International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS)

The thesis explores how Tibetans in their Indian exile imagine democracy. My central argument is that, throughout the world, democracies are constructed and contested and thus a sole universal democracy cannot be petrified within one definition or moved into other contexts and territories without an act of translation. Democracy is therefore best studied as something culturally embedded that is appraised and undergoes change. Within any particular context, democracy can be described as having a life story where it has shifting meanings when it enters into a new phase of a process or into a new domain of a society, or when it passes hands at different geographical sites. Democracy is indeed culturally translated and constructed in multiple ways by Tibetans in exile. Crucial to our understanding of democracy and democratisation in the Tibetan context is the fact that it is perceived by exile-Tibetans as a gift handed to them by the Fourteenth Dalai Lama. It is an enchanted gift—a gift imbued with the genius of its donor. Such an enchanted gift simultaneously emancipates and restricts the recipients, as these imagine democracy differently and infuse dissimilar meanings into it. As a concept it is also in a constant process of being negotiated by the members of the Government-in-Exile and by the other Tibetans in the various associations and in the settlements. Democracy also constitutes a source of tension in the Tibetan diaspora when it is a balancing act of being modern politics and at the same time is required to be embedded in traditional culture; the leaders must seek to ensure a united Tibetan nation in exile that is securely connected to the past, while at the same time they have to deal with the complicated and sensitive process of translating and constructing democracy. In other words, democracy the Tibetan way—a product of 'the modern moment'—must always also be defined by them in relation to the past: what it cannot be when it wants to be modern and what it must retain in order to be Tibetan.