By Tshering Chomzom
New Delhi, April 14 – The latest developments inside Tibet have raked up a number of diverging narratives on what exactly was transpiring on the roof of the world. With China launching scathing attacks against the western media’s credibility to report on Tibet, the uncertainty about the exact turn of events lingered. An intervention was necessary and rightly so, it came – better late than never.
Jawaharlal Nehru University, the premier academic institution in India chose to break its silence over the latest developments in Tibet yesterday. An after dinner talk on “The Crisis in Tibet” brought together more than 200 JNU scholars who eagerly stayed up after dinner to listen to the expert panel of speakers, Prof. Anand Kumar, Dr. Srikanth Kondapalli, Dr. Yeshi Chodon and Dr. B R Deepak, all JNU faculty members and experts in their respective areas of study. The talk went on almost into midnight indicating the academic community’s interest in the Tibet issue.
Dr. Chodon drew attention to the paradoxes of the international political system which, while recognizing Tibetan concerns, sought to apply a modern legalistic yardstick to the political issue of Tibet. Therefore, the Tibet issue came to be reduced to a mere human rights issue when brought up before the United Nations. According to Dr. Chodon, owing to lack of political will and adherence to a state-centric approach, the international community has remained a mute spectator to the cultural destruction of Tibet.
Prof. Kumar succinctly conceptualized the Tibet issue as comprising of four failures – the Chinese model of nation building; the Euro-American family that has no faith in Tibetan struggle for justice; the UN system that is centered around the five permanent Security Council members; and finally, India’s inability to take a stand on Tibet. He further conceptualized the two successes of the Tibet issue – the success of the Tibetan people to keep alive their quest for dignity and justice and the triumph of the global civil society to make small voices big and the invisible, visible. He also pointed out that as long as the Tibet issue is not resolved through dialogue with the Dalai Lama, the India-China boundary dispute would remain.
Dr. Kondapalli literally ‘dissected’ the protests in Tibet and discussed both the Chinese and Tibetan critiques of each other. Without harking on who might be more credible, he drew attention to the consequence of increasing Chinese nationalism; the consequence being an extension of ‘the civil war in China’ between the Hans and the Tibetans to outside China, as was visible in San Francisco. However, he pointed out that the personal attacks on the Dalai Lama by the Chinese leaders ‘vanish the prospects for peace’ and therefore, there was not going to be any substantial progress in the Sino-Tibetan talks post protests. The ultimate sustainability of the Tibetan movement, according to him hinges on the creation of a symbiotic integration between the Tibetan movement inside and outside China.
Dr. Deepak apprised the audience about the complex historical issues surrounding the Tibet issue. He highlighted Chinese concerns about the Dalai Lama’s ‘clout’ inside Tibet as a major reason why in the 1980s, they suggested that he can return to China but reside outside Tibet. According to him, since no Chinese government had historically supported Tibetan independence, autonomy is the only pragmatic option for the Tibetans. Nonetheless, citing territorial and juridical issues, he pointed out that for a speedy resolution to the problem, the Dalai Lama has to offer more concessions.
The question hour session invoked quite a number of questions on whether any lessons could be drawn for India from China’s negotiating style with the Tibetans. Another scholar queried as to what are the outstanding issues hindering China from talking to the Dalai Lama and why is the Taiwan issue used as a precondition for resumption of dialogue. Overall, the meeting reflected upon various concerns of various parties involved in the problem and managed to discuss the Tibet issue in its entirety, ranging from history, independence/autonomy debate, protests in Tibet, international involvement, role of global civil society, and negotiations.
The talk was organized by JNU’s Tibet Forum.
