Ignoring a true friend : By Claude Arpi

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

The Pioneer
by Claude Arpi
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

March 2009 will mark 50 years in exile for the Dalai Lama and his followers. During this half-a-century, the Tibetan leader has supported India and stood by the country in the face of international criticism. Is it not time for India to officially recognise the Dalai Lama’s contribution to peace and tolerance and honour him with the Bharat Ratna?

Every Republic Day brings its lot of pleasant and unexpected surprises with the announcement of Padma awards for the year. This year, while people like Mr Madhavan Nair, the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation, received a well-merited award for the Chandrayaan project, the first Indian mission to the moon, or Mr Anil Kakodkar got it for being instrumental in the political ‘Deal of the Year’, some nominations are more surprising.

One is Sister Nirmala who succeeded Mother Teresa as Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity in March 1997. When Mother Teresa was already awarded the Bharat Ratna for her work with the foreign mission, why give the second-highest civilian award to the same organisation while thousands of Indian NGOs are doing similar (and often better) work in India? Though born into a Brahmin family (her father was a devout Hindu Indian Army officer), Nirmala Joshi converted to Roman Catholicism under the influence of Mother Teresa at the age of 24. Many will think, probably with reason, that there is an honours quota for Christian organisations.

Without arguing further about this particular case, I have for years wondered why Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, has never received any recognition from India (not even the Gandhi Peace Award).

Some will argue that he is a foreigner in this country. But there is no formal provision that recipients of the Bharat Ratna or other awards should be Indian citizens. Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu (Mother Teresa), the 1980 recipient of Bharat Ratna, was Albanian-born; two non-Indians — Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (1987) and Mr Nelson Mandela (1990) — also received the highest award.

The Dalai Lama is today, not only in India but the world over, the foremost practitioner of ahimsa and the most worthy heir of Gautam Buddha who 2,500 years ago wandered across India, propounding a gospel of love and compassion.

For the Dalai Lama and more than one lakh of his followers, March 2009 will mark the completion of 50 years in exile. During this half-a-century, the Tibetan leader has often made India proud. He was even recently named as the ‘most revered leader of the planet’ by several Western publications. Why? Because he has chosen as his life commitment the promotion of human values such as compassion, forgiveness, tolerance, contentment and self-discipline — all values deeply-rooted in Indian tradition.

The Tibetan cause is his third commitment; the first and the second are what he calls ‘universal responsibility’ or ‘secular ethics’, and the promotion of religious harmony and understanding among the world’s major religious traditions. He often repeats: “It is important for all religious traditions to respect one another and recognise the value of each other’s respective traditions.”

Though he considers himself “as the free spokesperson of the Tibetans in their struggle for justice,” the fate of his people is only his third commitment.

A few years ago, a controversy erupted when some neo-Buddhist monks declared that the Dalai Lama was ‘not divine’ and that he should be sent back to his country. While the Tibetan leader has never pretended to be ‘divine’, (he says that he is just a simple Buddhist monk), this raises the important aspect of the Tibetan presence in India and their role in supporting India in its hours of difficulties. Not only have the Dalai Lama and his people never schemed against this nation, but also they have always been at the forefront of India’s struggle for its integrity. It is a pity that certain facts are not well known, if not completely ignored by the media and Indian public.

How many in India know that not only did Tibetans participate in the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971, but that they were instrumental in the fall of Chittagong?

While US declassified documents (particularly transcripts of Henry Kissinger’s secret negotiations with China) give a fairly good idea of American dirty tricks against the Bangladeshis and India, nobody speaks about the role of the unsung Tibetan heroes of the Special Frontier Forces.

Under the cover of the Mukti Bahini, Tibetan commandos infiltrated East Pakistan (it was not yet Bangladesh) a few weeks before the beginning of the war. They conducted raids to destroy bridges and communication lines deep inside Pakistan’s eastern province. The operation was so secret that most senior officers of the Indian Army’s Eastern Command in Calcutta did not know about the activities of 3,000 Tibetans jawans commanded by a Tibetan ‘General’.

By the time Pakistan surrendered, the SFF had lost 56 men — nearly 190 were wounded — but they blocked a potential escape route for East Pakistani forces into Burma. They also halted members of Pakistan’s 97 Independent Brigade and two Commando Battalion in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

In 1989, the Dalai Lama was rightly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. While actively practising the Buddha’s teachings, he has always stood by India, even when it went against his very principles. For instance, after Pokhran II he said, “The assumption of the concept that it is OK for some nations to possess nuclear weapons and the rest of the world should not — that’s undemocratic.”

Is it not time for India to officially recognise his genuine contribution to world peace, universal responsibility and the defence of the highest Indian spiritual values?

----
Born in Angoulême, France, Claude Arpi's real quest began 36 years ago with a journey to the Himalayas. Since then he has been an enthusiastic student of the history of Tibet, China and the subcontinent. He has authored several books.

The views expressed in this piece are that of the author and the publication of the piece on this website does not necessarily reflect their endorsement by the website.