Chinese Nationalism and the Fate of Tibet: Implications for India and Future Scenarios

Chinese nationalism primarily represents Han nationalism and ignores ethnic minority sub-nationalisms and identities in the larger cause of the state’s unity and integrity. The Chinese state calls for submerging of all minority identities within the predominant Han identity, for promoting national cohesion and nationalism, effectively precluding the possibility of the assertion of Tibetan nationalism and autonomy. Because of the suppression of Tibetans in China, a large number of them have fled and settled in India and elsewhere. The Tibetan movement for safeguarding their identity, culture and political space has grievously suffered as a result of Chinese nationalism and China’s Tibet policy. The fate of Tibetan nationalism is, to a large extent, tied to the dynamics of the Sino-Indian relations and the course of the internal Tibetan politics and that of its relationship with the community in exile in the post-Dalai Lama era.