I told him briefly that it was folly to think of defeating China by armed force.. that India could not supply any arms, that Tibet had become so backward that change had become imperative.. If the Tibetans did not change themselves, the change would come from outside. There was no possibility of putting the clock back and reverting to the previous State of Tibet remaining there. Briefly my advice was that the Tibetans should keep united and claim full autonomy. They should not challenge China’s overall sovereignty. If they stood for autonomy and were united, they would be able to retain their way of life and at the same time they should try to introduce reforms.

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "I told him briefly that it was folly to think of defeating China by armed force.. that India could not supply any arms, that Tibet had become so backward that change had become imperative.. If the Tibetans did not change themselves, the change would come from outside. There was no possibility of putting the clock back and reverting to the previous State of Tibet remaining there. Briefly my advice was that the Tibetans should keep united and claim full autonomy. They should not challenge China’s overall sovereignty. If they stood for autonomy and were united, they would be able to retain their way of life and at the same time they should try to introduce reforms." in the context of "1958. Nehru to the former prime minister of Tibet . SWJN, XLI.671 SWJN: Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru, Second Series, Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund, New Delhi. and in Arun Shourie - Self-Deception _ India's China Policies_ Origins, Premises, Lessons-Harper Collins (2013) ch 8" to mean that wisdom is timeless.