The myth of India’s Tibet charter is finally shattered by the rare recognition of a secret Indian military unit with Tibetan soldiers called the Special Frontier Force (SFF). The public display of solidarity during the funeral ceremony of the Tibetan soldier, killed in the forefront of the deadly clashes with China on August 29, has virtually ‘revealed’ the secret force raised by India through high visibility of the event. Nyima Tenzin, a Tibetan SSF soldier received a funeral with full military honors, wrapped in the Tibetan flag and the Tricolor, in Ladakh.
The ceremony was broadcast on television throughout India and conveyed solemn recognition of the role that ethnic Tibetans, descendants of those who sought refuge in India after China invaded and occupied Tibet in 1950, have played in elite border units. of the SFF of India.
Most significant of the event was the suggestion that India questioned China’s sovereignty over Tibet, a red line for China. There was no response from the government whether the funeral publicity was a policy change or a signal to China that its current border clashes in eastern Ladakh could spread across the Himalayas, a strategic ace up its sleeve some analysts call Tibet. from India. card.
According to Jayadeva Ranade, a retired official with the external intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), “the recognition is a clear message to China that its compatriots are fighting alongside us.”
“I don’t remember this force being recognized like this before,” added Ranade, who heads the China Strategy and Analysis Center, a research group in New Delhi.
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India has been reticent about the nation’s secret SFF forces and its ethnic makeup. But the SFF is part of RAW, India’s external intelligence agency. But when it is deployed with the army, it is under the operational control of the army. However, the military prefers to keep the relationship a secret. Like the US Special Forces, all members are para-commando trained and operate undercover alongside the Indian Army. In fact, the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) helped India train Tibetan refugees to become part of a task force, the forerunner of today’s SFF, after the 1962 war.
The SFF and its Tibetan fighters have a valiant record of fighting for India. The SFF played a crucial role during the Bangladesh Liberation Movement which helped defeat Pakistan in 1971 and create Bangladesh. SFF fighters also contributed to the 1999 war that dislodged Pakistani forces that had occupied heights in Ladakh’s western Kargil.
Although the Indian government has not formally recognized the Tibetan forces, open support for unity has created an emotional appeal among the Tibetan community in exile who aspire to view Tibet as an independent nation.
According to Gonpo Dhundup, president of the Tibetan Youth Congress, a body that has more than 30,000 members and is fighting for the freedom of the region, acknowledged: “I feel strongly that the younger generation will join the SFF in greater numbers, as the event has sent a message that our contribution will be recognized ”.
More than 100,000 Tibetans live freely in different parts of India. However, Tibetans in China’s Tibet Autonomous Region face a high degree of state control over their lives and livelihoods, increasingly similar to the situation faced by ethnic Uighurs held in vocational camps in western Xinjiang province. in China. Over the decades, Indian leaders have avoided being seen as supporting or siding with the cause of Tibet, despite having hosted the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, for more than 60 years.
China regards the Dalai Lama, a darling of the West and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for his non-violent resistance to China’s annexation of Tibet, as an enemy of the state. But some wonder whether Tibet’s peaceful resistance could begin to take a harsher course, particularly as Western powers, including the United States, articulate new support for Tibet’s cause in the context of a new, broader Cold War against China. .
Analysts suggest that the peaceful struggle could change after the next Dalai Lama is selected, particularly as China is expected to try to prop up a successor chosen by him. The Dalai Lama, who has been based in Dharamsala for decades, has said that any candidate chosen by Beijing would be illegitimate. Geographically and strategically, India could be key in channeling support for any new Tibetan resistance.
Tibetan disaffection has grown coinciding with Chinese repression and the forced sinicization of the culture of Tibetan Buddhism, according to Lobsang Sangay, president of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), who spoke recently during a webinar held on September 28. Chinese President Xi Jinping has said China’s stability depends on the stability of Tibet. As recently as 2008, China’s Central Military Commission ranked Tibet as its most critical sovereign challenge, ahead even of Xinjiang and the autonomous island of Taiwan, Sangay said.
It is unclear whether or how India can choose to play its Tibet card, but the taboos of mentioning Tibet are breaking down. Analysts suggest that New Delhi could begin to voice calls for Tibetan autonomy and democracy, echoed by Western critics, after being reticent for years to avoid irritating Beijing. Indeed, India is now signaling to China for the first time in years that playing its long-time Tibet card is at least a strategic possibility. Perhaps, the time has come for a major foreign policy shift in India’s position on Tibet.
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