This is the story of an Indian hero; a Political Officer who was stationed at a particularly place at a particular time in Indian history. Due to his speedy and specific actions, he was able to rescue and bring to safety in India the leader of the Tibetan people; the Dalai Lama.
The Place
In 1959, the remote and primitive north east part of India (abutting Tibet, Bhutan and China) was known as the North East Frontier Agency. This area was split into six divisions. The westernmost division was called Kameng, and its headquarters was Bomdila.
The area had been neglected so as in all its sensitive border zones, India placed a crack force of officers in charge of various regions. These officers were drawn from the army, the police and the forest service. They had a lot to contend with.
Kameng, where Har Mander Singh was in charge, had little running water and no electricity at that time. In Bomdila, he had rudimentary water pipes made of bamboo constructed to bring cold water to houses, which had to be heated up for bathing.
His territory consisted mainly of tribal people, chiefly honest, simple Buddhists; the Monpas. This alpine mountainous region can rise to heights of around 15,000 feet and higher; it is fraught with hazards such as landslides and earthquakes. This is the youngest part of the Himalayas and is still shifting, even today.
The Action
In March 1959 the Chinese overran Tibet and launched an attack on its capital, Lhasa, where the young Dalai Lama lived. He was the one the Tibetan people referred to as their precious jewel; their god-king. As the People’s Liberation Army of China began to shell the palace where the Dalai Lama stayed, his cabinet and advisers told him that he needed to leave immediately if he was to survive.
The Tibetan leadership asked India to grant asylum to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, his family and his cabinet. The request came to the then Indian Prime Minister, Nehru, who passed an instruction to the north east. His instruction, he knew, had to reach Har Mander Singh.
At that time wireless communication was not only dismal, given the dramatic terrain, it also had to pass through various staging posts before it could get to Bomdila.
The most important of these staging posts was Shillong. But by the time Singh received any instructions, it was days late and often incomplete.
Once Singh had been informed that a “Dignitary” was likely to enter his territory, Har Mander Singh contacted his assistants across Kameng to move forwards in preparation. He also deployed the main uniformed personnel existing at that time there; the Assam Rifles. There were not too many of them but he asked them to move towards the border in order to protect the Dalai Lama should he arrive in Kameng.
Then Singh worked out which route the Dalai Lama was most likely to take if he was to enter India. He could either come through Bhutan, or a point further east, or the border near Lumla. Singh used local intelligence and acted entirely on his own initiative. The last route turned out to be the right one.
Singh asked the heads of each village along the way to the Indian border to place someone in charge of organising accommodation for the Dalai Lama and his party, to see to first aid and injury, food, and religious ceremony.
The route to the border would take seven days normally but time was short so Singh figured out that a relay of ponies would probably work best. Ponies could only travel a certain distance, so they would be changed every 12 kilometres. Singh, himself did not sleep for three days as he tried to make the journey in as short a time as possible.
“God placed me in this particular place at this time,” he told us, “So I simply did my best to fulfil my duty. I was not scared and handling kings was not a new thing for me.”
The Meeting
Har Mander Singh met with the Dalai Lama’s mother and youngest brother first as they formed an advance party. He assured them of India’s protection from now on. The place was Lumla, not too far from the Indo-Tibetan border. Then the Dalai Lama arrived with his tutors and cabinet members. The Dalai Lama was weak from chronic dysentery and the trauma of the escape. Nonetheless, Singh recalls, “His Holiness was very tired but he was in very good shape and he was very happy that he has entered safe in Indian territory.”
For his noble work, Singh was awarded a Padma Shri the following year, 1960.
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God placed me in this particular place at this time
