[Buddha-l] P. Mishra on Tibetan uprising

[jkirk]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/mar/22/tibet.china1


At war with the utopia of modernity
Tibetans' rage is directed not at communist rule, but the consumerist threat
to their traditions and sacred lands

Pankaj Mishra The Guardian, Saturday March 22 2008 

Last week many western commentators scrambling to interpret the protests in
Lhasa found that they did not need to work especially hard. Surely the
Tibetans are the latest of many brave peoples to rebel against communist
totalitarianism? The rhetorical templates of the cold war are still close at
hand, shaping western discussions of Islam or Asia. Dusting off the hoary
oppositions between the free and unfree worlds, the Wall Street Journal
declared that religious freedom was the main issue. "On the streets of
Lhasa, China has again had a vivid demonstration of the power of conscience
to move people to action against a soulless, and brittle, state."

This is stirring stuff. Never mind that the rioters in Lhasa were attacking
Han Chinese immigrants rather than the Chinese state, or that the Chinese
authorities have been relatively restrained so far, one cautious step behind
middle-class public opinion - which I sensed in China last week to be
overwhelmingly against the Tibetan ethnic minority. [etc]



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