Critical Comment On Tibetan Youth

Youth - a seed of nation, energy, life, change, spirit and what not! List can go on…

When we say of Tibetan youth or Tibetan in any case, it is obvious that we refer only to Tibetans in exile. However we represent whole Tibetan (Tibetans inside Tibet and Tibetans outside Tibet), the fact remains unchanged that we don’t know exactly what our brothers and sisters in Tibet feel about the whole issue of the Tibetan struggle and conditions within Tibet. As long as they are under strict Chinese rule, we will never know their true opinions, until and unless Chinese government gives freedom of expression and access to information in Tibet, many ideas and facts will remain unknown. The most important part is that many older generations in Tibet who knows well about Tibet’s culture and history are getting disappeared and youngsters in Tibet are ignorant of many facts of their own motherland. If such is the case or situation, then how can we ever be represented as one?

When we look at number of Tibetan youngsters all over the world, there is a rise in professional field and number of youngsters studying; working in great institutions has been huge compared to few years back. That is something which we can feel proud of! Yet that pulls us apart as well. How? When everyone is driven by a need to place oneself in a secure position in globalized market, fighting for our nation’s freedom often becomes a secondary preoccupation for many. Well, putting one’s life at foremost importance is not wrong, in fact until and unless one is economically independent, idea of freedom and rights will remain as just ideas!

Our case is critical, we have very less population which has scattered all over the world and they are losing their identity (Tibetaness) in thin air if we don’t act within time. Another reason is that we have only one eminent and effective leader without whom there is almost no rigid movement for the struggle of our freedom. When we look at histories of other countries and their fight for freedom, we can see that they had a line of leaders each with different initiation, not just one or two persons to look up and wait for them to lead.

When it comes to do something for Tibet and its cause, we are lethargic. Slogans and posters, the only way we show our feeling.  We care to shout and protest only when the shouting days comes esp. 10^th of March.

That is us, we the youth! When we don’t experience the sense of alienation, lost of identity and feeling of isolation in others land, the urge to get back to one’s own land becomes hard to be felt? Moreover those feeling are not given chances because we are comfortably accepted and privileged in India where we live as if we have always been a part of them. Since a large majority of Tibetan came to India when they are really young, many more had been born in India and never seen Tibet at all. Therefore the concept of our motherland is kind of abstract for a large majority, especially to youngsters.

Majority of youngsters haven’t seen Tibet and have never felt the warmth of their motherland Tibet, the land of snow. That makes many of us lack the feeling of nostalgia which makes us long for our homeland.

Another weakness is the obscurity prevailed among today’s youngsters or anyone in that matter. Since we are living in the globalised world where imperialism seems legitimized everywhere, fight for freedom appears to be archaic. Many still seems to uphold the superficial notion of freedom. Therefore nothing will be achieved by waiting for foreign help. Their idea of freedom and fight will not fit for us. If we really analyze it’s we who has to unite together and fight for our nation’s freedom. Now it’s the time to stand up, gather courage, hope and most of all love for our motherland and fight the battle. Remember your motherland. Think about the current situation in Tibet and Tibetans inside Tibet who are doing the best they can to preserve the culture and tradition and to unite us. We may lose the war but we will the battle.

In nutshell, we ought to question and have a rigid answer for freedom from what and how, in depth question ought to take place amongst us all. The freedom struggle has to have a coherent ideology and confusion with obscure stands will hinder the whole process of movement if there is any!

No matter, how many excuses we try to cover our inactive responses for our cause, in a way we ought to remember that until and unless the fight for our land becomes our only priority, a union of Tibet and its people will remain our distant dream. 

Tenzin Samten

II MA English