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Moreover, for the sake of humanity and without prejudice all must condemn the atrocities being committed on innocent Tibetans by the rulers of the People's Republic of China.
All of us know the series of events in which six decades ago the Tibetans were deprived of their fundamental rights. In the name of its own security the Tibet region was occupied by forces from communist China. Many Tibetans had to flee from their motherland and take refuge in many parts of the world, including India.
The whole world knows how, step by step, the values of the Tibetan culture have been destroyed during the last six decades. Buddhists have been treated in a different manner from others under Chinese authority. The whole series of events is a shameful blot on China's history, upon which the present leadership of the People's Republic of China should reflect deeply.
Instead, they have now declared a "people's war" to crush the protests of Tibetans in Lhasa and other territories that have long been the homeland of the Tibetan peoples.
The leaders in Beijing must understand that under all circumstances, the rulers need the cooperation of the ruled. If this is not so, the authority of the ruling group cannot remain intact. Whether the rulers are foreigners or so-called natives, they cannot maintain their sovereignty on the strength of violence in the absence of cooperation from the native people.
The rulers in Beijing have never come forward to seek the cooperation of Tibetans in a proper manner; they have never overcome their own rigid need to control the people. Even the German dictator Adolph Hitler understood that this approach cannot endure, leading him to say in 1943: "Ruling the people (even) in the conquered regions, I might say of course is a psychological problem. One cannot rule by force alone."
The world situation is changing day by day. People around the world take notice of every event, big and small, that takes place in any part of the globe. The current protests in Tibet and the response of the Chinese authorities have attracted the attention of every right-thinking man or woman with access to the free media, and the vast majority of the people are sympathetic toward the Tibetans.
It is in the interest of the Beijing leaders to consider the demands of the Tibetans calmly, and accord a proper and peaceful solution to their problem. Without further delay they must consider the demand of the Tibetans for true autonomy over the Tibet region.
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(Dr. Ravindra Kumar is a renowned Gandhian scholar, Indologist and writer. He is the former vice chancellor of Meerut University in Meerut, India, and the author of "Religion and World Peace." ©Copyright Ravindra Kumar.)
