Tibetan Army with their flag before being disbanded by the PLA
by Claude Arpi Less than a year later in Beijing, some Tibetan delegates signed a ‘17-Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet’ (the Dalai Lama later asserted that it was signed ‘under duress’). For the first time in their history, the Tibetan people had accepted China’s suzerainty. Article 1 said: “The Tibetan people shall return to the big family of the Motherland.” The declared objective of the Agreement was to ‘drive out the imperialist aggressive force from Tibet’ and to ‘liberate’ the Roof of the World. The Indian leaders should have asked, “But who are these ‘imperialist aggressive forces’ at our door?” Was it for India who had a few hundred jawans posted in Gyantse till 1954? The tragedy is that Delhi never realized that it was indeed targeted. Another article of the 17-Point Agreement said: “Tibetan troops shall be reorganized step by step into the PLA and become a part of the national defence forces of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).” It meant that the few-thousand strong Tibetan Army was to be disbanded and merged into the PLA. This would be implemented during the following years.
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The days of preaching and peace ended long back, the might of military has taken over the world even before the Great Dalai Lama was born or even Mahatma Gandhi or even Lord Buddha.
The main land China rulers expanded their national borders by crossing in to Tibet and even India. India was not their target, it was to warn India – not to involve in the Tibetan matters, the war of 1962 took place.
So since those days we are on our tows watching the Indo-China borders and noting beyond.
In this context we could have also become strong in military levels and could have got a permanent membership in UNO, so that we could have rightfully fought for all our Tibetan friends.
Alas we are still fighting within to survive our selves.
regards
MOHAN JANGA
Beautiful pictures India will never let down the Tibetans they will get their country back and Indians will be instrumental in doing so