India's Arunachal speaks in Hindi: We're Indian, not Chinese

The memory of the 1962 Chinese invasion of India's eastern state Arunachal Pradesh dies hard; and well it should. A recent visit of Chinese diplomats to Delhi found them reiterating their claim to the culturally-Tibetan state ("Arunachal Pradesh is wholly a part of China"), and the Indian state's Chief Minister was just last month denied a Chinese visa on the grounds that, according to China, he was "already a Chinese citizen and did not need a visa."

Siren predicts that China will eventually invade and claim all the culturally Tibetan" areas of the region - Bhutan, Nepal especially Mustang region (which is Tibetan ethnically), and probably last but not least, India's Arunachal. China already occupies and claims Aksai Chin, a small part of Kashmir, as their own, and in fact have troops in northern Bhutan (little-known fact). Probably, India will eventually find itelf roped into a war defending Bhutan from the Chinese incursion.

The ethnic Tibetan Buddhist of Arunachal are not having it. With Tibetan independence largely a foregone dream to many, natives of Arunachal (birthplace of the Sixth Dalai Lama) resolutely stake their claim as a proud, if diverse, part of India.

Sitting in the verandah of his mist-hidden wooden quarters after morning prayers, Sangay Jampu, secretary of the Tawang monastery, remarks, "There is no taker for China's call for the return of Tawang to the so-call Motherland." The famed 400-year-old shrine known as Galden Namgyal Lhatse Gonpha wields tremendous influence on the lives of the people of Tawang.

"Considering Chinese atrocities in Tibet, we can never associate ourselves with them. We belong to India that respects religious and individual rights," the 35-year-old monk adds. "What worries us is the absence of quick reactions from New Delhi to Beijing's claims," adds additional district commissioner Lobsang Phunchu.