Bookmark A future for Tibet

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By Manju Gupta

This book is a collection of articles that have been published over the last 25 years in the monthly newsmagazine entitled Tibet Desh. The prime aim of the book is to celebrate the silver jubilee of the founding of Tibet Desh.

On reading this book one experiences a mixture of feelings-satisfaction and pain. Satisfaction that since we had never been really presented a true picture of the Tibet problem, we get to know the exact stand taken by India and China over it. Pain is at the sufferings of the Tibetans, especially those displaced, who have been deprived of their national freedom and of their just human rights in a most callous manner by the Chinese through invasion of Tibet and by India through limited counter action. Much greater pain is India'son whose borders now stand armed Chinese troops, with Tibet no longer serving as a silent buffer State between India and China.

Despite making all kinds of promises to India, China occupied Tibet and the Chinese troops crossed over to Tibet to reach India'sborders. Subsequently, using Tibet as its base for military activities, China attacked India in 1962. It was following this attack that the Indian Parliament passed a resolution saying, ?The Parliament with hope and confidence, promises that we will rest only after pushing out the aggressors from the pious land of India. No matter how much time we have to devote in this work and no matter what price we have to pay, we are prepared to make every sacrifice.?

On March 10, 1959, the Tibetans revolted against Chinese occupation and this the Chinese troops ruthlessly crushed. In this brutal murder of mankind, the Chinese troops killed more than 87,000 Tibetans between March and October 1959. Some very interesting articles in this book worthy of being read seriously are by- Dr Ram Manohar Lohia, a firebrand socialist, on child murder in Tibet by the Chinese; Rafiq Zakaria on why Tibet should be given its human rights; Girilal Jain on India'spolicy failure on Tibet; Atal Behari Vapjpayee on India'sfault in accepting China'ssupremacy in Tibet; Deendayal Upadhyay on why India should offer all support to the Tibetans in their fight for freedom and that friendship between India and China has to be based on faith and respect, equality and mutual profit; not on fear and misconceptions, etc.

This book relates that there are nine misconceptions on Tibet that need to be removed. These are:

• China'sbelief that the Dalai Lama and his followers are hatching an international conspiracy to bring about disintegration of China.
• Tibet is engaged in an anti-China campaign.
• It is a conspiracy by the world'scommunists and the American CIA to spread the fallacy that the Tibetan culture is being deliberately destroyed.
• There is anger not only among the Tibetans who have fled their motherland but also among those who have remained behind in Tibet.
• Indian may have to face opposition from China on the issue of Jammu & Kashmir if India adopts a rigid and pro-active stand on Tibet with China.
• The question of Tibet was raised by a certain section of the Indian politicians and parties to create a rift in India-China relations.
• The problem of Tibet is restricted only to those Tibetans who belong to the Dalai Lama'sgeneration.
• The fear that the question of Tibet may lead to a second attack by China on India as had happened in 1962.
• The ninth and the most important fear is that sections of Indians and Americans due to nationalistic feelings are interested in the Tibet issue.

The reality of the situation is that the Americans are interested in the Chinese market, the Indians are wary of the Chinese army.

(Tibet Desh, India-Tibet Coordination Office, 10-H Lajpat Nagar-III, New Delhi-110 024.)