Have you noticed? The gun-toting Osama bin Laden has pushed the peaceable Dalai Lama into deep background. The 'Tibet cause' is presently in the doldrums as, next door, Afghanistan hogs the public's post-11 September attention. The entire gamut of geopolitics of South Asia (which by Himal's definition includes Tibet) has been turned upside down, as we can see in In ha's rush to embrace the United States' geopolitical agenda and Islamabad's crack down on those who would do jihad across Paidstarti frontiers.
Over the course of this unsettled autumn and winter, the voice for Tibet has receded almost completely from the international arena. Since it is just a hop and a jump (Kashmir Valley and Ladakh) away from Afghanistan, you would have thought that some commentator might have drawn some conclusions for Tibet. Not so. Apparently, the perennial ahimsa of the Dalai Lama and the docility of the Tibetan refugeedom – not to mention Beijing's tight grip on Lhasa – are just not the stuff of headlines when newer and sexier issues like Islamic radicalism and 'global terrorism' engage policymakers from New York to New Delhi.
Of course, a reassessment by the policywallahs of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile in Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, of their world strategy was long overdue. Relying almost exclusively on the charisma ar.-1 personality of Tenzin Gyatsho is not the way to win back independence, self-determination, autonomy, or even to manage a 'return', which we presume is what the Government-in-Exile wants. Perhaps the reality of refugeedom has become a little too comfortable for the kalons (ministers) of Dharamsala. After all, when one is the toast of Western capitals, one tends to forget that the Tibet cause is now almost entirely cultural rather than political. Organising the Dalai Lama's appointment book and travel itinerary (and traveling with him) is what the Government-in-Exile functionaries seem to love to do.
The Dalai Lama is ailing and in a hospital in Bombay, and we wish His Holiness a speedy recovery. Those in the exile community may wish to use this sobering moment to consider whether they want to have a political movement to wrest back some amount of control over Tibet's fate from the big men in Beijing. Is it worth considering the lives of the four to six million Tibetans within Tibet (depending on how you define the region) rather than the interests of the three lakhs or so in exile? If indeed the interests of the Tibetans within Tibet were to be considered the foremost concern of the Dalai Lama and the exile government, what would it have to do?