“This Land is Rugged and Barren..The King of this Country has received the Faith and there are Four Thousand and more Priests, all belonging to the Lesser Vehicle, but all practice the Religion of India”
Fa Hsein in Lop Nor.
The Conflict
Dharmic India is a Nation of a Billion plus people.
Han China too is a Nation of a Billion plus people.
Han China is about the same size as Dharmic India.
That is where the similarities end.
Between Han China and Dharmic India lay a rugged, largely barren highland almost the size of Dharmic India or Han China itself. Tibet despite its size however was populated only by a few million denizens and survived independently for centuries because of the rugged features of the area that prevented settlers and invaders in large numbers. However its serenity and areas of pristine bliss became attractive to a number of adherents of Indic faiths that made serene meditative contemplation of the divine a key pillar. Where could a better place exist than where Lord Shiva himself chose to sit down in pure contemplation!
This geographical entity of Tibet is almost the size of its Han and Dharmic neighbors in China and India respectively and retained an independent identity mostly but the civilization leaned heavily on Buddhist legacy from India. Despite being a neighbor Han influence on religion, culture, linguistics in Tibet remained minimal. That is why Fa Hsein wrote the above more than a millennium back in time, the lesser vehicle remark indicating followers of the original Buddhist teachings from India in present day Lop Nor which is infact even further north. The fact remains a huge amount of scholarship flowed into China via the Tibetan route and further to the Koreas and Japan and that is a legacy that is India’s and can never be Han China’s. Communist Han China’s problem is a desire to own that legacy. I will explain why.
Among the icons most celebrated from Tibet is the Iconic picture of Lord Shiva in meditation at Kailash Mansarover. Every Dharmic house in India in calendars, pictures, sculptures has this iconic image of Lord Shiva. This is the holiest of Holy spots for millenia. This land was never as holy to anyone more than it was to the Sanatani Dharmic. Tibet and India shared a very close relationship and Indians required no visa. Boundary disputes between the two nations were virtually nonexistent. India had similar relations with like minded states like Bhutan and Nepal of yore. There was free movement of people, goods and services with India keeping the special status of such states in mind. This worked well for century after century. Skirmishes or friction if at all existent would be exceptions and not the defining rule of the relationship. India’s spiritual, cultural, root linguistic affinities with like minded neighbors ensured that.
In the present skirmish it is key to note Han China to Aksai Chin claim areas actually need crossing 3-4 independent nations of yore while Aksai Chin is just relatively adjacent to every mainland Indic city!
Why do Interstate conflicts happen?
Inter Nation state conflicts happen because of ideological non conformities between states that end up attempting to resolve with force. Whether it is Napoleanic Wars, Islamic invasions of Persia, India, WW1 and 2, Japanese expansionism, the Rwandan conflict and closer today the India-Pakistan, India-China conflicts. Everyone of these conflicts happened because neighbors had no ideological parity to each other. Today our neighbors that have an ideological compact with expansionist Islamist or Communist ideologies find themselves in violent conflict with us on our borders. The Nations that do not have these ideologies eg Bhutan, Nepal, Tibet would never have this kind of conflict unless they changed for good their underlying ethos. For reference it is easy to see how Nepals transition to a communist bastion coincides with inter nation state border conflicts even if a few villages are in contention. Further beyond us we can see how Western European states that have non conflicting democratic, transparent ideologies have presently no inter nation state conflict. Neither does Canada-USA for exactly the same reasons.
Coming back home even our ancients recommended the Ashwamedha to spread Dharma all over the region so that all neighbors were agreeable with evolving in understanding and upholding Dhriti, Dhii, Dham, Asteya, Akrodha, Satya, Shouch, Indrayanivigrah, Vidya, Ksham. Thus as neighbors embraced Dharma and values associated with it peace and prosperity as a consequence lasted across multiple regions and basic ideological disparities with neighbors remained similar.
India failed in controlling the buffer regions it possessed naturally to the North and West. The Hindu Kush, Balochistan were natural buffer zones while Tibetan highlands to the North. While Tibet accepted the Dharmic faith, we forgot to follow up on protecting it from faiths that would be in deep ideological contention with us on our borders. Instead we welcomed them (sent food to the invading troops), empowered them (invited them unilaterally to the UNSC). We chose appeasement over ideological affinity to keep peace, whereas appeasement never had an example of success and investments in ideological affinity with neighbors worked wonders always.
The way out:
Today we have the worlds most heavily militarized borders at our West and North. We have already invested tens of thousands of lives in defending these and from them pouring inside our nation state borders. We are in a state of constant conflict as they raise claims and we meticulously and with great academic respect attempt defend or negate those claims. We have created entire departments in social universities like JNU that attempt to justify invasions against us and gift a motive to bullies where none actually exist.
For peace on the Northern frontiers we must understand that academic gobbledygook justifying motive is not going to help and neither appeasement as a policy. Loser barbs eg “Not a blade of grass grows there” have been lazy excuses for giving up tens of thousands of square kms of land. For the communist dragon the Buddhist legacy that emanates is key to controlling vast tracts of land ultimately. Its control of monasteries in Tibet, its forays into Arunachal, Sikkim, Bhutan, Ladhak all point to a desire to control the legacy and ultimately destroy it or own it in full. That is the way pure evil has always worked, on ownership or destruction. That is why Communism as a State philosophy failed and left a trail of blood in 100’s of millions worldwide ever since its inception. Its desire to control, dominate, intimidate, bully and destroy have been underestimated only by the very naive and we have many such amongst us that these ideologies persist much to our civilizational detriment.
So understanding the above is key to understanding reasons for Chinese communist expansionism. Ironically the other factor is secondary eg water and mineral resources. China’s leap to developed status has been a transformative phenomena the last few decades. However that was not the purpose of expansion. Legacy issues are perceived as honor and dignity ones. Retaining them is key. Chinese are more irked at the Dalai Lama being accorded some welcome in New Zealand or in a Mangalore School than the loss of a 60 billion USD trade surplus with India during the present stand off! Not every root cause analysis cannot be on a material driven motive as some analysts feed off.
Understanding this India should make sure it not only owns that legacy, but challenges China in claiming it. The challenge we must throw back to them is the challenge anyone putting a bully at school in his place does. Size is not the issue here. Legacy is. Towards that i enunciate a few steps that can be taken to shake China of it’s stupor. Some are listed below.
- India’s clear linkage to Buddhist Dharmic legacy. We must own it.
- Foster Dharmic Ties with Dharmic Nations.
- Confront China any more showdowns with India will result in recognition of the Tibetan Government in Exile and well as putting back HH Dalai Lama’s institutional status in Tibet
- Derecognition of Tibet as part of Han China.
- Irrespective of whether Chinese move out of Galwan, we must lay a claim to the entire Kailash Mansarover region.
- Develop Military plans to break Tibet away from China.
- Develop Plans to raise costs for misadventure from the Chinese side.
- India-US-EU-Japan-Aus must draw up plans to recognize Tibet, Taiwan, Hong Kong as independent identities.
- Hit China hard with sanctions to make them comply with basic norms in dealing with neighbors.
- Move to remove China from the UNSC and replace with India.
All above are not possible at one go and will require a build up of narrative and agenda. But none of the above must be given up on. Giving up on any above is taken by the communist fascists as signs of weakness and feeds on an expansionist narrative. It is important to note that as history indicates the legacy is more important to the Communist H&D, taking it away is a very big threat. We must use that to get them to back off silly claims in Galwan and Aksai Chin even while we keep all options open. The last thing we must do is to back down.
The bully must be unequivocally told NO now.
Acknowledgements:
@Tibetruth for the simple but very clear Map.
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