1962: The War That Wasn't

by Shiv Kunal Verma

THE 1940S (THE TIBETANS COME CALLING) Far more dramatic events then took centre stage. The thirteenth Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso, died on 17 December 1933 and the long process to find and anoint a successor began. This period coincided with the outbreak of World War II and, suddenly, in the geopolitical scenario, China found itself on the side of Great Britain and the United States of America. The Americans, far removed from the ground realities of Sino-Tibetan relations, began to prod the British at the behest of Chiang Kai-shek to recognize Chinese suzerainty over Tibet. Unable to stand up to US pressure, in the Eden Memorandum of August 1943, the British gave in but threw in a face-saving caveat—that Tibet was to be regarded as ‘autonomous’. What the Chinese understood of that word, the world will probably never know.