By Dr. Yeshi Choedon | March 1, 2018 |
Most Tibetan refugees arrived in India after the failed revolt against Chinese rule in March 1959. After the defeat of the Tibetan army at the Battle of Chamdo and the signing of the 17 point agreement of May 1951 set the stage for China’s occupation of Tibet, the Tibetan Government did make attempts to adjust to the situation. However, the unrest started after the realisation that China was satisfied not just with the occupation of Tibetan territory but was aiming at the systematic destruction of Tibetan civilization and its complete sinicization. A full-scale national uprising against China’s rule erupted on 10 March 1959, but it was crushed by Chinese military might. This event led to the flight of the Dalai Lama and around 8000 Tibetans, seeking refuge in India and other neighbouring South Asian countries.
The
uniqueness of Tibetan refugees is that they sought refuge not only for personal
safety but also for the preservation and protection of their culture and
religion which was under relentless attack in their homeland under China’s
rule. Out of the total Tibetan diasporic community of 128,944 worldwide, around
94,203 are currently based in India. Unlike many other refugee-hosting
countries, India did not adopt the policy of integrating Tibetans into mainstream
Indian society. Rather, it facilitated the preservation and promotion of their
distinctive culture, tradition and identity by setting up separate Tibetan
settlements in various parts of India, established separate schools for the
Tibetan children and allowed the functioning of the Tibetan government-in-exile
to manage their affairs. Most of the Tibetan refugees in India are residing in
39 major and minor settlements, and are involved in either agriculture or
agro-industries or handicrafts for their livelihood.1 There are also many Tibetan refugees
living outside these settlements.
The
Government of India has given autonomous power to the government-in-exile to
manage Tibetan settlements and schools in India. With the generous support and
assistance of India and international aid agencies, the Tibetan refugees in
India have not only attained self-sustenance but also successfully
reconstructed their social, political and religious institutions in exile. Due
to these achievements, Tibetan refugees are considered the ‘most successful’
refugee community in the world.2
Today,
three generations of Tibetan refugees are living in India. The first generation
comprises mainly of those who came from Tibet in the 1950s and 1960s. The
second generation are between 20 and 50 years old and were mostly born and
educated in India. And the third generation is that of children of school going
age.
Challenges
Although
Tibetan refugees are successfully rehabilitated and resettled in India, they
are confronted with a series of new challenges. Some of the challenges have
emanated from the very success of the rehabilitation and resettlement policy.
Two such problems are: 1) educated but unemployed Tibetan youth, and, 2)
difficulties of travelling abroad for studies, visiting relatives and other
social engagements.
The
unemployment problem of educated Tibetan youth is the offshoot of the remarkable
achievement of transforming a largely illiterate society (in the modern sense
of the term) to a fully literate society within two generations. According to
the Second Tibetan Demographic Survey of 2009, the general literacy rate is
79.4 per cent, and the effective literacy rate is 82.4 per cent.3 As the number of Tibetan youth with a
graduate degree has increased, the government-in-exile could not employ them
all in its establishment. The youth do not wish to follow the older
generation’s occupation of sweater-selling or running small shops in seasonal
Tibetan markets in Indian cities. They are confronted with the challenge of
finding employment according to their qualification and skill. According to the
Second Tibetan Demographic Survey, over 17 per cent of the total workforce
population is unemployed or underemployed.4
Their
status of statelessness disqualifies Tibetan youth from many job opportunities
in India. Further, any economic activities outside the Tibetan settlements
encounter uncertainty and insecurity as Tibetans neither have the right to own
businesses or obtain a licence to engage in business activities nor are allowed
to own or buy land. Further, they are not entitled to secure bank loans. The
number of unemployed youth has increased over the years with many of them
succumbing to drug addiction in the absence of gainful employment.
Another
major challenge relates to acquiring travel documents for travelling abroad.
Tibetans wish to go abroad to meet their relatives or to study or for the
purpose of running the monasteries spread over various parts of the world. The
Government of India issues an “Identity Certificate” (IC) for Tibetans in lieu
of a passport for travelling abroad. Apart from the long and complicated
process of procuring the IC, they are also required to apply for a permit to
exit the country as well as for re-entry so that they could come back to India.
Tibetans with this travel document have encountered problems with immigration
officials at various airports as many officials are unfamiliar with this kind
of travel document.
Issue
of Indian Citizenship
Due
to the practical problems of getting jobs and earning a livelihood as well as
difficulties in travelling abroad on an Identity Certificate, the issue of
Tibetans applying for Indian citizenship has gained currency in recent years,
especialy after the enactment of the Indian Citizenship Act (Amendment) of 1986
which allows for the acquiring of Indian citizenship by anyone born in India
between January 26, 1950, and July 1, 1987. The amendment has made a large
section of the second and third generations of Tibetan refugees eligible for
Indian citizenship.
Although
there are no formal restrictions imposed by the Tibetan government-in-exile on
Tibetan refugees seeking Indian citizenship, it has actively discouraged them
from taking this step.5 There is also a strong feeling amongst
the Tibetan community that taking Indian citizenship would weaken the Tibetan
movement and tantamount to giving up the hope of a Free Tibet. As a result,
they condemn those of their compatriots who have adopted Indian citizenship.6 But, there are still many Tibetans who
would like to take up Indian citizenship for the practical reasons mentioned
above.
In
2010, when an India-born Tibetan woman challenged India's Ministry of External
Affairs in the Delhi High Court for denying her an Indian passport, the court
ruled in her favour.7 When there was no change in the
Government of India’s stand despite the court ruling, another case was filed in
the court by a Tibetan man in September 2016. Once again, the court ruled in
his favour. This time, the court directed the Ministry of External Affairs to
treat all Tibetans who meet the criteria for citizenship by birth as Indians
and issue them Indian passports. This became the Government of India’s policy
from March 2017.8 However, the Government soon added
riders to this policy in June 2017. It listed the following four conditions for
Tibetans seeking Indian citizenship: 1) they are required to get their
Registration Certificate (RC) and Identity Certificate cancelled; 2) they
should not be staying in designated Tibetan refugee settlements; 3) they should
submit an undertaking that they no longer enjoy the benefits offered by the
Tibetan government-in-exile; and, 4) they should submit a declaration that they
no longer enjoy any privileges, including subsidies, by virtue of being RC holders.9
The
government-in-exile has officially adopted a neutral position on this
development. Its president, Dr Lobsang Sangay, stated that “The decision to
apply for Indian or any other country’s citizenship is a personal choice. If
you are eligible, you can apply. The Tibetan administration has no right nor
does it intend to interfere in a person’s fundamental rights.”10
The
conditions imposed by the Government of India and the neutral position adopted
by the Tibetan government-in-exile have put the Tibetans in India in a dilemma.
It amounts to requiring them to leave their homes in the Tibetan settlements
where they were born and grew up, and become homeless once again. The fact is
that Tibetans desire to take Indian citizenship for the purposes of career,
livelihood, and ease of travel abroad. That is, they wish to take Indian
citizenship for instrumental purposes rather than because of disaffection towards
the Tibetan freedom movement or any policy difference within the Tibetan
community in exile.
The
government-in-exile seems to be applying double standards. On the one hand, it
has been encouraging Tibetans living in other countries, especially those in
the West, to take up the citizenship of their host countries and labels them as
Tibetan Ambassadors to distant lands. On the other hand, it does not favour
Tibetans in India adopting Indian citizenship. This double standard is creating
disquiet and division among the Tibetan community in exile.
The
latest policy of the Government of India is aimed at easing the regulations on
Tibetan refugees for travel and study abroad. It has been reported that this
new policy was also aimed at discouraging Tibetans from applying for Indian
passports.11 Although this move might discourage
Tibetans from applying for Indian passports, it would, however, make it easier
for them to leave the Tibetan settlements and migrate to other countries. Once
they manage to go abroad, many of them would try to get, if not citizenship, at
least residential permits. This has been the everyday practice among Tibetan
refugees to date. Once they manage to become residents or citizens in Western
countries, they would get pension or allowance from the host governments. Thus,
while India’s easing of regulations on travel abroad may dissuade Tibetan
refugees from applying for Indian passport, there is no way to stop them from
becoming citizens of other countries. So the question to ponder is: how does
this serves the Tibetan national movement and preservation of Tibetan
civilization.
Another
issue to ponder is whether those Tibetans who migrated to other parts of the
world surrendered the house and field allotted to them in the Tibetan
settlements in India and whether those getting a pension from the Tibetan
government-in-exile surrendered their pension once they started getting pension
and allowance from their new host countries. As the Government of India,
through its four conditions, is proactive in depriving all these facilities and
privileges to those Tibetan refugees applying for Indian citizenship, it
requires to consider this issue as well.
Policy
Options
It
seems to be obvious that the four conditions for acquiring Indian citizenship
as well as the new regulations to ease the travel abroad of Tibetan refugees
could have a negative consequence in terms of dismantling Tibetan settlements
which are nerve centres for the preservation and promotion of Tibetan
civilization. Further, the notion that acquiring Indian citizenship would
dilute the Tibetan movement is not a convincing argument as the Tibetans in
other parts of the world have retained their Tibetan identity and commitment to
the Tibetan cause intact despite adopting the host countries’ citizenship.
The
government-in-exile needs to take a proactive role in assisting Tibetans who
desire to acquire Indian citizenship for livelihood and other instrumental
purposes. From the long-term perspective, it makes sense to preserve Tibetan
settlements intact, as the Tibetan diasporic communities all over the world
regard India as their ‘second homeland’. Many of the second and third generations
of Tibetans were born and raised in these settlements in India. Tibetans abroad
not only keep in regular touch with their relatives in India but also visit
their former schools and institutions in India. They also come for pilgrimage,
visiting not only Tibetan monasteries and different Buddhist sites in India but
also to reconnect with their memories of the life they spent in these
settlements. So, for the preservation of the Tibetan civilization as well as
for the sustenance of the Tibetan freedom movement, it makes eminent good sense
to keep the existing Tibetan settlements intact and maintain the vibrancy of
the community in these settlements alive. Given all this, the hands-off policy
of the Tibetan government-in-exile on the citizenship issue is untenable.
For
its part, the Government of India needs to rethink its four conditions as well
as the relaxation of rules with regard to Tibetans travelling abroad. India has
invested nearly six decades in these Tibetan settlements and in the preservation
of the Tibetan civilization in general. The rest of the world, especially the
Buddhist communities in various parts of the world, appreciates the Indian
contribution in making the Tibetan refugee a most successful refugee in the
world. To improve the conditions of Tibetans in these settlements, the
Government of India needs to redouble efforts to implement the Tibetan
Rehabilitation Policy of 2014 which it adopted in consultation with the Tibetan
government-in-exile. The Government of India could project these thriving
Tibetan settlements at the international level as a model for post-conflict
reconstruction of war-devastated societies and try to project its expertise to
acquire a greater role in United Nations’ post-conflict reconstruction and
peacebuilding activities with local ownership. In effect, both the Government
of India and the Tibetan government-in-exile need to adopt a long-term
perspective and rethink their policy towards Tibetans acquiring Indian
citizenship.
NOTE: Dr. Yeshi Choedon is Professor at the Centre for International Politics, Organization and Disarmament, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
And the above research paper is republished from idsa.in.
·
1.Department of Home, Central Tibetan
Administration, http://centraltibetanreliefcommittee.org/doh/tibetan-settlements.html
·
2.Dawa Norbu, “The Settlements:
Participation and Integration”, in Dagmar Bernstorff and Hubertus Von Welck,
ed., Exile as Challenge: The Tibetan Diaspora (New Delhi:
Orient Longman, 2003), p. 190.
·
3.“Latest Report on ‘Second Tibetan
Demographic Survey’ Released”, The Tibet Post International, 2010,http://www.thetibetpost.com/en/news/exile/1289-latest-report-on-qsecond-...
·
4.Ibid
·
5.Fiona McConnell, “A state within a
state? Exploring relations between the Indian state and the Tibetan community
and government-in-exile”, Contemporary South Asia, vol. 19, no. 3,
September 2011, p. 303.
·
6.Julia Meredith Hess, “Statelessness and
the State: Tibetans, Citizenship, and Nationalist Activism in a Transnational
World”, International Migration, 44 (1), 2006, p. 84.
·
7.High Court of Delhi (2010), “Namgyal
Dolkar versus Government of India, Ministry Of External Affairs”, http://www.mcrg.ac.in/AddReading/2013/NAMGYAL%20DOLKAR%20Case.pdf
·
8.“Tibetan refugees to get Indian
passports”, The Times of India, April 18, 2017, https://www.pressreader.com/india/the-times-of-india-new-delhi-edition/2...
·
9.“Government sets conditions for Tibetans
to get passports, says move out of settlements, forgo benefits”, Hindustan
Times, June 26, 2017, http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/govt-riders-for-tibetans-to-get...
·
10.Central Tibetan Administration, “CTA
President Iterates Kashag’s Position on Tibetans Applying for Indian
Citizenship”, September 29, 2017, http://tibet.net/2017/09/cta-president-iterates-kashags-position-on-tibe...
·
11.Vijaita Singh, “Centre opens gates
wider for Tibetans going abroad”, The Hindu, February 4,
2018, http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/centre-opens-gates-wider-for-tibet...
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