CHURUMURI POLL: If 1958 had happened in 2008?
India’s decision in 1958 to provide refuge to Tibetans fleeing their country is seen as one of the biggest humanitarian acts any country could have made. Fifty years ago, when there was a rebellion in Lhasa, the Chinese cracked down. As many as 2,000 people perished in three days of fighting between Tibetans and the People’s Liberation Army. The then Indian government of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was criticised internationally for not condemning the Chinese crackdown, but the 80,000 Tibetan refugees were accommodated in Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka.
The “scrupulous silence” of the Manmohan Singh government to the uprising in Tibet 50 years later is therefore not very surprising, especially in the context of the vastly changed geo-political scenario where pariah China has become a belligerent, even arrogant, tiger on the poise. Still, India’s meek response to the human rights assault opens up a delightful counterfactual question: If the 1958 uprising had taken place in 2008, would post-liberalised India’s political and ideological alignment have accepted the refugees as welcomingly as socialist India did?
Would a Congress-led government, dependent on the Left parties for support, have turned the Tibetans away? What would a BJP-led government’s response have been? Or is the CPM’s general secretary Prakash Karat right in saying that Indians who want to join a chorus for an independent Tibet today are doing a great disservice to India: “Are we going to support a free Nagaland? Or a free Jammu and Kashmir?”
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Photograph: A 2003 picture of Chinese soldiers who put on monk’s robes when the monks refused to play as actors in a movie, forwarded Thejas H.K..
Also read: Beijing orchestrating Tibet riots
Tags: Prakash Karat, Manmohan Singh, Churumuri, Tibet, Dalai Lama, Pandit Jawaharhal Nehru, People's Liberation Army
1 April 2008 at 11:54 am
Considering the response of the UPA government would have probably handed over the Tibetan refugees to China if they had crossed the border into India.
At Karat and Co. would have seen to it.
1 April 2008 at 1:25 pm
If something like 1958 had happened now, we would not have allowed the govt to accept the refugees. I see the hand of imperialist America in the recent riots in Tibet.
1 April 2008 at 2:12 pm
Are these lamas the only original inhabitants of Tibet?
What is meant by nationhood ?
Does large countries like China, India, Brazil and the USA help the people of the nation or is it harmful for the people?
Does the disintegration of the countries like the USSR and Yugoslovia helps the tiny new entities or they remain as basket cases?
Why Kosovo like regions whose population is no bigger than a city like Mysore demand independence?
1 April 2008 at 4:46 pm
There is one simple formula for development of the country. Appoint the commie leaders as permanent advisors of the central govt. The govt should consult them and do exactly opposite of what they say.
1 April 2008 at 6:01 pm
Newsflash few minutes back quoted Pranab Mukherjee asking Dalai Lama “not to indulge in political activities that hurt its ties with China”.
This advise is really shameful. It also shocking to see the UPA government crawling before China. Whether its protecting the right of Taslima or now this Tibetan issue, UPA stand has been a huge embarassment to Indians.
I think the Communists who are quick to condemn any ” tilt towards US” must be impressed and grinning with UPA’s stand on China
1 April 2008 at 6:41 pm
Karat and co should know the difference between Tibet and J and K issue.
Tibet was invaded (by China)
Kashmir acceded (to India)
1 April 2008 at 6:57 pm
Manmohan Singh and his cabal of ministers, especially ambulance chaser Pranab Murkhejee has done it again….bend over and grease up for china
1 April 2008 at 7:13 pm
IT IS NO CONGERSS IS CROWLING ANGAINST CHINA THEY ARE CROWLING AGAINST DRITY LEFTIST. AS COMMUS DO NOT HAVE THEIR INTERGITY TOWARDS OUR OWN COUNTRY. SAND THEY ARE MP’S CONGERSSWANTS POWER.
WHAT FENTASTIC P.K HAS SIAD. BUT WHEN WAS TIBET WAS PART OF CHINA?
TODAY CHINA WANTS MEGHALAYA, NAGALAND ETC. THIS P.K WILL SAY GIVE IT TO THEM
HATS OFF TO CUMMIS AND THEIR INTEGRITY.
1 April 2008 at 7:35 pm
Devegowda, Krishna and his clan would have owned Bayalakuppe by now!!
1 April 2008 at 8:50 pm
I think China is making a mistake in appointing its ambassador to India for they could have easily saved the trouble. See how effectively Prakash Karat is doing the job for them. In fact they could have saved themselves the embarrasment earlier when its ambassador spoKe about Arunachala Pradesh being a part of China for if left to our comrades like Yechury and Karat they would have done a better job like they have done presently in the case of Tibet.
1 April 2008 at 8:56 pm
If 1958 had happened in 2008, the Congress (with or without the Commutwits) would have turned the refugees away. The comfortable ease with which M.F. Husain and Taslima Nasreen have been left to the mercy of the mad dogs of fundamentalist forces on either side is proof that we have completely lost our conscience as a nation.
For all their thigh-slapping posturing, the BJP too would have been more bothered about the “damage” accommodating the refugees would do to “India’s interests in China”, in other words some tricolour toting Baniya industrialist who is cutting corners by setting up shop in Shanghai to “remain competitive”. And five years later, in his updated memoirs, former prime minister L.K. Advani would claim that he did not know that the refugees were being sent away.
If in 2008, the refugees had been accommodated in Bylakuppe, Gurupura, etc, the Kannada chauvinists would have cut off Tamil channels from the homes of the “outsiders”. And Arun Shourie would have written a ten-part article of how the Buddhist Tibetans were multiplying like flies in Dharamshala and would soon overtake the Hindu population if left unchecked, and the Hindutwits would be distributing trishuls.
1 April 2008 at 10:03 pm
>>And Arun Shourie would have written a ten-part article of how the Buddhist Tibetans were multiplying like flies in Dharamshala and would soon overtake the Hindu population if left unchecked, and the Hindutwits would be distributing trishuls.
>>
It is only dimwits who believe in such nonsense…FYI most of the tibetians settled in dharmasala are buddhist monks who are not married..
2 April 2008 at 2:23 am
A wonderfully written piece about why the world has ignored/abandoned the tibetan cause
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=A2DBDBAC-3D26-4348-9E70-37242532C88F
2 April 2008 at 5:21 am
Border disputes are prevalent everywhere; between neighbours in our own locality, between states and between neighbours.
If borders were not confirmed due to inaccessibility or political instability on either side how it will be decided or solved later?
By war ? By discussion? By referendum?
There cannot be any discussion between single track minded people or nations.
How do we equate Arunachal Pradesh with Tibet?
Definitely all the Tibetans did not run away with the Dalai Lama.
Are all the remaining Tibetans protesting in Tibet or only a handful?
Will that handful make a liberation struggle as Dalai Lama would like to say?
3 April 2008 at 6:20 am
I wish I were a Tibetan refugee in Karnataka living a happy life without having to do anything.
I am not worried about lamas or llamas. Even the Dalai Lama doesn’t mean anything to me. I want my people to have a decent standard of living. That means drinking water, fresh air, food, and a sense of self.
We have supported three generations of Tibetan refugees. What is their contribution to Karnataka? More importantly, how many of them can and do speak Kannada when they sell their wares?
Karnataka has long been a dumping ground for New Delhi. Everybody sees our lack of self-awareness. I wish we did, too. Time to create a Kannada consciousness unbeholden to political parties and culture vultures.
Name a state in the nation where Kannadigas are colonisers.
3 April 2008 at 11:06 am
@Pulikeshi the Last
>>Name a state in the nation where Kannadigas are colonisers.
Maybe you can go to some neighboring state and start a Kannada colony.