Apr 03, 2008 08:09 PM
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With the recent riots in Lhasa over the Chinese Govt, and the Dalai Lama's call for more autonomy, the international spotlight has again veered on to Tibet. This post is to give a general perspective.
What is the historical background?*
In 1950, China invaded Tibet, ostensibly to liberate the serfs from the oppresive rule of the Buddhist monks and Tibetan aristocracy. Alas like many liberation movements, this ended up creating a new set of oppressors much worse than the previous regime.And land redistribution was done, with many lands forcibly taken away from noblemen and monasteries and redistributed to serfs. In 1959, the Tibetans backed by the CIA, rose in an uprising against China. The Chinese army however brutally crushed the movement, and to date many Tibetans are living in exile, or yearning for a free homeland.
Why do Tibetans hate the Chinese?The Chinese introduced education, roads, railways into Tibet, but the ungrateful Tibetans have no gratitude. Right. Yes partially. The truth is that while China did develop Tibet, and bought it out from the shackles of backwardness, the damage it has done to Tibet's social fabric is deep. The truth is that China has carried on a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing and apartheid, which our Chinese loving intellectual morons never acknowledge. Teaching of Tibetan language has been forbidden, Tibetan culture and history is not taught in schools, all Tibetans are forced to learn Chinese, monasteries have been destroyed, monks assaulted. What the Chinese are doing in Tibet is not just occupation, it is the systematic destruction of a culture and tradition. Oh yeah, i do here our secular bunch of jokers and morons, trying to draw parallels betweenTibet and Kashmir. The fact is that no non Kashmiri can ever buy land, yes not even the President of India in Kashmir, while China has resettled ethnic Han Chinese in Tibet, who now dominate most of the trade. The Chinese Government is only interested in the welfare of Han Chinese, they have been brutally surpressing minorities everywhere. What is happening in Tibet is a kind of apartheid, where native Tibetans are treated like second class citizens in their own land.
*What should India do?
Well we once said India-China Bhai Bhai, and we paid a heavy price for it. It is high time we removed the blinkers over our eyes, and acknowledge the reality. The Chinese Government will never be a friend of India, and for that matter any democratic nation. if we are thinking that just being silent over the Tibetan issue, the Chinese Government will start being buddy buddy with us, well then we are living in a fools paradise for sure. I am not advocating enmity with the Chinese, because the Chinese Government is the kind with whom neither enmity nor friendship is advisable. But to think that the Chinese are going to support us, just because we approve of their stand on Tibet, is not just naive, it is downright short sighted. But then nothing much can be expected from a bunch of jokers who have no idea at all about international politics. Get real guys China does not have a problem only with India, it has a problem with Vietnam, Taiwan, Japan in fact almost every country bordering it. And the Chinese Government is the most ruthless, they will support all kind of rogue regimes just for their own benefit.
Trust me, China is not going to give up its claims to disputed Indian territory, just because India keeps mum over Tibet. It has become Asia's super bully, and the more you appease a bully's ego, the more he grows arrogant. As of now India should make its stand clear on Tibet, and be firm with the Chinese. But honestly you cant expect this from a puppet PM remote controlled by a lady whose only concern is to see her son dearest inherit the Gaddi, and in turn dependent on a bunch of commies, who never have the nation's interest at heart. Sometimes I really wonder what sin did we Indians commit, to have such a supremely atrocious Government representing us.
And in all this it is the innocent Tibetans who are the biggest losers. For decades they have seen their land occupied, their culture and tradition destroyed, their people exploited. But I guess since they dont blow themselves up nor ram planes into buildings, their struggle will never be noticed. Or maybe they need to pick up guns and start hijacking airlines, for the world to hear their voice
