Blessing or curse?

The extent to which China keeps tabs on the activities of the exiled Dalai Lama in India was made clear two years ago when the spiritual leader of Tibet visited Tawang, a small city in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh near the border to China.

China lodged a protest around the Dalai Lama's visit, since it lays claim to around 90,000 square kilometers (55,000 square miles) of the state. In response, India accused China of having occupied some 40,000 square kilometers of land in Kashmir, the conflict-ridden northern state.

Indian had expressly approved the Dalai Lama's trip to Tawang, saying it had no political background. In fact, the Dalai Lama recently handed over all his political functions to a new prime minister for the Tibetan government-in-exile.

But India walks a fine line, especially with china, with its backing of the Dalai Lama. And according to Tseten Chhoekyapa of the Tibet Bureau in Geneva, the official representative of the Dalai Lama in central and eastern Europe, maintaining good relations with one's neighbors is essential for India. And Delhi has a real interest in seeing a resolution of the Tibet issue, he said.

"If the Tibet problem could be peacefully solved, India could save a lot of money that is now being used for military purposes," he told Deutsche Welle. "Instead, that money could be invested in education or economic development."

Divided opinion

While many Indians are proud that India took in the Dalai Lama after China's invasion of Tibet, more and more of India's politicians and its intellectuals are saying that India cannot afford to jeopardize its relationship to China over the 76-year-old Buddhist.

Some argue that India, as the world's biggest democracy, has acted correctly in the eyes of the world by putting its support behind the spiritual leader. For them, the Dalai Lama's presence in the country is a blessing.

The Nobel Prize Winner provides a sort of security for India, they say, since he is courted by many world leaders and is a popular and beloved figure around the globe.

But others argue that India's problems with its great rival to the north stem precisely from its giving the exiled leader refuge. They feel that the Tibet issue is a domestic Chinese problem and should remain just that, without India getting involved in any way.

One vocal skeptic of the Dalai Lama's presence in India is Kunwar Natwar Singh, a former Indian foreign minister and renowned China expert. In his 2009 book "My China Diary" he argued that relations between India and Tibet were not especially good even before Chinese troops marched in, especially since Tibet had long been interested in land claimed by India.

He said it is a different story with the Chinese-Indian relations, which first deteriorated after the Dalai Lama fled to India with his followers. The low point was reached in 1962 when China and India went to war. It was only toward the end of the 1980s that tensions began to relax.

But others see things differently. Delhi-based Tibet expert Vijay Kranti points out that after China occupied Tibet, it claimed Tibet was a part of the People's Republic.

"That's exactly the same argument China makes around Arunachal Pradesh, which China has now begun calling Southern China," he said.

He would like to see India gain new self-confidence and stand up to its powerful neighbor.

"China can't use an illegal occupation of Tibet, which has been confirmed by the United Nations, as a basis for arguing that if Tibet belongs to China, so does Arunachal Pradesh," he said.

But the Indian government has been on the defensive, Kranti added, saying Delhi does not want to broach the subject, fearful of any new discussion about the sensitive subject of Kashmir.

Pakistan and China

Some in India also worry that the Dalai Lama issue could further complicate the country's very difficult relations with western neighbour Pakistan, which has long had friendly relations with Beijing. If India continues to openly support the Tibetan exile, they say, China and Pakistan's ties could grow even stronger.

Pakistan, like India, gained independence from Great Britain in 1947. The partition that followed and the bloody riots between Hindus and Muslims resulted in around a million deaths. In the decades since, the two nuclear powers have gone to war three times.

Therefore, India is interested in a weak Pakistan and not in a neighbor that could be greatly emboldened through the strong support of a regional giant like China.

"The former Tibet-Pakistan border is now a Pakistan-Chinese border," said analyst Kranti. "That means that China, though its infrastructure projects, has gained good access to the Arabian Sea."

In the Pakistani coastal city of Gwadar, China has invested in a massive deep-sea port where Chinese chips are now based. The Chinese navy uses the port as a base.

"India has up to now been stronger than Pakistan," said Kranti. "But now India's marine superiority on its western coast has suffered a great deal due to China's presence."

Recently, the Dalai Lama proclaimed that after a half century in Indian exile, he feels like a "son of India." However, whether the South Asian giant has the same kind of tenderness, or is starting to feel more resentful of its long-term guest, depends on who you talk to.

Author: Priya Esselborn/Vivek Kumar (jam)
Editor: Rob Mudge