Individual Paper
8. Negotiating Margins: Representations, Resistances, Agencies
Issued from 1925 to 1963 in the Indian city of Kalimpong by Tharchin Babu (1890–1976), The Tibet Mirror has gained its fame as one of the very few early Tibetan-language periodicals. Building on George Dreyfus' claim that Tibetans did not have a full-fledged nationalism before 1950 and the development of modern Tibetan nationalism received a tangible boost only after the official establishment of the PRC, this paper argues that The Tibet Mirror, being the first Tibetan-language media mouthpiece of Tibetan nationalism, served as an important instrument for shaping the pro-Tibetan nationalist ideology which was later adopted by the Central Tibetan Administration and further promoted among Tibetan exiles. The editor of The Tibet Mirror was well aware of the importance of support for the Tibetan cause from the international community. Therefore, in the 1950s and 1960s, in addition to his own thoughts and opinions of anonymous “learned” experts, he regularly published news about various “friends” of Tibet, i.e., foreign individuals who expressed their support for the independence of Tibet or entire countries that provided help to the people of Tibet either in word or deed. Tharchin also instructed his Tibetan-speaking readership how the Tibet Question was to be presented to the world, which facts and historical parallels were to be used for arguing for Tibetan independence, and where the support for the Tibet Question was to be sought from. This paper will discuss Tharchin's choice of "friends," historical facts, tropes, and imagery, and their present-day reflections in the Tibetan exile community.
Natalia Mikhailova
University Laval, Canada