Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
over-whelmed by Han settlers, and Tibet's traditional and deeply-Indian-
influenced civilization is being swiftly and irrevocably obliterated. Tibet is, in
fact, being rapidly transformed into an 'integral part of China' as Beijing has
long claimed it was.
India steadily but unsuccessfully resisted Beijing's creation of the status quo in
Tibet. The appropriate starting point is that prior to 1951 and going as far back in
history as one cares to go, Tibet had not been a permanent platform for Chinese
military power or under direct Chinese administration. Tibet had functioned,
rather, as a de facto buffer between Chinese and Indian states. Beijing began
constructing a new status quo regarding Tibet in 1950-51 when it defeated
Tibetan military forces in a series of pitched battles, brought the region under
effective military occupation, and began building a network of roads supporting
that occupation and tying Tibet ever more closely to China proper.
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New Delhi issued a series of diplomatic protests designed to prevent Chinese
military occupation of that region. When Beijing rejected these protests out of
hand and countered with tough threats, New Delhi backed down. Indian leaders
then switched to a policy of appeasement designed, in part, to persuade Beijing
that a large PLA presence in Tibet was unnecessary. That policy too did not
work. By the mid 1950s PLA forces were pouring into Tibet and in 1959 they
displaced the autonomous Tibetan government, assuming direct and permanent
administrative authority.
New Delhi then switched to a more hard-line approach of supporting armed
Tibetan resistance to Chinese rule.
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This approach too failed. The PLA waged a
protracted and effective counter-insurgency war against the Tibetan rebels that
eventually crushed armed Tibetan resistance. New Delhi then tried to persuade
Beijing to restore a degree of genuine Tibetan autonomy as part of a process of
Sino-Indian rapprochement. Beijing rejected these efforts as interference in
China's domestic affairs and manifestation of India's tendency toward regional
hegemony. Beijing countered with demands for New Delhi to restrict further the
activities of the Dalai Lama and his Government in Exile. New Delhi
moved incrementally to accommodate Beijing's demands, convinced, grudgingly,
that this was the price India would have to pay for better relations with China.
COUNTER-FACTUAL PROPOSITION I:
WHAT IF INDIAN TIBETAN POLICY IN 1950-51 HAD
BEEN MORE EFFECTIVE?
A counter-factual thought experiment in which we imagine a Chinese failure and
Indian success regarding Tibet elucidates the impact of the actual outcome.
Suppose that in 1950 India's government had accepted rather than rejected US
offers to cooperate on Tibet. Following the onset of the Korean War, US
strategists began looking for ways of stepping up pressure on China and in
