75 years in exile: How Tibet’s government fights Chinese oppression from India

The Tibetan refugee community in India, led by the Dalai Lama and his Dharamsala-based government, for more than six decades has been calling out the human rights violations being committed by the PRC against Tibetans living in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR).

- ASHU MAAN

(BRIJ KHAN)

Exactly 75 years ago, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) crossed the Jinsha River on 7 October 1950 under the watch of Mao Zedong, President of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), to invade Tibet after months of fruitless negotiations and subsequently annex it.

This incident has changed the contours of South Asia's geopolitics in a big way.

Since this forceful annexation of Tibet by the PRC, the human rights situation in Tibet continues to deteriorate each year, with growing numbers of Tibetans unjustly arrested and imprisoned simply for expressing their identity through religion, culture, and language.

These freedoms are guaranteed under international human rights law and even within China’s own Constitution, yet they are systematically denied as part of a broader campaign to suppress and assimilate Tibetan identity. New policies and directives have been introduced that effectively criminalise the expression of this Tibetan identity, providing a legal facade to punish Tibetans for simply being who they are.

The Tibetan refugee community in India, led by the Dalai Lama and his Dharamsala-based exile government, also known as the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), for more than six decades has been calling out the human rights violations being committed by the PRC against the Tibetans living in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR).

The CTA engages international bodies, governments, and civil society groups to raise awareness of human rights abuses in Tibet. This includes testifying before the UN Human Rights Council and collaborating with human rights NGOs. It compiles and disseminates information on rights violations within Tibet, often relying on testimonies from new arrivals in the exile community. A CTA-affiliated body, the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD), reports on violations such as enforced disappearances, torture, and arbitrary detention.