Since a long time, India has been fighting to keep Arunachal Pradesh from the hands of China. The sovereignty to claim NEFA (North East Frontier Agency) now called Arunachal Pradesh has been contested by China which led to the 1962 Sino Indian war. But let me take you through the history of India and China relations which later led to 1962 Sino Indian war. The cause of the war was the power over two widely separated border regions, Aksai Chin (western front – Johnson line) and Arunachal Pradesh (eastern front – McMahon line).
After the formation of People’s Republic Of China (PRC) in 1949, one of the major policies of the Indian government was to maintain cordial relations with China. When Chinese army tried to occupy Tibet, India sent a letter of protest proposing negotiations on the Tibet issues. China was more active than the newly formed Indian Republic in posting troops to the Aksai Chin (a part of the state of Jammu and Kashmir and region of Ladakh) border and extended a large number of posts by 1951. At that time, Indian military concentrated on seizing Pakistani troops from occupying Ladakh, hence it did not establish itself in Aksai Chin.
In 1960, Zhou Enlai, the first premier of the People’s Republic of China put forward a proposal that it would withdraw its claims from NEFA if India agreed to drop its claim to Aksai Chin. When former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru realized that China had built a road through Aksai Chin, he adopted the forward policy by establishing outposts to cut the supply of Chinese troops by creating outposts behind them. This forced the troops to return to China and increased the chances of conflict.
Another reason that incensed China to wage a war was when India granted political asylum to the Dalai Lama who fled to India after a failed attempt to regain sovereignty from Chinese rule and maintained his position over the Gelug Buddhists. This led Chinese army to occupy most parts of Arunachal Pradesh before withdrawing north of McMahon line which is now called Line of Actual Control. However, later in 1972, China gave up the claim of Arunachal Pradesh and the region was incorporated as an Indian state in 1987.
Recently, when India allowed the Dalai Lama to visit Tawang, Beijing reacted by threatening India to uncertain terms. China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson said India’s decision to allow Dalai Lama to travel to Tawang will cause serious damage to the peace between India and China. In April, China asserted that it was its lawful right to standardize the names for 6 places in Arunachal Pradesh and thus released names in Mandarin Chinese. Chinese Foreign Ministry told a daily that it was a legal move based on our lawful right.
China has already asserted its sovereignty by renaming the places in Arunachal Pradesh but only time will tell if India will be able to retain its State from hands of China.
