April 26, 1959, it was a turning level within the historical past of Tibet-India-China relations. After fleeing from his hometown after the Chinese language invasion, the Dalai Lama met Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who declared that the non secular and political leaders of Tibetan Buddhists ought to be allowed to reside in peace in India.
On Wednesday, the Dalai Lama, who turned 90 on July 6, will proceed to see the power proceed and solely his Gaden Fodran Basis has the authority to acknowledge reincarnation, ending uncertainty about whether or not he could have a successor after his dying.
The 14th Dalai Lama, holding the title, made the announcement from Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh. On the time, after he arrived within the nation, Nehru had instructed the general public that he had “needed to make a really large and tough journey” earlier than the non secular chief of Tibetan met him.
“The journey scenario was additionally painful for the Dalai Lama,” the prime minister stated, including that “the Dalai Lama ought to seek the advice of along with his colleagues concerning the ups and downs of Tibet and have the chance in a peaceable environment to beat the psychological tensions.”
The journey to that time was lengthy and laborious. Following China’s occupation of Tibet and subsequent violent oppression, the Dalai Lama and a number of other different Tibetans left for India. The Dalai Lama, his household, bodyguards and fellow Tibetans have been accepted by Indian border guards on March 31, 1959 at Kenziman Go in Arunachal Pradesh. On April 2nd, Indian authorities officers officers formally welcomed him on the outpost of Chutham on April 2nd, 1959, and took him to Tawan Monastery. The subsequent day, the Nehru authorities introduced that it had granted the Dalai Lama political asylum.
Later, PN Menon, former Consul Normal of Lhasa and envoy of Prime Minister Nehru, welcomed the Dalai Lama and conveyed a message from the federal government.
The Dalai Lama ultimately moved to Tezpur, Assam, the place he issued his first assertion from Indian soil. On April 18, 1959, he criticized China for shelling Norblinka Palace, considered one of his residences in Lhasa the earlier month. He expressed his deep gratitude to the Indian authorities and thanked the Indian folks for his or her “voluntary and beneficiant welcome.” In the identical assertion, the Dalai Lama stated he got here to India, “it’s my very own free will, not beneath obsessiveness.”
Nehru’s Dedication
Even Nehru was not all clean crusing when it got here to granting the Dalai Lama Asylum. The prime minister confronted immeasurable criticism and warned him of the implications of many “opposing China.”
VK Krishnamenon, then Minister of Protection in India, is claimed to have challenged the asylum at an necessary cupboard assembly.
Deendayal Upadhyay, chief of Bharatiya Jan Sangh, had said the transfer to this finish (in supportive wrestle for independence, not serving to, however disrupting.”
On the day the Dalai Lama issued an announcement from Tezpur, China formally filed a protest, accusing India of interfering with home affairs. Beijing insisted that the Dalai Lama could be “returned.” It laid the inspiration for the longer term deterioration of India-China relations, which finally led to the 1962 China-Indian Conflict.
Nevertheless, Nehru cited “ethical and humanitarian” grounds to permit the Dalai Lama to enter India and to permit him a call to grant him political asylum. In October 1959, the Prime Minister instructed Parliament: “It is vitally seemingly that Tibet’s growth has angered and exacerbated the hearts of the Chinese language authorities…and maybe they responded strongly to what we did: the asylum they gave to the Dalai Lama.”
Earlier than present process political asylum, the Dalai Lama visited India in 1956. Together with the Panchen Lama, they have been thought of second solely to the Dalai Lama in non secular authority in Tibetan Buddhist tradition, however they celebrated the two,five hundredth anniversary of the Parisirivana of Buddha.
On the time, they’d knowledgeable Nehru of the scenario in Tibet after China returned to the phrases of the 1951 settlement on Tibet’s autonomy. The Chinese language Prime Minister then attended New Delhi, the place he had an in depth dialogue with Nehru about Tibet, and asserted the Prime Minister that Beijing respects Tibet’s autonomy. It was these assurances and Nehru recommendation that each the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama returned dwelling.
The Dalai Lama: In a unprecedented life, Alexander Norman writes that the Dalai Lama has revealed his intention to hunt asylum in India from Nehru. Nevertheless, the Prime Minister seems to not be totally dedicated and reportedly stated India couldn’t assist him on the time.
Based on one other well-known tibiologist and writer Claude Alpi, the Dalai Lama telegram to Nehru on March 26, 1959, the place he wrote:
Based on ARPI, Nehru responded to the Dalai Lama telegram on April third. In it, the previous Prime Minister met with the Dalai Lama and offered particulars of the officers who promoted his journey. (Test date and it does not match)
In the identical letter, Nehru instructed the Dalai Lama that the Indian authorities has but to determine the place to remain. The Prime Minister wrote:
After Tezpur, the Dalai Lama lived in Mussoorie (now Uttarakhand) for a number of months. In 1960, after the federal government was invited, he moved to Macrodoganj in Dharamshala and has been there ever since. The city has turn out to be a centre of Tibetan cultural and political exercise in exile.
