POLAR Valley clash—have also strengthened Indian border regimes. Added to these geopolitical complexities, most Tibetans arriving since the 1990s haven’t been able to secure an RC, entrenching their precarity. This, coupled with the allure of better prospects and citizenship in the West, is driving migration from India. Consequently, the diminishing population in India has engendered fears about the future of the community among those who remain in India. Dwelling on these dynamics and their impacts, Wagden tells me the only way to overcome this erosion is if the CTA and India collaborate to make Indian citizenship more accessible. Wagden works for Tibet Watch, a human rights watchdog monitoring the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) policies in Tibet. Despite having lived in India for over twenty-five years, he remains ineligible for Indian citizenship under the current law, having fled to India as a youth. It is his dedication to preserving a Tibetan identity and a Tibetan national future that prompt his endorsement of acquiring Indian citizenship: The CTA discourages Tibetans to get the Indian passport. It is fine if their plan would work. But it doesn’t because Tibetans migrate abroad. They don’t see a future in India, because they do not have any legal status. If today my RC expires and I go to renew it, and if they were to say we won’t do it, then what am I going to do? Legally, I have no guarantee. That’s why Tibetans move abroad. If Tibetans get an Indian passport, at least those living in India, be they second generation, third generation, they won’t lose their identity. But someone who settles in the West, maybe in the first generation is fine, but second and third generation? They will only remember that their grandfather was Tibetan. There won’t be a community, they will be scattered everywhere. Then what will happen after twenty years, after fifty years? So at least if they get a legal status in India, they will not migrate. The struggle will remain here, and the Tibetan people will remain here. Otherwise, when the Dalai Lama dies, Tibetans will move abroad and then what will happen to all these institutions? Wagden centers the pragmatic value of getting citizenship in India motivated by his commitment to the Tibetan cause. Unlike him, Tenzin Tsundue, his friend, and among the best-known Tibetan activists in exile, rejects Indian citizenship. Tsundue was born in India before 1987. He received his education at a Tibetan Children’s Village and his higher education at Indian universities. His Hindi flows gently, clear, and crisp. His Tibetan is fast, unhalting, poetic. His house is known as Rangzen Ashram—a hybrid term coupling the Tibetan word for independence (rang btsan) and the Hindi word for a spiritual retreat (ashram). It teems with Tibetan activists, journalists, students, and intellectuals. On its walls are images of the Dalai Lama and Gandhi, covered in offerings of white scarves (kha btags). Around these, the walls present a palimpsest of the Tibetan movement, adorned with countless photos, posters, and writings. They serve both as memorials to those martyred and imprisoned in pursuit of freedom, and as testaments to the ongoing struggle. Tsundue, a committed political ascetic, leads a frugal life and travels across India campaigning for Tibet. He is also a poet. But unlike his teachers—Indian poets Dom Moraes and Adil Jussawala—Tsundue always writes about exile, loss, and longing. He was born in a roadside camp to refugees employed in constructing Himalayan roads. He longs to return to a home he has seen once—when he boldly crossed into Tibet and was imprisoned for it. He was released to Indian officials on account of his RC. In that border crossing, a stateless Tsundue refused the constraints of border and citizenship regimes in staking a claim to his nation, even at the cost of imprisonment. Tsundue rejects Indian citizenship. He’d rather remain stateless than take up legal status. A vociferous independence advocate, his refusal is overt and outright: “What if we were all to take up Indian citizenship? How would we fight for Tibet?” He advocates for this when he visits Tibetan settlements in India. Wagden and Tsundue’s positions are repeated by Tibetans who choose to take up Indian citizenship and those who reject it. While Tibetan public forums were caught in this debate, it did not seem to greatly affect relationships internal to the community (Kumar, 2017; Younten, 2013). Lhagyari has won multiple elections and is among the youngest serving members of the exile parliament. Tsundue promoted her candidacy, and she is an ardent supporter of his campaigns. Both took different stances toward legal status, but neither doubted the other’s commitment to the Tibetan cause or their identification as Tibetan nationals. 15552934, 2024, 2, Downloaded from https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/plar.12580 by Test, Wiley Online Library on [07/03/2025]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License 184