Mansoor Malik
allammansoor21@gmail.com
India shares second longest border with China after Bangladesh . India’s border with China is 3917 km , which is about 26 per cent of the total land border of the country This boundary is the product of Manchu policy . Chinese Republican policy , and the British policy . The Sino-Indian border may be divided into three sectors: the Western sector, the Middle sector, and the Eastern sector. Indian boundary with China in the western sector is about 2152 km long. It is between Jammu and Kashmir and the Xinjiang (Sinkiang) Province of China. In this sector china claims the Aksai chin district, changmo valley, pangong Tso (lake) And spannggar Tso (lake) of Ladakh ,as well as a strip pf about 5000 sq km of eastern Ladakh. The middle sector boundary between India and China is about 625 km long which runs along the watershed from Ladakh to Nepal .China lay claim of chumbi valley and Toe point in p and 2000sq km inside India in this sector. The boundary of India with China in the Eastern Sector is 1140 km long which runs from the eastern limit of Bhutan to the point near the Talu Pass at the tri-junction of India, Myanmar and Tibet (China). This line is called the McMahon Line after Henry McMahon, a British representative, who signed the Shimla Convention of 1914.China claims 9000 so km of India ,that is almost whole Arunachal Pradesh in this sector .
The boundary remained peaceful till India achieved Independence in 1947 , and the Communist takeover of China on October 1 , 1949 . Since it was not possible to demarcate the boundary on the ground . The boundary was , however , demarcated on the map due to rugged terrain and topographical barriers. Peoples Republic of China never raised any “doubts or dispute regarding her borders with India, but continued the cartographic aggression against India. A map published in 1954 showed Indian Ladakh as part of China. In July 1958, these inflated maps of China were published in “China Pictorial” as also in the “Soviet Weekly, which included Four divisions of Arunachal Pradesh, Some areas in the North of the state of Uttar Pradesh and Large areas in the Eastern Ladakh (which is a part of and Kashmir of India).
In 1954. India formally recognised the Chinese Sovereignty over Tibet and The geo – strategic value of the entire Himalayan front was drastically changed .The buffer zone of Tibet disappeared and sharp boundary between India and China was established .The Sino – Indian border is a Line of Actual Control ( LAC ) .In 1959 Dalia-lama escaped from China with 13000 refugees , granting of assylum to Dalai Lama by India definitely marked a distinct and indeed an important watershed i.e., beginning of strained phase in their relationship, in addition to the skirmishes on borders. In the same year china recognized McMahan line as illegal and unacceptable On 20th September, 1962 China forces crossed McMahon Line in the North Eastern Frontier Agency (NEFA). On 20th October, 1962 China launched a massive attack along border from NEFA to Ladakh. Consequently on 21st November China captured Bomdila in NEFA and declared unilateral ceasefire, and withdrew 20 km behind Line of Actual Control (LAC). India was militarily ill-prepared in Ladakh and NEFA(Present Arunachal Pradesh), while China was much better placed. In the western sector from 1962-2009 China captures 54,000 sq. km of India territory of which 38000 sq. km lies in Ladakh area alone. In the Eastern sector china occupied thangla Ridge, ,Tse Dong ,Twang,Bomdila,Walomg,Longju,Sela outposts in Arunachal Pradesh. In 2014 china issued a map showing Arunachal Pradesh as a part of southern Tibet which Beijing claims its own
