By Lhundup Gyatso Zotsang / Nov. 9, 2015
In light of how a gang of three
local Gaddis (Indian tribes residing in Dharmsala, north India)
murdered an
innocent Tibetan youth for fun at McLeod Ganj around midnight of October 31, it
patently dawned upon me how fragile and precarious life is for someone to live
without a country. I was tossing and turning all that night as if all my sense
of sleep had also been murdered by those local hoodlums. Well, being a Tibetan
refugee I also underwent all possible hardships such as facing the demise of my
dearest parents all alone against all my hopes that one good day I would be
bale to meet them. Having said that, never did I feel so broken in
consciousness like this time. I am sure Tsultrim’s tragic demise in addition to
the fact that his mother has been looking forward to his return by counting
days on her fingers has amplified the pains in all hearts of Tibetans beyond
expression. Nevertheless, what baffles me most, as a matter of fact, is that do
the Tibetan refugees really deserve such transgressions from our
long-time-friend Indians? Let’s jot down some facts.
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| Following Tsultrim Chokden's death, local Tibetans in Dharamshala held candle light vigil, calling for justice for the deceased. |
After dinned at Lhasa Restaurant, Tsultrim
Chokden, in his late 20s, accompanied his female compatriot to her home at Amdo
Village. When they were walking past the Tibetan Settlement Office on Bhagsu
Road, three Indian guys came behind on a bike and started harassing the girl by
passing dirty comments. But Tsultrim Chokden managed to shield her there with
some verbal arguments against the Indians. However, only after few meters ahead
of Green Hotel, the three Indians came again on bike and stabbed Tsultrim
repeatedly while he was defending her. The girl had tried to intervene but was
kicked into the tunnel. The three Indians then fled the scene on bike. And on
the way to hospital, Tsultrim succumbed to death. (phayul, 31/11/2015)
Tsultrim, like me, fled Chinese
oppression in Tibet in 2003 in quest of a better education and a better life.
He spent six years studying Buddhism at Depung Monastic Institution in southern
India. He moved to McLeod Ganj in 2009 and embarked upon another journey of
learnings with a plan in mind. He, facing against all kind of challenges
including daily financial restraints which is common to all new comers from
Tibet, strived for computer studies and english language at different centres
like British Council in Delhi and Norling Kunphenling School etc. He had also
obtained the certificates as well.(tibettimes, 31/11/2015) Nevertheless, the
ultimate goal of his mission was not completed there with these certificates
yet. Around the end of 2014, he applied for the permit documents at Chinese
Embassy to allow him go back to Tibet and meet his ageing mother who is dying
to see her son after years of separation. The paper permits, according to his
friends, will be coming to him by this December and thus he would be able to go
to see his mother by January next year. But, when Tsultrim was eventually one
step away to accomplish what he had struggled for years against all
difficulties, a gang of three Gaddi morons annihilated all his being for
nothing but to entertain their mood! Imagine, dear readers, how would you feel
if this had happened to you and how would you react if you were in the shoe of
his mother in Tibet.
This dehumanized brutality by
those three Gaddi hooligans over someone who has done nothing plainly
demonstrates twofold calls; a) an urgent call for greater attentions and social
security for the newly arrived Tibetans in particular and all Tibetan refugees
in general by the Indian government and Tibetan leaders; b) that insufficient
care from the host leaders for Tibetan refugees is reinforcing the feelings
amongst the locals that Tibetans are merely visitors and thus getting more
courage to take advantage of the fact that Tibetans are of without any legal
protections whatsoever. Therefore, now is the right time bring up this issue,
in honour of Tsultrim whose last act in his life was a genuine altruistic
defence for his friend, for either a top-down or bottom-up measure to achieve a
genuine security for Tibetans legally, socially and politically. Or we would be
back to the yesteryears where Tibetans had often been victims whatsoever.
The first worst communal tension
that everyone remembers still today erupted on April 22, 1994 when a Tibetan
was accused of killing an Indian boy in a blind fight over a cricket match on
television between Pakistan and India. What triggered the fight between them
was that the Tibetan guy cheered for the Pakistani team and thus the Indian boy
lost temper at the Tibetan. It was not a communal issue to begin with in fact,
but there was tinder for the spark. Next day, the locals went berserk and
stormed the compound of the Tibetan government-in-exile, smashed windows, set
fires and destroyed furnitures. Then they looted Tibetan shops and beat up
refugees” (Penny-Dimri 1994, 281). Fortunately, Tibetans didn’t and had never
fought back against the Indians, rather they remained committed to their non-violent
approach to life, remaining locked inside their homes throughout the violence
(Diehl 2002, 121). However, the escalation of that communal tension brought so
much fear to Tibetans that even The Dalai Lama suggested to move the Tibetan
government-in-exile to Southern India immediately. However, local Indian
businessmen feared Dharamsala would become a ghost town overnight if the Dalai
Lama left McLeod Ganj and so they beseeched the Dalai Lama to stay back.( Lydia
Talen, Layers of Home, 2014)
The hostility in Dharamsala
didn’t end there. In 2013, a Tibetan man in his 30s was thrown off from a third
story building by a half dozen local Gaddis in altercation which rendered his
lower body part paralyzed for life. But the culprits are roaming free with heads
held high as if they had done an awesome job. No justice had ever been executed
for the poor Tibetan man. (Mila Rangzen, Is Dharamshala Safe for Tibetans,
2014) In 2005, a ghastly case revealed that an elderly Tibetan nun was rapped
by an Indian named Ricky (phayul, 22/04/2005). It had been an unprecedented
wave of shock to Tibetan consciences since rapping a nun is twofold crimes; a)
religiously it’s a horrifying destruction and insult against all the spiritual
values existing in being a nun; b) rape is considered as the most inhuman crime
according to any law. But no justice had ever been carried out. Again in 2012,
a Tibetan woman on a late night bus alone, as she was nearing her destination,
lower Dharamsala, got brutally assaulted, rapped, robbed and dumped to the
roadside by the Gaddi bus driver together with the bus conductor. She was
hospitalized for weeks at Tibetan Delek Hospital (Mila Rangzen, 2014). When I
was at McLeod two years back, two Tibetan tenants (two girls newly arrived from
Tibet) were renting the room next to mine at Amdo Village. One morning I was
awakened by an ear-piercing scream followed by the sound of someone crying
aloud. I jumped off the bed and run out to check. To my utter surprise, our
landlord was beating and slapping one of the girls living next to mine! I
rushed in my shorts to stop him. The reason for her beating was that a single
drop of toothpaste dripped unknowingly on the balcony floor which angered the
landlord, “she made my balcony dirty!” shouting at the poor Tibetan girl. In
fact, there are too many such hard-to-forget cases to write where Tibetans
being bullied, mocked, alienated, harassed, abused and ostracised by the local
to the end of human patience. But the matter we need to prioritize here is to
urger the leaders for an adequate protection and security which the Tibetan
refugees apparently deserve.
If we take a look at the
relationship between India and Tibet from historical context, Tibetans had done
more contributions to India than any other refugees on its soil. Let’s take
today’s economic status of Dharamsala for an instance. Dharamsala situated in
the foothills of the Dhauladhar, was once a sleepy British occupied hill
station often haunted by wild animals, became a ghost town overnight following
the 7.8 earthquake in 1905. It’s only after Dalai Lama followed by Tibetans
moved to Dharamsala in 1960 that some sort of life came back to the ghost town.
Particularly, Dalai Lama’s 1990 Nobel Peace Prize generated huge interest in
the West about Tibetan culture and brought the never-ending western tourists to
Dharamsala since then. This transition helped the local Gaddis alleviate their
economic restrains and have a proper livelihood (Chander Suta Dogra, Tibetans
in Exile, 2010). As a result, once what had been known as a ghost town had
transformed into one of the top tourist destinations in India and once starving
local Gaddis into millionaires! Same thing in many other parts of India where
Tibetan communities are the backbone to the livelihood of concerned locals, let
alone the other benefits even from the Dalai Lama as an individual.
For the victory and glory to
India as a whole, Tibetans (SFF, Special Frontier Force or Establishment 22)
had shed their blood in the 1971 war for the liberation of Bangladesh as well
as during the operation blue star in 1984 followed by the Kargil conflict in
1999. In the lead up to the SFF’s deployment for the Bangladesh War of
Liberation, Indra Gandhi wired a message to the Tibetan fighters, “We cannot
compel you to fight a war for us but the fact is that General A A K Niazi (the
Pakistani Army Commander in East Pakistan) is treating the people of East
Pakistan very badly. India has to do something about it. In a way, it is
similar to the way the Chinese are treating the Tibetans in Tibet, we are
facing a similar situation. It would be appreciated if you could help us fight
the war for liberating the people of Bangladesh.” On the request of a woman
whose father had played a significant role in betraying the Tibetan cause, three
thousand SFF Tibetan commandos went to fight and brought the victory in nine
months. During the conflict, SFF lost 56 Tibetans and 190 were wounded. Sheikh
Mujibur Rahman, the founder of Bangladesh, personally called the SFF leaders to
thank for the unprecedented contribution in its creation. Later, keeping in
mind his mother’s attachment to SFF, Rajiv Gandhi also called upon the Tibetan
fighters to manage his security during the part of his tenure as a prime
minister. Similarly, India’s Tibetan troops in SFF have been playing major role
in guarding the border for the last 45 years following Sino-Indian war of 1962.
Also Tibetans have formed the majority of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP)
whose mandate was border patrol in the harsh glacier areas (Tashi Dhundup, not
their own wars, 2008).
It’s also Tibetan refugees who
helped India construct the world’s highest stretch of metalled road running
from Manali to Ladhak and hundreds of kilometres long highways in Masumari,
Bir, Kullu and so on (Tenzin Tsondu, my kind of exile, 2001). All these were
carried out during the black and starving years when India was in great need of
any possible help.
Putting all these into
consideration, I honestly think it’s a huge wrong both morally and socially
that the Indian government as well as the concerned communities are giving the
space for some local hooligans who continued making the lives and well-being of
Tibetans refugees precarious and harder. Having said that, I know how grateful
the Tibetan refugees are for India for its kind unwavering hospitality since
1950s. But to provide an equal respect and proper security for the lives of
Tibetan refugees is an undeniable duty for both Indian government and the
concerned communities. Therefore, in honour to Tsultrim Choken, this issue
should be on the table of leaders and on the top agenda of parliaments to be
discussed, investigated, concerned and dialogued for a resolution which would
promise a colourful future for all.
NOTE: The writer is a Tibet born Tibetan currently studying Peace and Conflict Studies at Uppsala University, Sweden. He can be reached at dup4tibet@gmail.com
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