Reported by AP, dozens of Tibetan protesters clashed with police outside of the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi. This skirmish marked the 66th anniversary of the Tibetans living in an exiles uprising against China that was ended by Chinese forces. Police blocked protesters from entering the embassy and detained some as well. Protesters shouted anti-China slogans, and in addition carried Tibetan flags and played the national anthem of Tibet and India. For a bit of historic context, there was a 1959 independence uprising of Tibetans for independence that was quelled by the Chinese army, forcing the leader of the movement Dalai Lama and his followers into exile in India, thus explaining the large Tibetan exile population. China has claimed Tibet to be part of its territory since 1950, but prior to 1950, Tibet was virtually independent, largely do to its geographic positioning within the Himalayan mountains.
There is a long history of Tibetan-Chinese relations, with its geographic positioning effecting its connectivity to China. Tibetan people don’t feel the same influence of Chinese economic positives as others may live in east coastal cities. Thus, the Chinese government controls the Tibetan people, dictating the societal norms, an important one being religion. Many Tibetans are Buddhist, their faiths strong and prominent within their culture. China nutritiously suppressed ethnic groups that live within Chinese borders religious beliefs because of the Communist ideals China holds within its society. Another ethnic group that is affected by China’s suppression of religion and own nations beliefs is the Uyghurs. I even have a personal connection to someone that I know that is an immigrant from China and is Uyghur ethnically and culturally, leaving China in order to escape ethnic and religious persecution for practicing Islam and to their family to find better economic situations. Thus, what is happening is India by Tibetan exiles is not a stand-alone event, but rather an accumulation of upset people opinions of the Chinese actions.
This incident is an example of a potential movement of Rebels or nationalist. These are groups of people that are an internal threat that may be a secessionist group seeking their own state, through self-determination, or autonomy, or may be trying to gain control of the government. In this care of the Tibetan protesters, this movement of nationalist, if became full fledged would most likely seek their own state through self-determination. The concern is not whether Tibetan people would be on-board of have an active effort of seeking self determination, but rather in what means or way that could occur just because of the geographic positioning of Tibetan people in the Himalayas and the manpower Tibetan people could produce to fight against China.