for the UN resolutions on Tibet, mentions that “acts of genocide had been committed”, and that “Tibet was at the very least a de facto independent State” before its annexation by the Chinese government in 1951.
Rooted in shared religious lineage, what India also enjoys is the friendship and support of the Tibetan people who have historical linkage through cherished Indic history and shared Buddhism.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama is as much a son of India as Tibet.
As long back as 1995, an Amnesty International report said: “The other recent source of dissatisfaction is a new increase in the number of non-Tibetan settlers in Tibet, mainly Han (ethnic Chinese) and Hui (one of the Muslim minorities of the PRC), whose presence is considered a threat to the Tibetan national identity by a number of Tibetans. The Han and Hui settlers are also seen as an economic threat since many of them come to Tibet to buy shops and land.”
The real stories of Chinese impunity, merciless violation of rights behind the iron curtain, and the utter disregard for global concerns by China will emerge only when Tibet will one day be truly liberated and people won’t have fears of the iron fist.
There is no aspect of Tibetan life that is not under siege. There couldn’t be a starker comparison than to say Tibetans are given even fewer civil and political rights than even their Chinese counterparts.
While human rights are seen as inalienable fundamental rights for all, the Human Rights Watch says the Chinese party-state sees it “as an existential threat to the very survival of its power”.
Reporters Without Borders ranked China at 177th position on a list of 180 countries on its Press Freedom Index 2020. The reality of the iron curtain in Tibet is that North Korea, having more foreign journalists than Tibet, is more inaccessible than the Stalinist state.
The Freedom House report, as recent as March 2021, describes Tibet as the least free country after Syria.
The Indian Express, quoting the Tibetan government-in-Exile, reported that at least 154 Tibetans, including 26 women, set themselves ablaze between 2009 and 2019 to protest against Chinese oppression.
US Policy On Tibet Is Now Devoid Of Ambiguity
While India should have taken the natural leadership of the cause and launched a diplomatic broadside against Beijing, it was 40 western countries chastised China last October for its treatment of minority groups. The US policy on Tibet is now devoid of ambiguity. It has demanded China for accountability on human rights abuses.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken raised it while talking to senior Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi.
The US has passed The Consolidated Appropriations Act 2021, which says “The Secretary of State shall make best efforts to establish a branch office in Lhasa, Tibet, of the United States Consulate General in Chengdu, People’s Republic of China, to monitor political, economic, and cultural developments in Tibet.”
In the Tibet Policy and Support Act of 2020, this demand has another caveat that “The Secretary may not authorize the establishment in the United States of any additional consulate of the People’s Republic of China until a United States consulate in Lhasa, Tibet, is established under subsection”
In September last year, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China said: “The Chinese government and Communist Party are also expanding campaigns to “sinicize” Tibetan Buddhism, compelling religious institutions and communities to support the Party and its policies. Chinese authorities assert that they have sole authority to select and recognize reincarnated religious figures, including the future 15th Dalai Lama, and have disappeared the Panchen Lama since 1995, making him one of the world’s longest-serving prisoners of conscience.”
The US TPS Act clearly says, “Decisions regarding the selection, education, and veneration of Tibetan Buddhist religious leaders are exclusively spiritual matters that should be made by the appropriate religious authorities within the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and in the context of the will of practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism.”
The Chinese government has zero tolerance for political dissent that invites violence, arbitrary arrest, detention, and torture. The progressive modern world should feel disgusted to know that the State is imposing a “social credit system” that aggregates data on individuals’ credit scores, consumer behaviour, internet use, and criminal records, and last but not the least giving scores to citizens’ ‘trustworthiness’.
It is therefore important for India to champion the Tibetan cause, revisit its Tibet policy. The apprehension of angering China is no longer applicable. The US position is clear than ever and the formation of Quad including Japan and Australia along with the UN and India, makes New Delhi’s position stronger than ever against the narrative that is being played out.
(Rahul Kashyap is a former journalist. He is a noted public affairs and international relations expert.)
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