Indranil Banerjie | The Dalai Lama's Final Call: China Faces Tibet Challenge

The People's Republic of China, forged in the crucible of war and in the aftermath of Mao Zedong's Long March, emerged in 1949 as a powerful military state bent upon establishing its authority over all territory it considered its own. The irridentist agenda of China's new rulers led to the invasion of sparsely populated Tibet by battle-hardened Chinese troops in 1950. Ruled by an ancient theological order of Buddhist monks, Tibet had no army worth its name and was quickly overrun. China's Communist commissars initially assured Tibetans that their autonomy would be honoured, but soon reneged on their commitment, ultimately…