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You will be reborn in Free Tibet,' wrote the Dalai Lama in a note he left for the ailing George Fernandes, India's former Defence Minister who has openly championed the cause of an independent Tibet. The Dalai Lama was calling on Fernandes at a house in New Delhi.

The Indian government may be embarrassed by it, but the voice in favour of Tibet's independence remains un-muffled. The Manmohan Singh government tries its best to restrict the Dalai Lama's movements and speeches, but he has not faltered in raising the standard of Tibet even now that he is 76. His last public appearance was in New Delhi at the World's Buddha Conference. He did not say a word against China or raise the question of Tibet. Still, the government was nervous in case he should say something, despite having made assurances that he would not.
Beijing reportedly rejected Indian compromises regarding the World Buddhist Conference, such as having the Dalai Lama speak after the Indian President had departed or the President not showing up at all. In the same way, China does not accept New Delhi's argument that in the case of the Kolkata conference, West Bengal governor M K Narayanan had accepted the invitation on condition that the Tibetan leader was not a participant. The Dalai Lama decided at the last minute to participate in the conference and said that the self-immolation of monks in Tibet showed that they wanted Tibet to be free.

The living Buddha of the Kirti Monastery, who fled in 1959 and has since lived in Dharamshala, India, has long exerted influence over the monastery, says one Chinese researcher, and used to serve as a private secretary to the 14th Dalai Lama and religious head of the Tibetan government-in-exile.

It is difficult to understand why New Delhi bends over backwards to please Beijing when it comes to the stapling of a visa for visitors from Arunachal or Kashmir to China. New Delhi has not made this into an issue. There was demand in India not to send a delegation to the Beijing Olympics in 2008 but New Delhi did so without any hesitation. Although an uprising in Tibet had been crushed ruthlessly, India was no more than a spectator when the people in the country were up against it. In fact, any protest in Tibet that is aimed at preserving the indigenous culture is seen by Beijing as the Dalai Lama's 'mischief'.

India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, accepted China's suzerainty over Tibet. It does not mean that he was in favour of China's annexation of Tibet or its integration into China. Suzerainty means a government exercising political control over a dependent state. It does not mean absorption of that state. Tibet was not even China's state when India agreed to its suzerainty. Beijing betrayed Nehru in 1954 when it made the settling of the Dalai Lama at Lhasa impossible.

The second betrayal was eight years later when China attacked India. Buddhism, which is strongest and purest in Tibet, is akin to Hinduism, a religion to which 80 per cent of Indians adhere. Nalanda University, which is being revived at its old site in Bihar, is meant to trace how Buddhism broke off from the mother religion of Hinduism. Yet the bond between the two remains intact. Buddha is considered one of the Gods that Hindus worship.

Tibetan poet and activist Tenzin Tsundue, who rose to fame when, in 2002, he scaled 14 floors of Mumbai's Oberoi Towers — where the then Chinese PM Zhu Rongi was addressing Indian business magnates — to unfurl a Tibetan flag, says in an interview: 'Ever since the 2008 Tibetan uprising, the Chinese government has become insecure in its control over Tibet.' China has laid direct blame at the doorstep of Dharamshala, the headquarters of the Dalai Lama. Tenzin Tsundue says, 'International media and tourists cannot travel freely in Tibet, people's involvement is curtailed. It is this draconian police role that is suffocating the Tibetans, pushing them towards self-immolation. These are desperate acts to protest against Chinese police brutality and demand freedom.'

Yet China blames the Dalai Lama for the 11 self-immolation protests carried out by Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns in recent months. The self-immolations, most of which took place near the Kirti monastery at Aba in Sichuan province, says Tenzin Tsundue, were an 'overseas plot', a Chinese official has declared, pointing the finger at the exiled head of the Kirti monastery, who now lives in Dharamshala.

After the deadly rioting in Lhasa on March 14, 2008, monks who fled the monastery established a 'coordination team' to organize operations. The claim is back by the Chinese government which has in recent weeks put unprecedented pressure on India to clamp down on the Dalai Lama's activities.

While China has often called on countries to refuse visas and not host the Dalai Lama, on occasions even threatening economic repercussions, it has adopted a different approach to India. Beijing wants the Dalai Lama to be confined to Dharamshala, where he and his followers have been settling since 1959.

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