Happy To Acquiesce?

Nehru's approach to China was based on his concept of Asian solidarity for which he sacrificed India’s core interests

- AS Bhasin

LINES on a map separate not only the geographical and political jurisdiction of countries on either side, but are also symbols of their sovereignty. Unlike in the past, borders today are more precise and nations take them seriously. Well defined, mutually agreed borders are important for good relations among nations. They come into being as a result of agreement between the stakeholders by adjustment of rival claims, interests and ambitions at points where they adjoin. A simple understanding of it would have saved India all the humiliation that it had to suffer in 1962.

India’s borders, as bequeathed by the British either in the Northeast or in the west, were not scientifically marked. The McMahon Line in the Northeast resulting from the Simla Convention of 1914 was not recognised by China and was also not scientifically marked after surveys. The Western border between Ladakh and Aksai Chin was marked “undefined” in the Survey of India maps inherited in 1947. Even the first couple of reprints after Independence continued to show the boundary as undefined.

The British did not occupy the Tawang area, which the McMahon Line had put in India after signing the Simla Agreement and allowed it to remain under Tibetan occupation until India occupied it in April 1951 against Tibetan protests. India ignored the fact that not only the British, but India itself had conveyed to Tibet that the McMahon Line would be adjusted in its favour in the Tawang area. After India’s occupation, it was given the name North East Frontier Agency (NEFA), the present-day Arunachal Pradesh.