History has a way of repeating itself. And also ways in which events in the world occur synchronously. In 1066 AD the French swamped England and imposed their culture and ethos on the unsuspecting Anglo-Saxons. British culture as we know it today is more of a French construct than it is of British origins. Recently, the Maharashtrians lashed out against Hindi speaking ethnic communities in the West of our country. The former said that they have had enough of Hindi-speaking business monopoly in their state. So it was payback time for all the insults the native Maharashtrian had suffered by the hands of the North Indian. I’ll just give two examples to illustrate my point that third degree genocide is common in the world. This is exactly what is happening in Tibet. Tibet has been purposely swamped with the Han Chinese by the Chine Government in Beijing.
The International Herald Tribune reports how the Han Chinese and the ethnic, native Tibetan live in two different worlds. The former are like the erstwhile French in my example above, having the best of opportunities, having more wealth and condescending towards the poor Tibetan. The Han consider the Tibetan lazy, unemployable and irascible. A recent Instablogs citizen journalist wrote of a similar opinion held by North Indians regarding the native Maharashtrian. Like the latter, the Tibetans find this condescension galling. They lament the passing of the Tibetan ways of life in Lhasa. Yet their poverty prohibits them from protesting meaningfully, from taking constructive steps for preserving their heritage. Most of them work for the Han Chinese in Tibet. Again this mirrors how in much of India today ethnic populations work for Hindi speaking people. Now the vernaculars in India are being increasingly peppered by Hindi. There are clear parallels. Mainstream media incorrectly reports the Tibetan situation in isolation.
We all know today that the Chinese and the Tibetans are not getting along. The way things are, with a dithering Dalai Lama, it seems unlikely that Tibet will ever be able to fight off the militarily superior Chinese. The Tibetans are now only a minority population in Tibet. So we must expect the inevitable and the slow death of Tibetan culture. Whether this is right or wrong is beyond the scope of this article. What interests me as an outsider to this clash of civilizations are the lessons the international community can learn from this whole gory saga. Some key questions which remain unanswered but nonetheless important involve the role of peace talks in any conflict. The Dalai Lama has always been advocating peace; China took over Tibet with no resistance from the Lama’s followers. The Dalai Lama is giving his nation over to the Chinese in the name of Buddha-Dharma. We ask in amazement: is it right for any leader to give his people away forever to serfdom and vassalage? Does any individual has the right to sign his country and its people away? King Lear divided his country and we know what happened to him in the end. May be the Tibetan Government in exile will learn a lesson from Shakespeare.
Via: iht
Comments
Tibetan Buddhists remained steeped in abject poverty and ignorance courtesy their religious leaders who, in a bid to perpetrate their hegemony over their subjects, were following such policies that the masses on this roof of the world continued to reel under the serfdom of worst nature. Chinese occupation of Tibet cannot be justified and remains a matter of controversy but the fact is that Chinese government ushered an era of development in Tibet, fruits of which is being reaped by the bulk of the population. Taking advantage of the western countries support at this crucial time when China cannot afford to have adverse publicity, a section of Tibetan youth have unleashed a reign of terror on non-Tibetan subjects in Tibet and the Chinese government preferred to keep a low profile.
@Anil
Is development only more roads, more telecom infractructure, more wealth more malls, more stress, more trauma, more crime? What about Tibet’s development spiritually, about their Ancient culture, about their identity. All these are developments that can’t be achieved by a single generation, they take hundreds of years. What really piques me about this so called development, is that it is the cause of most of the conflicts world over and is certainly the cause of the current problem in Tibet. China is using the ochre garb of development to subjugate the Tibetan people and caise innumerable suffering.
@JP
You and I may understand that bt what do we do with people who could not care fiddlesticks about spirituality and the intangible heritage of man. To make this point clear I referred to the Norman Conquest and the recent attack in Maharashtra.
@Rhap
Right said mate, it would do us all good to remebmber that another mountain nation like Tibet, called Bhutan measures it’s economy with a wonderful concept called the Gross national happiness(GNP). And the Bhutanese are self sufficient, materially and spiritually and more importantly a very happy lot. They live in a society which cares for their environment and people alike. It is this culture we all could look upto rather than roads, telecom, et all. I think our forefathers without all these facilites and conveniences were a happier, contented lot than us. This obviously will be dismissed as frivolous by those hankering after development but this is the cold hard truth. What goes around must come around and will and it is just a matter of time, no matter how long, that happiness and peace will become the enduring goal. One such community that already exists is Auroville at Pondicherry.
But GNP too is flawed and some social scientists have recently pointed out that the very index is itself an effort to mask the inequalities there. The Bhutanese royalty have come in for flak.
Once again we have learnt from entire issue that Indian government is chicken-hearted. Playing to the tunes of China and remains mum on the entire episode reflect its too soft and almost blunt foreign policies. The other incidents which have proved the same are Taslima episode and the much debated N-deal.
@ Parul
we have to see then whether India really has the military might to stand up against China. Seeing the situation at Arunachal I am pretty sure u r correct.