Tibetan Nationalism and Cultural Homogenisation in Exile: An Interpretation of Institutions and the Public Sphere

Abstract

The 20th century was the century of refugees. Several wars and territorial aggrandisement policies of nascent nation–states were responsible for the exodus of persecuted people across the world. Tibet, an isolated Himalayan nation, lost its freedom and thousands of Tibetans along with their leader, the 14th Dalai Lama, fled Tibet and took refuge in India after a long walk in the month of March 1959. The exodus has been an example not only of forced de-territorialisation of a people but also of their government. When the traditional Tibetan polity consisting of diverse cultural and regional elements came in contact with the modern democratic political institutions of the host nation–state, attempts are being made to consolidate their diverse identities through homogenising nationalistic programmes. Such attempts are fraught with multiple responses in the institutions and the public sphere among the Tibetan refugees which the article attempts to interpret.