Lets Be Positive ( B+ve)

Hola Folk nice to get back here again

For the month of Apr 2015 had one goal: Stop Complaining.
Lets start with a very small story here : 

Yeah its what most of us do in general life, But it was not exactly i gonna discuss here. Just read a book of Jon Gordon and  what i get from that is really great and thought to share with my friends , because i believe a good surrounding creates synergistic effects. The goal of this article is how we creating a more positive life by eliminating negative statements. There’s no secret sauce,Simply stop complaining.But is it that easy? What’s so bad about complaining, anyway? 

Now Let me Tell you….Griping comes naturally for us. During an average conversation, we lob complaints at each other about once a minute, according to research.( LOL I realized I do more than what research results telling :P ) There’s a social reason for that. Nothing unites people more strongly than a common dislike. The easiest way to build friendship and communicate is through something negative. Now just recoil your mental archives and see how you get along with a person by criticizing a common source ( animate or Inanimate, it doesn't matter).  

Also, evolution primes us to focus on the negative for self-defense. The more we look at something that can hurt us and kill us, we are programmed to be on guard against that.

NOTHING UNITES PEOPLE MORE STRONGLY THAN A COMMON DISLIKE

Well one can take this as  if you are trying to get along a girl/boy this may help. ( though its not about how to get the Girl/Boy kind of trick :P). But all of that whining comes with a cost. When we complain, our brains release stress hormones that harm neural connections in areas used for problem solving and other cognitive functions. This also happens when we listen to someone else moan and groan. It’s as bad as “second-hand smoke. It’s second-hand complaining.

Swearing off something that comes naturally to us seems like a setup for failure. Indeed things you do habitually are really hard to give up, have you ever tried to eliminate the ‘you knows’ and ‘uh-huhs’ from your speech? It is extremely difficult. And sometimes we absolutely need to vent. It feels good, doesn’t it? One study showed that bottling emotions could shorten your life by an average of two years.

The good news is there can be middle ground between going cold turkey and being a Negative Nancy (girls, Nancy is just an example :p ). If you’re serious about complaining less, here are some realistic tips for success.

1. START BY DEFINING WHAT A COMPLAINT IS

If you point out that it’s cold outside, is that a complaint? No, that’s an observation. A complaint is, ‘It’s cold outside and I hate living in this place. I defines a complaint by the way it makes me feel:  I feel myself slouching and not breathing.

2. TRACK HOW OFTEN YOU COMPLAIN AND WHAT ABOUT

Change starts with awareness. You will be  absolutely shocked. After two or three hours of observing, it’s in the hundreds.

3. STOP CRIBBING 

Separate yourself from chronic complainer. If you must lend an ear, try to respond with something positive rather than joining in on the rant session. You’ve really gotta be quite brave and confident and have the courage not to need the good opinion of another person. You find over a period of time those people who complain constantly start to leave you alone because their brains are not getting that stimulus they’re looking for. So stop Cribbing.  

4. TURN COMPLAINTS INTO SOLUTIONS 

This is called positive complaining or effective complaining. Don’t sit around and admire the problem. Do something about it. And believe me it helps a lot.

5. USE THE "BUT-POSITIVE" TECHNIQUE

If you find yourself griping, add a ‘but’ and say something positive. For example, "I don’t like driving to work, but I’m thankful at least I can drive and I even have a job. I know its crap example but atleast am able to explain my thoughts here to you.

6. CHANGE "HAVE TO" TO "GET TO"

I have to pick up the kids becomes I get to pick up the kids. You change a complaining voice to an appreciative heart, You’re gonna feel so much better the more you focus on the positive over time. At first, it's gonna be a little awkward, but the more you get used to it, it becomes your natural state.

Genetics Behind Ancient Indian Gotra System

Before we start we have to understand Gotra System is different from Cast System. In Veda’s there is no any mention of Cast System, though Social Strata based on kind of work is there. We would discuss cast sytem some other time and its origins.In Hindu society, the term gotra means clan. It broadly refers to people who are descendants in an unbroken male line from a common male ancestor. However, all families having same gotra need not be cousinsThey can be descendants of sons or disciples or even adopted sons of the Rishi(Seer), who is the root and whose name is used as Gotra. For example if a person says that he belongs to the Kutsa Gotra then it means that he traces back his male ancestry to the ancient Rishi (Saint or Seer) KutsaGotra means cowshed (Go=Cow, tra=shed) in Sanskrit. Pāṇini defines gotra for grammatical purposes as apatyam pautraprabhrti gotram ,which means the word gotra denotes the progeny (of a sage) beginning with the son’s son.This system was started among Brahmins, with a purpose to classify and identify the families in the community. Later term gotra, itself, according to strict Hindu tradition is used only for the lineages of Brahmin, Kshatriya and Vysya families. Hindu Brahmins identify their male lineage by considering themselves to be the descendants of the 8 great Rishis i.e Saptarishis (The Seven Sacred Saints) + Bharadwaja Rishi. So the list of root Brahmin Gotras is as follows :

1.                 Angirasa

2.                 Atri

3.                 Gautam

4.                 Kashyapa

5.                 Bhrigu

6.                 Vasistha

7.                 Kutsa

8.                 Bharadwaja

The offspring (apatya) of these eight are gotras and others than these are called gotrâvayava.These eight sages are called gotrakarins from whom all the 49 gotras (especially of the Brahmins) have evolved. For instance, from Atri sprang the Atreya and Gavisthiras gotrasIn almost all Hindu families, marriage within the same gotra is prohibited, since people with same gotra are considered to be siblingsBut the hidden reason behind this practice is the Y Chromosome which is expected to be common among all male in same gotra. So, the woman too carries similar X Chromosome and if married, their offspring may be born with birth defects.Few families even maintain their  Pravara. Pravara is a list of most excellent Rishis/Persons in a Gotra lineage. As we saw earlier, some of the descendants of the most ancient Gotras started their own Gotras, however they maintained a list of Pravaras while doing so and attached the list of their most excellent Ancestors with this derived Gotras.

For instance the Vatsa Gotra has Bhargava, Chyavana, Jamadagnya , Apnavana as their Pravaras. What this means is that Vatsa Gotra has in its lineage all these Gotras and traces back its root to Bhrigu Rishi in the list of Gotrakarins. It connects to the root Seer.

Gotra is always passed on from father to children among most Hindus, just like lastname(surname) is passed on worldwide. However, among Malayalis and Tulu’s its passed on from mother to children .Additional rule in the Gotra system is that, even if the Bride and Bridegroom belong to different Gotras, they still cannot get married even if just one of their Gotra Pravara matches. Now, why only male carries fixed lastname and gotra and why female can change her lastname, gotra after marriage ?

Genes & Chromosomes among Humans

Humans have 23 pairs of Chromosomes and in each pair one Chromosome comes from the father and the other comes from the mother. So in all we have 46 Chromosomes in every cell, of which 23 come from the mother and 23 from the father. Of these 23 pairs, there is one pair called the Sex Chromosomes which decide the gender of the person. During conception, if the resultant cell has XX sex chromosomes then the child will be a girl and if it is XY then the child will be a boy. X chromosome decides the female attributes of a person and Y Chromosome decides the male attributes of a person. When the initial embryonic cell has XY chromosome, the female attributes get suppressed by the genes in the Y Chromosome and the embryo develops into a male child. Since only men have Y Chromosomes, son always gets his Y Chromosome from his father and the X Chromosome from his mother. On the other hand daughters always get their X Chromosomes, one each from both father and mother. So the Y Chromosome is always preserved throughout a male lineage (Father – Son – Grandson etc) because a Son always gets it from his father, while the X Chromosome is not preserved in the female lineage (Mother, Daughter, Grand Daughter etc) because it comes from both father and mother.A mother will pass either her mother’s X Chromosome to her Children or her father’s X Chromosome to her children or a combination of both because of both her X Chromosomes getting mixed (called as Crossover). On the other hand, a Son always gets his father’s Y Chromosome and that too almost intact without any changes because there is no corresponding another Y chromosome in his cells to do any mixing as his combination is XY, while that of females is XX which hence allows for mixing as both are X Chromosomes. Women never get this Y Chromosome in their body. And hence Y Chromosome plays a crucial role in modern genetics in identifying the Genealogy ie male ancestry of a person. And the Gotra system was designed to track down the root Y Chromosome of a person quite easily. If a person belongs to Angirasa Gotra then it means that his Y Chromosome came all the way down over thousands of years of timespan from the Rishi Angirasa!. And if a person belongs to a Gotra (say Bharadwaja) with Pravaras (Angirasa, Bhaarhaspatya, Bharadwaja), then it means that the person’s Y Chromosome came all the way down from Angirasa to Bhaarhaspatya to Bharadwaja to the person. This also makes it clear why females are said to belong to the Gotra of their husbands after marriage. That is because women do not carry Y Chromosome, and their Sons will carry the Y Chromosome of the Father and hence the Gotra of a woman is said to be that of her husband after marriage.

Shrinking size of Y Chromosome

Y is the only Chromosome which does not have a similar pair in the human body. The pair of the Y Chromosome in humans is X Chromosome which is significantly different from Y Chromosome. Even the size of the Y Chromosome is just about one third the size of the X Chromosome. In other words throughout evolution the size of the Y Chromosome has been decreasing and it has lost most of its genes and has been reduced to its current size. Scientists are debating whether Y Chromosome will be able to survive for more than a few million years into the future or whether it will gradually vanish, and if it does so whether it will cause males to become extinct! Obviously because Y Chromosome is the one which makes a person male or a man. Y Chromosome has to depend on itself to repair any of its injuries and for that it has created duplicate copies of its genes within itself. However this does not stop DNA damages in Y Chromosome which escape its local repair process from being propagated into the offspring males. This causes Y Chromosomes to accumulate more and more defects over a prolonged period of evolution and scientists believe that this is what is causing the Y Chromosome to keep losing its weight continuously. Y Chromosome which is crucial for the creation and evolution of males has a fundamental weakness which is denying it participation in the normal process of evolution via Chromosomal mix and match to create better versions in every successive generation, and this weakness MAY lead to the extinction of Y Chromosome altogether over the next few million years, and if that happens scientists are not sure whether that would cause males to become extinct or not. And that is because Scientists are not sure whether any other Chromosome in the 23 pairs will be able to take over the role of the Y Chromosome or not. On the other hand, it is not necessary that humanity will not be able to survive if males become extinct. Note that females do not need the Y Chromosome, and since all females have X Chromosomes, it would be still possible to create a mechanism where X Chromosomes from different females are used to create offspring, say like injecting the nuclei from the egg of one female into the egg of another female to fertilize it and that would grow into a girl child. So yes, that would be a humanity where only females exist.

Gotra System helps to protect the Y Chromosome from becoming extinct

Even modern scientists have concluded that children born to parents having blood relation (like cousins) can have birth defects. For example, there is a recessive dangerous gene in one person. What this means is that say a person is carrying a dangerous abnormality causing gene in one of his chromosome, but whose effect has been hidden in that person (or is not being expressed) because the corresponding gene in the pairing Chromosome is stronger and hence is preventing this abnormality causing gene from activating. Now there are fair chances that his offsprings will be carriers of these genes throughout successive generations. As long as they keep marrying outside his genetic imprint, there is a fair chance that the defective gene will remain inactive since others outside this person’s lineage most probably do not have that defective gene. Now if after 5-10 generations down the line say one of his descendants marries some other descendant who may be really far away cousins. But then there is a possibility that both of them are still carrying the defective gene, and in that case their children will definitely have the defective gene express itself and cause the genetic abnormality in them as both the Chromosomes in the pair have the defective genes. Hence, the marriages between cousins always have a chance of causing an otherwise recessive, defective genes to express themselves resulting in children with genetic abnormalities. So, Ancient Vedic Rishis created the Gotra system where they barred marriage between a boy and a girl belonging to the same Gotra no matter how deep the lineage tree was, in a bid to prevent inbreeding and completely eliminate all recessive defective genes from the human DNA.

Contribution of RSS to the modern India

In the light of recent comments by the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat about the work of Mother Teresa, there has been a wide spread criticism among people and electronic media.

The so called “liberal and secular” Hindus are at the forefront of this criticizing exercise. This criticism is the   result of ignorance among people about their own religion. They sing songs of praise for   Christian missionaries but have they ever tried to know what great work is done by Hindu Organisations and Hindu people in general?

We do not demean the work done by other organisations but there is a great need to make people   aware about work done by Hindu organisations. According to Hinduism “Daan” is a virtue of   generosity. In Hinduism, it is believed that Daan leads to one of the perfections - the perfection   of giving - dana-paramita. It means unconditional generosity, giving and letting go.

Support of Daan in Vedas and Hindu religious texts


Rig veda has the earliest mention of Daan. Rig veda compares Daan to satya i.e. truth.
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, in verse 5.2.3, states that 

तदेतत्त्रयँ शिक्षेद् दमं दानं दयामिति

This verse directs human beings to learn three cardinal virtues - self restraint, charity and   compassion for all life.  Bhagavad Gita also describes the importance of Daan in verses 17.20 through 17.22. Hinduism   gives special significance to Go Dana - donation of a cow, Bhu Dana - donation of land and   Anna Dana - Giving food to the poor and needy. Al Biruni, the Persian historian, who visited   India for 16 years from about 1017 AD, mentions the practice of charity in his records. He wrote 
“It is obligatory with them (Hindus) every day to give alms as much as possible.”—Tarikh Al-  Hind, 11th century AD.


Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh


Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is a charitable, educational and volunteer Hindu nationalist non-governmental organization. It is the world's largest voluntary NGO. It follows the principle of selfless service to the nation. The RSS was founded 89 years ago in 1925. Its founder was   Keshav Baliram Hedgewar. It has 50,000 shakhas to spread its ideological beliefs.

Role played by RSS at the time of partition

The RSS played a very active role in independence movement. At the time of partition of India   when millions of Hindus and Sikhs fled Pakistan to find refuge in India, the RSS played an   active role in helping these people. The RSS arranged for food, medicines, shelter, tents etc.   During partition it was the RSS that helped organise over 3,000 relief camps for the refugees   from Pakistan. The RSS participated in movement to decolonise Dadra and Nagar Haveli, which   was ruled by Portuguese colonists.

Accession of Jammu and Kashmir

In 1947, Pakistani troops reached the borders of Kashmir and all the efforts of political leaders   had failed. At this time, Sardar Patel directed the RSS chief M.S. Golwalker to use his influence   to prevail upon the Maharaja to accede to India. Guruji rushed to Srinagar to resolve the delicate   matter. A meeting between Guruji and Maharaja Hari Singh was arranged. This historic meeting   was successful and the Maharaja sent the accession proposal to Delhi. In this way the RSS   played a vital role in accession of Jammu and Kashmir to India.

Role at the time of India-China war of 1962 

During the Sino-Indian War in 1962, the contribution of the RSS was immense. Swayamsevaks   from the whole India assembled in the northeast of India to help the army and local people. Their   enthusiastic contribution was recognised by the whole nation when then Prime Minister   Jawaharlal Nehru invited the RSS to take part in the Indian Republic Day parade of 1963.

1984 Anti Sikh riots

Noted journalist Khushwant Singh was openly critical of the RSS. But at the time of Anti Sikh   riots in Delhi the RSS was instrumental in helping Sikhs in large numbers when murderers went   on rampage to kill them. This help of the RSS was later acknowledged by a critic - Khushwant   Singh. The RSS was the only organisation that came to help Sikhs when In Rajiv Gandhi’s   words “A big tree fell and the ground had shaken”.

Sewa activities

Whenever there is any need of relief work in country, the RSS is at the forefront of such work.   The RSS has helped people in natural disasters like the Tamil Nadu Tsunami, the Gujarat   earthquake, the Andhra Pradesh and Uttarakhand floods, the Bhopal gas tragedy and Assam   riots. The disaster relief provided by the Sangh in Jammu and Kashmir floods was enormous.   The Hindu organisations organized free medical camps in the flood-hit state and provided   medical aid to around 1,400 patients in different areas of Jammu district. Around 2,000 kg of   cattle feed was distributed among villagers for their livestock and it was assured that cattle feed   for one week would be supplied in Hamirpur village of Akhnoor free of cost. The activities of   the Sangh are spreading to distant parts of the nation. The Sangh welcomes even people other   than Hindus who join the Sangh.

Work in education sector 

Samvedana Rehabilitation Centre has been set up for the rescue of handicapped children. This   organization enables them to lead a normal life by boosting their confidence. With the coming   together of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Jankalyan Samiti and Vivekanand Medical   Foundation & Research Centre, the Samvedana Rehabilitation Centre for Physically   Handicapped was started at Latur. The RSS has started many hostels in many parts of our   country for students to provide them free accommodation and educational facilities. Various   Bal Sanskar Kendras, primary schools, secondary schools, night schools, libraries and residential   schools are run all across India. The RSS runs 27,000 Ekal Vidyalayas in remote tribal areas   where more than 8 lakh socially deprived tribal students are enrolled.

Role of Arogya Rakshaks

Arogya Chetna Shivirs are organized in various parts of India. The Arogya Rakshaks are   rendering primary health services in remote villages of the nation, where people do not have any   access to health facilities. They provide people the basic health care facilities and essential   medicines that too free of cost.

Role in Health sector 

Various projects in the field of health have been launched by the RSS and Vishav Hindu   Parishad. These projects include dispensaries of English medicines, homeopathy, ayurveda,   naturopathy and panchgavya (medicinal products from cow urine and dung), mobile medical   clinics, hospitals, and ambulances. Trained aarogya sewaks and sewikas are there to provide   primary health care. At many places free Vyavyaam shalas (gyms) are set up to promote good   health. Medical & Health Camps are organised from time to time. Various hospitals, Mobile   Dispensaries and ambulances are also run.

Environment conservation 

In the view of need to conserve the environment, the Hindu organisations are planting trees in   every village of the nation. Apart from this, people are encouraged to plant Tulsi in their homes.

Employment generation 

The Hindu organisations are running self-employment training centres at many places in India.   The people, especially women are given useful training in occupations like farming, bee-  keeping, agriculture, animal husbandry and sewing. It helps them to supplement their family   income.

Social work

Birth sanskar are conducted in orphanages. Mass or group marriages are arranged for those   couples whose parents cannot afford to arrange wedding ceremonies. Those who are unable to   perform the last rites of relatives due to financial constraints, they are helped to do so. Apart   from this, orphanages, Legal Help Centres, Woman Rescue Centres and Working Women   Hostels are run to help people. Hundreds of Drinking Water Centres have been set up in India.   The help provided by Hindus during natural calamities is indispensable. Various old age homes,   inns and community centres are also run. Free food is provided to people taking part in various  religious pilgrimages like Amarnath Yatra and Mata Vaishno Devi Yatra. People are given free   blankets and medicines. An RSS-affiliated NGO, Seva Bharati, has adopted thousands of   children till date irrespective of religion – 65% Muslims rest Hindus, Sikhs and Christians from   militancy affected areas of Jammu and Kashmir. 

Cow protection 

All across India, various goshalas are run to save cows from Muslim butchers. These cows also   include non-milking cattle which are easy targets for butchers. The Hindus consider cows pious   and donate generously to Goshalas so that these poor animals can be fed and provided medical   help when need be. Every year trucks full of cows being sent to butchers are saved by the Hindu   activists. The proactive Hindu warriors are working to stop illegal cow transport, cow trading,   cross border cow smuggling and cow slaughtering.  Now after reading the article we can conclude that if Christians are doing good work then the   Hindus are not behind in any way. It is just that the Hindus do not sing songs of self praise. The   organisations that are considered Right wing, they have contributed enormously in development   of our nation and society. The need is to highlight the work done by them that goes unnoticed in   this world of self styled “liberal and secular” people.

India, Tibet and China : Nehru’s Flawed Policy on Tibet

India, Tibet and China – and the complications of this is something  that will engage Indians for almost all times and the problem  will now remain intricate  for both China and India affecting relations between these two neighbours.

Former Indian Ambassador Preet Malik, given his vast experience in diplomacy has in his essay Nehru’s Flawed Policy on Tibet explained as the title suggests what went wrong. In his conclusion Preet Malik has said that


“China continues to show its aggressive intent where India is concerned, it follows a clear containment policy to keep India focused on South Asia, it adopts a softer tone only to influence India from making any long term strategic commitments to American policies including the Asia-Pacific policies, it is at the same time keeping the economic relationship in the fore front as India is a potentially large market for its goods. India has to overcome the handicaps that the overhang of Nehruvian Tibetan policy blunders have left it to face. The strengthening of India’s defence and infrastructure development against an overpowering position that China has secured through its occupation of Tibet is an imperative that India can only ignore to its own peril. India’s nuclear weapons posture has to be China centric and this has to be developed both numerically and technologically to deter China and add to India’s security architecture. To this has to be added the threat that India would encourage if not directly take up China’s human rights violations in Tibet that is clearly reflected in the close to a hundred self-immolations by Tibetans.”

The essay underlines what we are up against.

Ambassador Malik has lent his more than three decades’ diplomatic experience in putting together this essay.  His career took him on assignments to the UN, where he was a Deputy Permanent Representative in the UN (1983-86), where he handled economic issues, given his earlier experience in the Ministry of Commerce (1976-79). His last Ambassadorial assignment was to Myanmar 1990-92 before returning to New Delhi in the Economic Relations division of the Ministry. He retired as Special Secretary of the Ministry in 1995.

Since then he has written several essays on strategic and international issues, notably China.

Nehru’s Flawed Policy on Tibet

By

Preet Malik

Introduction

This paper confines itself to the Tibet Issue as it stood up to the 1949-50 period, as it is essential that people in India understand and evaluate the policy failures that continue to negatively impact on India’s national interests and way lay our playing the role inherent in our being a major Asian power.

The display of aggressive intent by China in the Ladakh region of India along the Line of Actual Control of which the intrusion in the DauletBaigOldi(Depsang) area and the refusal to withdraw by the PLA over a significant period of time is an example of the trials and tribulations that are directly related to Nehru’s policy blunder on Tibet.Thanks to what he adopted as a policy of appeasement on China’s ill-founded claims on Tibet we continue to face aggression by China on our territory as envisaged even under the hazily drawn LAC. It is quite telling that the January 2012 Sino-Indian Agreement on the ‘Establishment of a working mechanism for Consultation and coordination on India-China Border affairs that has been further supplemented by the October 23, 2013 ‘Border Defence Cooperation Agreement’ do not project the Line of Actual Control even on maps. It is clear that the Chinese are keeping all options open and have the intent to keep needling India, trying its patience, to weaken Its negotiating position and forcing settlements that are largely in China’s interests.

As part of this policy of pressurisation it continues to challenge improvements both of infrastructure and the strengthening of the defence profile that would assist India in counteracting the challenges that the China’s military related developments in Tibet pose to the security of India. Then there its constant attempts at needling India on political or developmental issues relating to Arunachal Pradesh and its being part of India. It is worth recalling here that in the Ambassador R.K.Nehru-Zhou En Lai meetings in 1960 Zhou had clearly indicated that they while not “recognising the McMahon Line they would not cross that line and enter Indian Territory[1]”. This is a significant clarification, that contradicts everything that the PRC has done since then including the issuing of stapled visa’s to residents of India’s Arunachal Pradesh and the political protests that they continue to express on visits to that Indian State by India’s leadership including the President and the Prime Minister.

The actions reflected in the statements made by generals representing the views of the PLA are indications thatThe PLA is following a policy that arises out of its perception of India,as a soft power that shies away from confrontation and while it would protest aggressive intent across the LAC adopted by the PLA India would not resort to counter the incursions by the use of force.

China Uses Deceit as a Stratagem to Get Its way with Tibetin violation of The Treaty of AD 821-822

The correct way of looking at the policy pursued by China is that it is founded on the principal of achieving its objectives by deceit that is a basic attribute to its Middle Kingdom make up. Nothing sets this out in all its specifiteas its violation of the sacrosanct Sino-Tibetan Treaty of AD 821-822 that categorically states “Tibet and China shall abide by the frontiers of which they are now in occupation. All to the east is the country of China; and all to the west is, without question the country of Great Tibet. Henceforth on neither side shall there be waging of war nor seizing of territory.” In the chapeau to this Treaty the intent is clearly spelt out that the two rulers  (described as the Great King of Tibet and the Great King of China) ‘have made this ‘great treaty’ in order to fulfil their decision to restore the former ancient friendship and mutual regard and the old relationship of friendly neighbourliness.” What this Treaty sets out is the inviolability of the borders or the territories of the two countries that are further described as in a “old relationship of friendly neighbourliness” obviously underlining that they were two sovereign states.

In a subsequent substantive paragraph the Treaty states “ This solemn agreement has established a great epoch when Tibetans shall be happy in the land of Tibet, and Chinese in the land of China. So that it may never be changed, the three precious jewels of Religion, the assembly of Saints, the Sun and Moon, Planets and Stars have been invoked as witnesses. An oath has been taken with solemn words and with the sacrifice of animals; and the agreement has been ratified.”

This treaty underlines the fact that the two nations were in a binding treaty of peace that voided change of frontiers that stood in place in AD 821. More importantly it underscores the fact that these were two independent nation states that by this treaty agreed that violations of their borders or for that matter acts to defend their independence and territorial integrity, covering the two states, maintain that any violation by one party could result in retaliation and that ‘nothing that the other party may do by way of retaliation shall be considered a breach of the treaty on their part.’

This in itself suggests that the Tibetan’s have the right to defend violations of the treaty by the Chinese who are today in unlawful occupation of Tibet in violation of the provisions of the Treaty of AD 821 and that it permits the Tibetan’s under its provisions to resort to any means to defend their territory and to force if possible the Chinese occupiers from Tibet.

Chinese Claims over Tibet based on Falsehood

The Chinese claims to Tibet are based on the false understanding of the relationship that came to exist between the Mongol rulers of China and the presence in their courts of a Tibetan Religious Hierarch. The realty was that this relationship was that of a Guru and his RoyalDisciple and did not in anyway grant China the right to treat Tibet as an appendage or a part of the Chinese kingdoms. It is true that the Manchu rulers came to the support of Tibet when it was under threat from Nepal, but the intervention was at the behest of the Tibetan Authorities and not because it was part of China or seeking a political arrangement with China. It was in fact the Tibetan Guru seeking assistance to neutralise a threat to Tibet of his Royal Disciple who happened to be the Emperor of China.

Britain Adopts the Route of China’s Suzerainty over Tibet To Meets its Own Ends

At this stage what needs to be put in place is the fact the suzerain relationship was put in effect by the British Government as it tried to maintain a balance between Tibet as a buffer state keeping the Russians away from posing a threat to Tibet’s borders with British India and the trade interests that Britain considered a paramount component of its relations with China. However the British Authorities maintained through out that Tibet was an autonomous state exercising all controls of a defacto independent state, with China only having the right to advise Tibet on its foreign affairs.

For British India Tibet was a buffer State securing India’s northern frontiers while also granting India treaty-determinedrights over Nepal, Bhutan and Sikkim. Article IX of the 1904 Indo-Tibetan Convention in actual fact recognised Tibet as an independent country that was treaty bound to prevent any external attempts to position themselves on the territory of Tibet and implies that British India would help Tibet maintain that position.

To be precise the British defined Tibet’s position in official terms to Imperial China as follows:

• That HMG formally recognised the suzerain rights of China in Tibet;”
• “Never recognised, and not prepared to recognise right of China to intervene actively in the administration of Tibet, which should remain as contemplated by the Treaties in the hands of Tibetan Administration.”
• While the right of China to station a representative with a suitable escort at Lhasa, with authority to advise the Tibetans as to their foreign relations is not disputed.”
• The British Government was not prepared “to acquiesce in the maintenance of an unlimited number of Chinese troops either at Lhasa or in Tibet generally”

The British Envoy to the Imperial Court at Beijing who spelt out the British position was Sir John Jordan. He reiterated this position in 1909 when he stated that Great Britain “ would not tolerate any attempt to reduce Tibet, who had independent treaty relations with Great Britain to the condition of a province of China and he warned the Chinese Government that grave complications might ensue if the Chinese expedition crossed the frontier into Tibet.”

The Eden Memorandum is Categorical in Defining Trilateral Relations That Followed on The Shimla Agreement of 1914

The matter was clarified in categorical terms in a memorandum addressed by the British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden to Dr T.V.Soong the Chinese Foreign Minister dated 5th August, 1943. The Eden Memorandum was in response to Dr Soong querying Britain’s ‘attitude’ towards Tibet. Eden respondingstated, “since the Chinese Revolution of 1911, when Chinese forces were withdrawn from Tibet, Tibet has enjoyed de facto independence. She has ever since regarded herself as in practice completely autonomous and has opposed Chinese attempts to reassert control.” What is more the Eden Memorandum makes the following significant points:

1. That the ‘rock on which the Convention (Tripartite Convention between India-Tibet- China of 1914) and subsequent attempts to reach an understanding were wrecked was the question of the boundary between China and Tibet, since the Chinese Government claimed sovereignty over areas which the Tibetans claimed belonged to their autonomous jurisdiction.”
2. That in 1921 Lord Curzon as Foreign Secretary of Britain’s Government informed the then Chinese Minister Dr. Wellington Koo, “that the British Government did not feel justified in withholding their recognition of the status of Tibet as an autonomous State under the suzerainty of China, and intended dealing on this basis with Tibet in the future.”
3. That in principle they were prepared to “recognise Chinese suzerainty over Tibet but only on the understanding that Tibet is regarded as autonomous.”
4. That while India and Britain did not have any territorial ambition in Tibet they were “interested in the maintenance of friendly relations with, and in the preservation of peaceful conditions in an area that was coterminous with the North-East frontiers of India.”

The key elements of British policy that were also the policies of British India were clearly: the stress on complete Tibetan autonomy and a loose suzerainty over it to be exercised by China. This followed the realisation that in actual fact China had no control over Tibet who had refused to recognise the Anglo-Tibet Treaty of 1890 or the Regulations governing trade between India and Tibet that had been worked out by Britain with the Chinese without the involvement of Tibet. The other important aspect was British India ensuring that the Chinese presence in Tibet did not reflect on the position that Tibet acquired as a consequence of the 1904 and the 1907 Treaties as a buffer state for India against Russian ambitions or an overwhelming Chinese position that went against the understanding on the Autonomy enjoyed by Tibet.

Independent India and its Tibet Policy Contradictions Et Al

In what follows we throw light on the problems that we have inherited by the blunderscommitted by Nehru and the Socialist fellow traveller K.M.Pannikar on Tibet It would be justified to treat Nehru’s Tibet Policy as one of appeasement that recognised claims of China over Tibet without questioning them as contradictory to historical facts that spelt of Tibet being a defactoindependent nation and the Chinese claims being imperial in nature in violation of its long standing Treaty relations that were entered into as by both as Sovereign Nations.

There is a mythology built around Nehru and his prowess as a global foreign policy thinker and leader, his conceiving nonalignment as the guiding principle of India’s foreign policy, and the one who defined the core principals that projected India’s national interest. However his policies when placed under the microscope of independent scrutiny fail to meet the real demands of safeguarding India’s national interests in fact he left India facing permanent ordeals that have cost and continue to cost the country dear.

Two outstanding examples of his failures were the Kashmir issue that he without need internationalised and the burden of that failure is continuing to plague India; the other was the Tibet issue where he failed to leverage India’s prevailing position to strike a deal on the borders with the PRC before he acceded to the Chinese claims on Tibet, instead he ended up creating a permanent problem that China continues to exploit. The reality is that Nehru failed to safeguard India’s interests in Tibet and gave up those interests without leveraging them to at the very least have the borders between the two countries defined and settled logically along the watershed principle.

He also failed to support the Tibetan People and their aspirations to remain an independent nation that was being forcibly occupied by a militarily stronger power that was following in the footsteps of colonial powers that both India and China had fought to oust in their national struggles to become truly independent countries disavowing colonialism.


The relations with Tibet that India inherited on the British withdrawal at the time of India’s Independence granted India inherent rights arising out of the Anglo-Tibet Conventions of 1904 that were endorsed by the Anglo-Chinese Convention of 1906. These rights were linked to the projection of Tibet as an autonomous country that had a relationship with Imperial China and subsequently with Republican China that accepted China’s loose suzerain rights over Tibet limited essentially to Tibet’s External Relations. What is more Nehru failed to take into account the strategic importance of Tibet remaining a buffer State safeguarding India’s borders with Tibet. Let us not forget that the PRC not only laid claim to Tibet as a part of China despite its undertaking that Tibet would not become a province of China thus retaining its autonomy but at the same laid claim to Ladakh and the areas to the North of Assam with Brahmaputra being India’s northern frontier thereby claiming the then Union Territory of NEFA that subsequently became the State of Arunachal Pradesh as part of China. These claims were not taken into account by Nehru who was willing to go along with the position adopted by Zhou that these were claims that were reflected on old maps and they would be rectified in due course. Pannikar as India’s envoy to China advised that he was in agreement with Premier Zhou’s views and it was in India’s interests to let this issue alone as the Chinese were not questioning India’s position.

How contradictory was Nehru’s position comes out his treatment of Tibet in 1947-1948 that reflected the understanding in India of Tibet being a “neighbouring country” with whom India had relationship inherited as a continuum of the relations between Tibet and British India; it was in keeping with these relations thatit invited Tibet to the Asian Relations Conference that was held in Delhi in March 1947. Obviously at this stage Tibet was treated as an independent state and was treated as such despite protests by Republican China.

The Treaty Rights that British India had acquired in Tibet were automatically passed on to India on August 1947;this was similar to what happened at the same time to India’s relations with Nepal, Bhutan and Sikkim that were inherited from British India. Why then did Nehru take a unilateral decision on Tibet when the PRC was formed and renewed its claim to Tibet that it undertook to enforce through the use of force?It was also completely contradictory the position that Nehru adopted in the case of Sikkim and Bhutan where he refused to countenance any claims that were put forward to those two states by the PRC.

It is a fact that in 1947, prior to 15 August when India secured its independence initially as a Dominion and subsequently adopting a Constitution that established India as an independent republic, Nehru treated Tibet as andefacto independent nation. It is of interest to focus on this aspect and to project what were the driving principles that made him change his mind, to the extent that he failed to support Tibet’s attempt to stand up to the PLA when it effectively occupied Tibet in violation of all its time honoured commitments to recognise Tibet as an Autonomous state that was not a part of China. In 1950 China while playing lip service to the commitment on autonomy colonised Tibet, treating Tibet against all its past commitments as a defacto province of China. On several occasions China had shown that it adopted a pragmatic stance on the issue of autonomy that it reversed in its own interests whenever it felt strong enough to ignore external pressures like the one’s that the British had employed on the subject of autonomy for Tibet.

Nehru perhaps driven by the twin desires of a bilateral relationship with China that would drive Asia back to being central to global power equations and policy formulation, and his feeling that the inherited rights in Tibet being the fruits of colonial policies adopted by British India should be disavowed and there should be no bargaining with China on the shoulders of such rights, only go to prove that the romantic in Nehru overshadowed the reality that was China’s intent to colonise Tibet.

The reality was that the Peoples Republic of China was intent on having its way with Tibet and certainly had no desire to recognise the borders that Tibet had with India particularly as Maoist China saw itself as the precursor of global domination as a Communist country that would ride to the top on the destruction of democratic and capitalist countries. It therefore was in China’s interests to keep India and Nehru in a pliant mood that would not question the PRC’s imperialist designs and actions against China. The irony was that the Foreign Policy establishment at the level of two of the first Secretary Generals had pressed Nehru that pressure should put on China to accept Tibet’s borders with India in keeping with the Shimla agreement of 1914. The only explanation of the contradictions that highlightedNehru’s blunders on Tibet can be derived from his emphasis on the Asia policy and his assumption that China had to be central to his ambitions for Asia. The only other assumption that would be even more dangerous in intent is that he permitted his socialist bent of mind that coincided with two of his closest advisors on China who were effectively communist sympathisers if not card carrying members, they being Pannikar and Krishna Menon. Whatever may be the reality history can not ignore the fact that Nehru was wrong and his Tibetan policy was gravely flawed and was responsible for the aggravations that India continues to remain at the receiving end of China’s actions that are against India’s national interests.

Conclusion

Nehru failed to keep the strategic aspects of India’s interests on Tibet, he did not take the warning that Vallabhbhai Patel provided to him in a letter that is an outstanding analysis of what India was faced with as a result of the Chinese invasion and forcible occupation of Tibet. His warning that this posed a security threat to India and the need to strengthen India’s defences and armed forces fell on deaf years. Nehru also failed to take into account the schemata that underlay British policy and the eventual adoption by it to force China’s hands in order to secure India’s borders with Tibet and to re-enforce Tibet as a buffer state that would have secure borders with China and would retain its defacto independence. Nehru permitted either his socialist leanings or his romantic conception of a China that along with India would restore Asia to its past position as a global power that would secure international peace and security, to overcome the need to secure India’s borders against occupied Tibet. It is ironical that while he let Tibet down by not standing up for its independence, refused in the process to support Tibet’s attempts to bring the UN in as a party that would secure Tibet from China’s occupation, or took up the issue of human rights violations by China in Tibet, in contradiction to these positions permitted support to the Khampha revolt and permitted the Dalai Lama to remain in India. Logically, given the view that he had refused to stand up to the rights in Tibet that he had unilaterally given up he should have refused to let the Dalai Lama enter India. Instead he was officially received and escorted to safety in India. All of this only goes to show that Nehru had sensitivity but was a bundle of contradictions who allowed his role as a global leader to overshadow his responsibilities to the security, the strategic interests and the defence of India against a aggressive and authoritarian China that only understood power but not logic or clever negotiating skills as a substitute for safeguarding a nations interests.


China continues to show its aggressive intent where India is concerned, it follows a clear containment policy to keep India focused on South Asia, it adopts a softer tone only to influence India from making any long term strategic commitments to American policies including the Asia-Pacific policies, it is at the same time keeping the economic relationship in the fore front as India is a potentially large market for its goods. India has to overcome the handicaps that the over hang of Nehruvian Tibetan policy blunders have left it to face. The strengthening of India’s defence and infrastructure development against an overpowering position that China has secured through its occupation of Tibet is an imperative that India can only ignore to its own peril. India’s nuclear weapons posture has to be China centric and this has to be developed both numerically and technologically to deter China and add to India’s security architecture. To this has to be added the threat that India would encourage if not directly take up China’s human rights violations in Tibet that is clearly reflected in the close to a hundred self-immolations by Tibetans.

By Former India Ambassador Preet Malik 


[1]Taken from the book ‘My China Years’ 1956-88 page 100 by K. Natwar Singh