The Simla Convention was a bilateral treaty between British India and Tibet, so how could India expect to have the McMohan Line without recognizing Tibet as an occupied territory?
The recent provocative claim made by the Chinese ambassador that the Indian frontier state, Arunachal Pradesh, belongs to China was nothing new except that it was made publicly and made on the eve of the Chinese President Hu Jintao’s visit to India. You don’t have to be a political genius to figure out that it was not a loudmouthed ambassador making an unplanned impulsive political statement. He could not have made that statement without an approval from Beijing or more likely he made that statement with an instruction from Beijing. Remarkably the Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson refused to comment on the goading statement made by her country’s ambassador in India. Unfortunately many in Indian diplomatic circle meekly viewed it as Chinese government’s refusal to endorse the ambassador’s claim.
Through out the brief history of territorial dispute between India and China, India chose to be on the defensive side for all the wrong reasons. India failed to use the ‘Tibet card’ as a bargaining chip in the territorial negotiation with China. China knows it very well that India would not dare raise the issue of Tibet either on international plate form or in bilateral talks.
How many times India and China met in past three decades to settle the border dispute? So many times that I gave up to keep the number, yet no amicable solution was found till to date. The primary reason for the lack of any conclusive solution for this problem was due to the fact that both the parties were unwilling to discuss the history of the disputed territories sincerely, but eager to use the same history to make claim of their territories. Both the countries know well that there was no Indo-China border until the Chinese annexation of Tibet, the buffer state that separated the two disputing nations for centuries.
The Chinese claim over Arunachal Pradesh was based on the history of Tibet, not on Chinese history. There is validity to this claim if India regarded Tibet as an integral part of China. Historically Tibet owned the large territories of present day Arunachal Pradesh, especially the Tawang district. However, India on the other hand also has a historically attested reason to claim over Arunachal Prasesh. Ironically it is also based on Tibetan history.
In mid-19th century British tried to create a boundary on the North East Frontier of the British ruled India. There was not much problem drawing a line over the vast uninhabited and sparsely populated territories on map until they struck on an inhabited territory of Tawang, an important trading town. They discovered that Tawang belonged to Tibet.
With the demise of the Manchu dynasty in China in 1912, the Thirteenth Dalai lama drove out the Ambans, the Manchu emperor’s representatives in Tibet and their security forces out of Tibet and declared Tibet as an independent sovereign nation.
In 1914 British tried to mediate a negotiation between Tibet and China to settle the political status of Tibet and territorial dispute between Tibet and China. China declined to sign the treaty. With a failure to resolve Sino-Tibet dispute, British decided to settle the Indo-Tibet border directly with Tibet. On July 3rd 1914 the British foreign secretary Sir Henry McMohan and the Tibetan government representative Lonchen Shatra signed the Simla Convention. They accepted the McMohan Line, which accorded Tawang to British India, as an officially accepted boundary between the two nations. The actual map showing the McMohan Line as a boundary between Tibet and India was published by Survey of India in 1937. In 1954 India officially called the territories accorded to her side of the McMohan Line NEFA- North East Frontier Agency. To consolidate her claim over NEFA, in 1972 India gave it an Indian name, Arunachal Pradesh, which remained a Union Territory of the Central Government of India until 1987. In 1987 Arunachal Pradesh formally became an Indian state.
Reflecting on the history of this region any oxymoron can see the complexity of the issue as India wanted China to accept the McMohan Line, which She inherited from the British Raj’s Simla Convention signed with an Independent Tibet, but India refused to recognize Tibet as an occupied country. India cannot have both the way. India has to give Tibet, her partner in Simla Convention- a genesis of the McMohan Line, a sovereign political status at least historically in order to give any validation to her claim over Arunachal Pradesh.
In this diplomatic ping pong game played between India and China over the Himalayan border China seems to have the upper hand at present. In order to score points India needs to have a foreign policy paradigm shift. She had to move away from the failed Nehru-Menon foreign policy regarding her dealing with China. In early 1950s Nehru’s ill-conceived vision of creating Pan-Asia solidarity with the Communist China blinded him to see the ulterior motif hidden behind the diplomatic façade presented by Chinese premier Zhou Enlai. Over four decades had passed since Nehru was betrayed and the infamous slogan, “Hindi Chini Bai Bai’ was shattered into pieces, but India still carries on the same debacle policy designed by Krishna Menon. Nothing seems to have learnt from Nehru’s blunder. India’s perpetual denial of Tibet’s status in history had hurt India in the past and will continue to hurt India in securing her border with China. China on the other hand, has a good reason to carry on with the same mindset, because it worked for them. The Chinese ambassador’s claim of Arunchal Pradesh as Chinese territory on the eve of Hu Jintao’s visit is not a coincidence. It’s a message from Chinese government to announce what’s in Hu Jintao agenda now or in future.
India must be aggressive diplomatically with a fresh and more insightful foreign policy in dealing with China. The best card India can use to bargain with China is Tibet. Nothing perturbs China diplomatically more than Tibet and Tibet is not a dead issue yet. India is a host nation to Tibetan government in Exile and home to the Dalai Lama, accepted leader of the Tibetan people inside and outside Tibet. With India’s initiative more countries will come forward to join India to raise Tibet on the international plate form. India has everything to gain if the issue of Tibet is solved.
Tashi Phuntsok. ( Tashi Phunstok is a Tibetan currently residing in the United States of America. He is a high school science teacher.)
