Dharamshala — Former Indian Ambassador Dilip Sinha, author of Imperial Games in Tibet: The Struggle for Statehood and Sovereignty, while talking about the reason for writing the book, said that he wanted to know why a historically peaceful border (Tibet) with India has now become a security threat to India and how Russia, Britain and China influenced or led to the occupation of Tibet in the 1950s.
The Tibet Policy Institute (TPI) organised a talk on the book titled Imperial Games in Tibet: The Struggle for Statehood and Sovereignty, by the author, former Ambassador Dilip Sinha, at the TPI Hall, Gangkyi, Dharamshala, on August 14, 2024. The talk attended by Tibetan MPs, CTA secretaries, and Tibetan researchers.
Dawa Tsering, Director of the Tibet Policy Institute, gave a welcome address and Tempa Gyaltsen Zamlha, Deputy Director of the Tibet Policy Institute, briefly introduced former Ambassador Dilip Sinha. Dilip Sinha is a former diplomat, author and public speaker. He served as the head of India's UN affairs during its membership of the Security Council from 2011 to 2012 and was ambassador to the UN in Geneva, where he was elected vice-president of the UN Human Rights Council and vice-chair of the South Centre in 2014. Sinha is the author of Legitimacy of Power: The Permanence of Five in the UN Security Council.
Then the author began his talk about his latest book: Imperial Games in Tibet: The Struggle for Statehood and Sovereignty, and said, “As a student of political science, Ambassador and diplomat of India to abroad, one of things that I released is, there was considerable gap in the literature in India on India and China relationship, because until focus on the border, and there was not enough understanding of the Core issue in India and china, which is Tibet. I want to write the book to make my own countryman familiar with this issue, because even among my colleagues were participants in international office like me, there was very little understanding of the Tibet, even my own mind I did not do much about the history of Tibet, because I am not studied that in college or school because we always looked at India and China relations as a border dispute, we never looked at Tibet, which is the large country between China and India. So, I wanted to understand that and that got me into reading about direct history about Tibet, Chinese history, about Russia and Britain.”
The author said, “In the book, I have started asking two questions, one is why has China claim to Tibet by accepted so easily by the whole world and why there is no country challenge that claim? This is the primary focus of the book because this is all about International politics, about the politics of the big powers. Second question is that, why Tibet is not able to put it forward claim to its statehood, in a manner in which comes an item on the international agenda?
“When talk about disputes in the world, international disputes, lot of people mention a lot of places but Tibet does not figure in all that, Tibet only figure at the most only in the Human Rights Council, When human rights issues come up, then countries express their ideas and thoughts on human rights violations inside Tibet, but this is not take as international aspect of Tibet, this is only aspect of human rights violations there,” Mr Sinha said.
“China invaded Tibet in 1950, it appealed to the United Kingdom, the United States, India and the United Nations for help, but none of them came to help, the UN Security Council, which is the organ of the UN charged with maintaining international peace and security, which should have taken up the matter, it did not. In June 1950, when North Korea attacked South Korea, the UN Security Council met immediately and passed the resolution authorising military action by the UN to defend South Korea. This was the history behind it, it is very ironic that only four months later, in October 1950, when China invaded Tibet, the world did not react, no Western country or any other country decided to take up the matter in a way that it could be taken up like South Korea, and the Korean issue became an international issue. After 9 years, when the Tibetan leader and thousands of other Tibetans fled to India, the world did not even question the legitimacy of the Chinese invasion,” the author explained.
"It is also ironic that India did not take up the issue because India had formulated its foreign policy by 1947-48 and India's foreign policy at that time had two main pillars, one pillar was this decolonisation, that India was against all imperialism and India was fighting for the independence of all the colonies of the European powers, so India stood for freedom, For example, India took an active interest in the freedom struggle of Indonesia and then in the freedom of other countries, but somehow in the case of Tibet it did not see it as a freedom issue, in another geopolitical context of India-China relations, how India and China could work together for Asian solidarity against European imperialism,” the Former Indian Ambassador Dilip Sinha said.
The author then explains how the great game between the British and Russian empires for influence in Central Asia played out in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Russia sent arms to Tibet in the early 20th century, and the British criticised Russia for invading Tibet. The British also tried to enter and trade in Tibet by invading the western parts of Tibet. In 1906, treaty signed between Britain and China over Tibet, without Tibetan participation that recognized China’s suzerainty over Tibet. They then drew borders of Tibet and signed treaties among Britain, Russia and China over Tibet. Russia, Britain and China influenced or led to the occupation of Tibet in the 1950s, as well as the lack of international support for Tibet during that time.
Mr Sinha said, “Why is it that Tibet hasn't been able to register its statehood as an international issue and one reason is that Tibet's claim has always been expressed in religious language and religious leader and donor relationship with Mongolia, including with India, 'guru and chela' relationship, these are religious terms and they have no standing in international relations, so they can't become part of any international construction of statehood.”
“In modern times, there was a very strong political expression of independence (Tibet) when the 13th Dalai Lama declared Tibet's independence in 1913, but after that the Simla Convention came and then there was the First and Second World Wars when huge amount of changes took place in the world as a result of which that declaration got lost in history. China attacked Tibet in 1950 and then in 1951 Tibet itself signed a treaty with China and then in 1954 India signed the Panchshee with China. All these agreements put together somehow create a widespread impression that Tibet is part of China and therefore whatever discussion takes place internationally is no longer under the status of Tibetan has essentially it's position within China,” the author explained.
“Why Tibet has not been able to assert its claim to statehood forcefully enough because China has asserted it very, very forcefully. How does a country become sovereign, but that again becomes a question, there is no clear answer to that, but I found that the more effectively and forcefully the country asserts its sovereignty, the sovereign it becomes. The Chinese were always more loud and very assertive and the Tibetans could not. But when China asked when Tibet became part of China, first they said during the Machu period in the 18th century, but later they said since ancient times, they don't know, even Chinese historians don't know when Tibet became part of China. When the UN was founded in 1945, almost all the African countries and most of the Asian countries were under the European rulers, but Tibet was not, Tibet was an independent country at that time,” the author concluded.
