A Call To Arms
(by R Sengupta | Outlook | January 24, 2000)

Perhaps the first warning came when Thupten Ngodup of the Tibetan Youth Congress immolated himself near Jantar Mantar on April 27, 1998 — after the arrival of Chinese chief of army staff Fu Quanyou in Delhi. His suicide indicated that the Tibetans were getting restless with Dalai Lama's non-violence.

The Tibetan Youth Congress chief Tseten Norbu had categorically stated that his organisation would "think afresh" on the future forms of protest. It was respect for the Dalai Lama which had so far kept the Tibetans from resorting to violence, he said.

"How long can we live with this sense of despair? Perhaps violence is the only language the Chinese understand," says Norbu, a Tibetan student from Dharamshala. "We've people spread all over the world. Our first target would obviously be Chinese missions." What about India? "How long can we expect the Indian government to keep extending its hospitality to us, while we try not to hurt its interests?"

"With all due respect to His Holiness, how far has the cause of our freedom progressed in the last 50 years?" asks Thupten, a lad at Majnu-ka-Tila, Delhi's little Tibet. "We've the resources and we're more than willing to fight for the freedom of our homeland." A homeland which he, incidentally, has never seen. But Thupten — and many others like him — is ready to die for it.