There are human rights violations also. Naturally Tibetans love their own culture – wherever Tibetans show respect and interest or faith in their own culture, Chinese officials consider that an act of splittism. Chinese officials always describe me as a splittist – an enemy of the people of China! Everybody knows I am not seeking independence, because that is in our own interest. We are materially backward. No single Tibetan wants to hold on to the old society – the old conditions. Every Tibetan wants modernisation, not the old way of life. So as far as material development is concerned, our own interest is to keep with China which is a powerful nation, economically very powerful, provided they give us meaningful autonomy, which we need as a safeguard for the preservation of Tibetan culture.
Then another aspect relating to Tibet is the environmental issue. As you mentioned many people consider Tibet as the Roof of the World. Nearly all the major rivers which run through almost the whole of Asia from China to Pakistan rise mainly in Tibet.
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Therefore taking special care about the environment in what is called roof of the world is very important. I recently met one Tibetan who had come from Tibet -he noticed the water levels in these rivers including the Brahamaputra are much reduced. According to his explanation, when we Tibetans were there in 1959 the Brahamaputra in front of Potala was quite wide and deep and you could not easily cross it; but now-a-days the waters are much reduced, so people can wade across. That is a clear indication of the shrinking, because of warming. Again in recent years, unusual floods took place in mainland China. The Chinese government realised that one of the causes of this unusual flooding is the unlimited deforestation in the eastern part of Tibet.
In China in the past they had no idea of the importance of ecology. Neither in the Soviet Union nor in Communist China was there any sense of ecology. Now recently and very fortunately the Chinese government is taking steps to try and conserve the environment. That is a good development. But then now-a-days in Tibet with the liberalisation of the economy, some private individuals come to Tibet and construct dams for hydro-electric power, and this damming of Tibetan rivers is really harmful for the ecology, according to Chinese experts themselves who write articles about it. So, carelessness regarding ecology is now really very serious. This is another aspect of the Tibetan problem.
Then geographically, Tibet is a buffer zone between India and China. And India and China are the two largest and most densely populated nations, so genuine friendship on the basis of mutual trust is essential for peace in Asia, which is very important for world peace. So it is really necessary to have genuine good relations, genuine Hindi-Chini bhai bhai – not just from the neck up but from the heart.
Without trust how can you develop genuine unity or harmony? In order to develop genuine harmony amongst the Chinese people themselves ““ as well as harmony with neighbours ““ genuine trust is very essential.
How to develop that? So long as a large number of Chinese soldiers are stationed in Tibet as well as the Han Chinese population keeps on increasing, and the land is full of security police, there will remain obstacles to the development of genuine mutual trust. So long as there are soldiers on a large scale on the Indian side also, there are people who will feel uncomfortable.
My dream is that eventually Tibet should become a zone of peace. In any case a few million Tibetans by themselves are no threat to China. But if ever there is any threat then immediately a Chinese army can come to meet it, but under normal circumstances Tibet should be allowed to remain a zone of peace, free of nuclear weapons. Then genuine trust can begin to develop between India and China.
Thus meaningful Tibetan autonomy and eventually a zone of peace is possible. The Chinese government always talks about peace. There must be some practical contribution for genuine peace. Releasing a few pigeons is not sufficient – it is only a disturbance for the pigeons. For real peace we have to take some concrete measures, reduce the number of soldiers in Tibet, and give more responsibility to the local Tibetans. I think that is possible. Today in the Chinese government, particularly on the part of President Hu Jintao there is a strong emphasis on harmony. Excellent. But that is an indirect admission that harmony is lacking. In 1954 when I was in China on every occasion I heard slogans of great unity, but that was just superficial. There was no genuine unity.
Now 40 years or almost 50 years have passed and harmony still needs special attention. That means past methods to develop unity have failed. Unity at the point of a gun is illogical. Even if you threaten animals they will not give you a friendly response. If you want genuine friendship, you have to be kind to them, be they dogs or cats; about mosquitoes, I don’t know. If you show more friendship towards mosquitoes I don’t think they have the ability to show their appreciation. But mammals will always respond to genuine appreciation. So Tibetans and other so-called minority peoples and the Chinese people themselves are always watched by security, by vigilance personnel, and they are ready to beat. Under such circumstances, how can there be genuine unity, harmony?
In order to develop genuine harmony amongst all the people, we should not count numbers, but give all the same rights.
I think the basis of harmony and unity must be trust. Trust flows from equality and compassion. Suspicion always creates restraints – it is the biggest obstacle to trust.
Without trust how can you develop genuine unity or harmony? In order to develop genuine harmony amongst the Chinese people themselves – as well as harmony with neighbours – genuine trust is very essential. In order to develop genuine friendship on the basis of mutual trust between India and China, I think Tibet has an important role. Thus when all sides show genuine interest and make efforts to develop harmony and friendship on the basis of mutual trust, both should take Tibet into consideration. Once Tibet becomes a zone of peace, thousands of kilometres of the Indian border can become safe. You can reduce the number of Indian jawans in these difficult areas – not only to save crores and billions of rupees, but also to save the lives of many jawans in these difficult terrains. Their sacrifices will become unnecessary if the effort try to get a peaceful resolution, a zone of peace in Tibet behind the Himalayas, succeeds – then the number of troops can be automatically reduced.
Since 1950 – particularly after 1959, India has spent billions of rupees on its northern border. If these monies were utilised for meaningful development, schools, health and roads, India would have achieved much. But large sums of money are wasted in these areas. Of course, Ladakhis and others have benefited because of the presence of the large Indian army. They can utilise with advantage army equipment like bull-dozers or trucks etc. Perhaps they pray for more tension on the border so that more soldiers come and they get more benefits!I often tell my friends in the West that their people feel Tibet is so remote with only six million people, that it is not a very serious problem. But this is not the case. If you really look at the Tibet issue carefully, it is related with larger Asian and world issues. That is what I wanted to tell you.
About Ethics in Public Life, as I briefly mentioned, I think the Tibetan community is a good example, and also the Indian people. We should make exceptions of some erring individuals whether politicians or religious leaders, but basically India still keeps alive the thousand-years old spirit of ahimsa. That is wonderful.
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