By Probal Das Gupta– First Post, 4 February 2022
During the fiery summer of 2020, Indian troops outsmarted the Chinese PLA to secure tactical heights along the southern bank of Pangong Tso lake in eastern Ladakh, which triggered two outcomes. One, it revealed to the nation the presence and ability of Tibetan commandos in India’s special forces; and two, it left the adversary chastened.
The Chinese were beaten by Tibetans who owe their fidelity to the Dalai Lama — ousted and maligned for decades. For India that had been traditionally conservative on asymmetric warfare against China, a question arose: Where had the Special Frontier Force (SFF) — raised in the aftermath of the 1962 India-China war — been all these years? Did India miss a trick? The genesis of Tibetan resistance and our subsequent experiences with them helps us unravel a few uncomfortable truths.
How it started
In December 1961, employees at the airport building in Peterson Fields, a nondescript airport near Colorado Springs in the US, were perplexed by an unusual sight — a bunch of Tibetans on the tarmac. Unknown to the watchers, these Tibetans had reached Peterson Fields from Camp Hale in broad daylight instead of arriving later in a cover of evening darkness.
The sight of Tibetans at a faraway Colorado airfield during those years was bound to evoke curiosity. Within minutes, American soldiers swarmed into the building and warned them of dire consequences. The next day, the local papers splashed the story. Worried that the revelation could become a national headline, Secretary of Defence Robert McNamara intervened and buried the story. In an era when state communism was a red rag to the West, presidents Eisenhower and John Kennedy were actively involved in training and deploying Tibetans as a key resource to foil Mao Zedong’s consolidation over Tibet.