Chinese officials criticise the Dalai Lama as an anti-motherland conspiratorial politician, ‘a wolf in monk’s robes’, while many Tibetan exiles are exasperated with the failure of his ‘middle way’ (appealing for genuine autonomy within China). His ‘strategy’ has been one that is neither anti-China nor anti-Chinese. He seeks to make a moral appeal to the conscience of the Chinese people and government.

Nevertheless, his constant assurances and watering down of demands has failed to win him anything but distrust and opprobrium from China. The 1.3 billion plus Chinese people do not even know what he stands for except that he is a ‘splittist’. That ‘the Dalai clique fans separatism’ is a commonsense even among non-Communist Chinese people for their knowledge of him is filtered through a censored media. While Han Chinese often exoticise and sometimes appreciate Tibetan Buddhism and culture, they are not even aware of the Dalai Lama’s compromises and appeals to their conscience.

So how can non-violence really work as a political strategy to gain genuine autonomy within China? One can ascribe the Dalai Lama’s hope for and reliance on a change of heart inside China to four things. One, pragmatism, since a violent Tibetan national struggle would be suicidal, go against Tibetan cultural identity, and is unlikely to find widespread support among Tibetans inside China. Two, Buddhism interpreted in a universalist and compassionate manner. We should note that Buddhism does not necessarily lead to pacifism and we can look to Sinhalese chauvinism as a good example of how Buddhists may have no compunction in dehumanising their enemies. Three, a personal philosophy that is resolutely anti-violence and focuses on humanity. Those who criticise the Dalai Lama for weakening the Tibetan cause should realise that the very fact that ‘Free Tibet’ attracts more sympathetic attention globally than say ‘Free Kurds’ or ‘Free Uyghuristan’ is a direct result of his popularity as an apostle of peace. Four, his ideas of politics have been shaped significantly by an admiration for Gandhi. We may recall that when the Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, the committee chairman said that this was ‘in part a tribute to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi’.

... contd.