Entangled in Regional Geopolitics - Tibetans in the Special Frontier Force of India

Abstract

The Special Frontier Force (S.F.F.) was raised by the Intelligence Bureau of India in the immediate aftermath of the Indo China war of 1962. Initially composed of Tibetan youths, it was known as the Establishment 22. Records indicate that it was raised by India in coordination with US intelligence Agency, the C.I.A. and with full endorsement of Washington. The force was trained by C.I.A., among other things to collect intelligence from across India’s China border with the help of electronic devices. The C.I.A. patronage was gradually withdrawn after 1964. In India, the force was commissioned to action in Chittagong Hill tracts in 1971, on the eve of Indo Pakistan War over Bangladesh issue. Later they took part in Operation Bluestar in Punjab and fought in the war of Kargil in 1999. Their activities and operations had so far been kept under total secret. Recently they were employed by the Government of India in the border faceoff with China in Ladakh in August 2020. The death of Nyima Tenzin of S.S.F. turned the spotlight on them and their sacrifice was highlighted. The importance of the S.F.F. in India’s security set up has to be understood in the context of the regional geopolitics and India’s Tibet policy. The force was raised in the era of Cold war when the C.I.A. was helping the Tibetan resistant warriors, the Chushi Gandruk, fighting from Mustang in Nepal. India, too was ready to help them even if covertly, to get back Tibet’s political status. Raising of the force gave not only a job opportunity to the Tibetan refugee youths but served their nationalist aspirations and suited India’s need of a trained mountain force post 1962 to combat China in the Himalayan region. But following the withdrawal of the C.I.A., Sino US rapprochement in the 1970s and the subsequent end of the Cold War, the priorities changed in the US and India’s policy towards China also went through several phases. The recent deterioration of relations with China has once again brought Tibetan issue to the limelight. India’s recognition of the S.F.F. actions in the war indicates how India, in order to put pressure on China is giving space to the Tibetan CTA (The Government in Exile, in India) and the Tibetans in S.F.F. The Tibetans have not been able to achieve independence but they are now being used in the political rivalry of the two regional powers.