Question

Evaluate the role played by India in helping the Tibetan refugees.

Answer 1

India tried to get China to recognize Tibet’s right to be independent after China took over in 1950 by helping the Tibetan refugees in the following ways:

1. Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet, told Pandit Nehru, who was Prime Minister of India at the time, that things were getting worse in Tibet. But China only told India that Tibet would have more freedom than other parts of China.
2. The Dalai Lama and many other Tibetan refugees who crossed the border into India were given shelter in 1959. Since then, they have lived in India, mostly in Delhi and Dharamsala in the state of Himachal Pradesh.
3. In India in the 1940s and 1950s, many political leaders and parties, such as the Socialist Party and the Jana Sangha, fought for Tibet’s freedom.