One wonders if they are aware of the exact nature of the operation they have chosen to subsidise. On my arrival in July, I took the situation at its face-value; Dharamsala Nursery was a refuge for children whose parents were unable to care for them and who would probably die of neglect if they couldn’t come here. Undoubtedly this is partly true. Some of these children could not survive outside a camp, and it must be admitted that when the Nursery was opened in 1960 the need for such a centre was urgent. But now things are changing; parents are obtaining employment and finding their bearings – yet more and more children have been coming to a camp where, until very recently, ‘conditions were worse than in any European refugee camp immediately after World War II’, to quote the comment of an experienced observer. After living here for some time a strange element in the atmosphere seeps into one’s consciousness and gradually one begins to suspect that philanthropy is not the sole raison d’être of the Dharamsala Tibetan Refugee Nursery.
