'Experienced full religious freedom in India as vulnerable minority’: Tibetan Commissioner's dissent note on US report

While India must address issues related to religious freedom, I respectfully dissent on the views that India’s religious freedom conditions continued on a downward trend, the government allowed and encouraged mob violence against religious minorities, and some states are involved in “systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom.” India is an open society with a robust democratic and judiciary system.

India is a great civilization, and since ancient times she has been a country of multifaith, multilingual, and multicultural. I lived in India for over 30 years as a Tibetan refugee and mostly witnessed the best of India and sometimes worst due to intractable interreligious conflicts. Unfortunately, religious divides and power struggles not only led to the partition of India and Pakistan but often contribute to the egregious violations of religious freedom and tragedies. Despite these issues, India exists as a multifaith and secular country.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama praises India greatly for religious diversity and harmony and secular values such as respect and compassion and has committed himself to revive and promote them for global harmony among all faiths and nonfaiths.

I mostly grew up and lived in two Indian states, Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh. As a Tibetan refugee—the most vulnerable minority among all minorities there—experienced full religious freedom in India. Inside Tibet, communist China has systematically, egregiously, and continuously destroyed Tibetan religion, language, culture, and environment. However, Tibetan language, religion, and culture thrive in India due to the full support of India and Indian people. In many scholarly publications, I discussed it extensively and as a Tibetan American, I often visit India and observe abundant religious freedom and interreligious harmony there.

As I commented last year, overall, I believe religious harmony exists in India. Last year, in Budhupur, Bihar, a Muslim village donated land and money to build a Hindu temple for their Hindu families, and in a Punjab village, a Hindu temple donated land nearby, and Hindus and Sikhs helped build a mosque for Muslims of their community. Notably, in Hyderabad last year, the Hindu head priest CS Rangarajan carried a Dalit youth Aditya Parasri on his shoulders into the Chilkur Balaji Temple’s inner sanctum, and a huge crowd cheered. Relatedly, in Nathowal village near Ludhiana Hindu and Sikh communities helped repair an old mosque in the village, and Muslim and Hindu communities helped work at Sikh Gurudwara Temple.

People in this village reported to the Times of India that they celebrated together annual multifaith festivals such as Diwali, Dusshera, Rakhi, Eid, and Gurupurab. These stories speak for India’s multifaith civilization, religious freedom, and interreligious harmony. I strongly appeal to the Indian leadership and people of India to continuously respect religious freedom and strive to promote India as a vibrant country of and for the multifaith people.

Tenzin Dorjee (Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara, UCSB) is Associate Professor at the Department of Human Communication Studies, California State University, Fullerton (CSUF). His primary teaching and research interests are intergroup, intercultural, and intergenerational communication, identity issues, peacebuilding, and conflict resolution. At CSUF campus, he has received faculty recognition awards for outstanding achievements in teaching (2011), research (2013), and community service (2015).

He has authored and co-authored peer-reviewed articles and invited chapters on Tibetan culture, identity, nonviolence, and middle way approach to conflict resolution including Sino-Tibetan conflict, intercultural and intergroup communication competence, intergenerational communication context, and others. Based on his dissertation, he co-authored with Giles, H., and Baker, V. (2011): "Diasporic communication: Cultural deviance and accommodation among Tibetans in exiles in India," Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 32(4), 343-359. Most recently, he co-authored Communicating Across Cultures (second edition) with Stella Ting-Toomey (2019) and published by The Guilford Press, New York. He also guided students to present papers at annual regional, national, and international communication conferences and co-authored peer-reviewed journal articles with them.

Dr. Tenzin Dorjee was appointed to the Commission on December 8, 2016, by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). He was reappointed to the Commission by Leader Pelosi on May 10, 2018. On June 12, 2018, Dr. Dorjee was unanimously elected Chair of the Commission.