An original song of thanks to India had been rehearsed, and a stadium in New Delhi had been reserved for a celebratory rally — all a gesture of gratitude from the Dalai Lama and his followers for India’s role in sheltering them after a Chinese crackdown on rebellious Tibetans 60 years ago.
Instead, the planned “Thank You India” celebrations, set for this coming weekend, set off apprehension in New Delhi and embarrassment among Tibetans.
A directive from India’s foreign secretary urged officials to discard their invitations, and it was blunt in saying the timing of the events coincided with a “sensitive time” for New Delhi’s relations with Beijing. A series of high-level meetings between Indian and Chinese officials are being billed in India as an attempt to smooth over an increasingly tense relationship.
Invitations to top officials were withdrawn, and the event was moved from a stadium in the capital to the secluded northern town of McLeod Ganj, home to the Dalai Lama’s temple and the seat of the Tibetan government in exile. A scheduled interfaith prayer in New Delhi was flatly canceled rather than moved, given the lack of other religious representatives in McLeod Ganj.
A march in McLeod Ganj last year commemorating the Tibetan uprising against China. India is trying to smooth its increasingly tense relationship with China. Credit Sanjay Baid/EPA,via Shutterstock
India is trying to encourage trade ties and Chinese investments while playing catch-up to modernize its military, worried about China’s rapidly expanding forces and its growing influence all around India in South Asia.
China has made deep inroads with New Delhi’s traditional allies and neighbors, building seaports in Sri Lanka and Pakistan, increasing trade and political ties with Nepal, and sending warships to the East Indian Ocean during a state of emergency in the Maldives.
“Giving in to China on the Tibetan community in exile is largely symbolic,” said Jonathan Holslag, professor of international politics at the Free University of Brussels. “But it does mark India’s weakening compared to China. China is rapidly modernizing its military presence, and India cannot follow.”
When Beijing increased its annual defense budget in March to $175 billion, it dwarfed the $45 billion New Delhi had announced just weeks before. India’s army chief complained that the disparity “dashed our hopes” of modernization.
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