A COMPREHENSIVE AND INTERESTINGLY TOLD HISTORY OF THE INDO-CHINA BOUNDARY DISPUTE
The India–China border dispute predates Independence, going back a century and a half. As complex as the issue is, it pivots on two key questions: Who does Aksai Chin belong to? Will China accept the McMahon Line—which separates India’s northeastern front regions—as the international border between the two countries?
The dispute over Aksai Chin can be traced back to the military expeditions of General Zorawar Singh of the Sikh Empire into north Baltistan and Tibet in 1841–42 and the Treaty of Chushul of 1842. The McMahon Line, on the other hand, came into being after a long-drawn-out boundary conference in Simla in 1913–14. India and China have had a chequered past: the month-long military confrontation in 1962 and several instances of incursions, including the recent troop confrontation in May 2020, bear testimony to this. The fact that the Dalai Lama and his followers found refuge in India has only complicated equations further.
In Contested Lands, Maroof Raza dives deep into the history of this long-standing territorial dispute, going right to the root of the problem to understand why the two Asian neighbours have never managed to move beyond talks and towards a resolution. Clear-sighted, measured and rigorously researched, this is a necessary addition to the literature on India–China relations.
