Abstract
In the first decade of the twentieth century, Tibetan intellectuals introduced for the first time the neologism dmangs gtso to translate “democracy.” Literally meaning “rule by commoners/multitude,” this term was key to a new class of mobile and modernizing Tibetans who sought to introduce the new gospel of modernity and democracy circulating widely outside the political landscape of Tibet. The liberatory promises of dmangs gtso enchanted many Tibetan youths. Their encounters with the ideas and institutions of democracy developed in many young Tibetans what Benedict Anderson calls “incurable double vision.” They could “no longer matter-of-factly experience” their world but inevitably “see them simultaneously close up and from afar.” The socio-economic and political system of their homeland, Tibet, was inevitably compared to the outside world and measured against the unyielding yardstick of the ideals of democracy. But what did democracy mean to these disparate groups of people? These early groups of Tibetans inhabited different political landscapes and, as a result, disparate worlds of thoughts. What were the overlapping and divergent ways in which they understood the meaning of democracy? My paper traces the different phases and places—in the Republic of China, British India, Mao’s China, and Nehruvian India—where Tibetans encountered the idea of democracy and highlight how those historical spaces shaped their perception of it.
Presenters
Ugyan ChoedupPostdoctoral Fellow, History, Pennsylvania State University, Pennsylvania, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2024 Special Focus—Traveling Concepts: The Transfer and Translation of Ideas in the Humanities
KEYWORDS
TIBET, DEMOCRACY, MODERNITY, AND DIASPORA
