Ranbir Singh Pathania
Dogras were the first in the Indian history to take the Chinese bull by the horns. Acclaimed and adjudged as best ever general of mountain warfare, Zorawar Singh Kahluria, launched Trans-Himalayan campaigns starting on 15 April 1834 with an army of 5000 and within 8 years conquered Ladakh, Gilgit-Baltistan, Kailash Mansarovar and Western Tibet. Anyhow, unseen blizzards and unusually long supply lines coupled with unfair luck hung heavy on Dogra forces in Toyo. Dogras lost to a joint counter of Tibetan and Chinese forces. General Zorawar Singh was killed. A reinforcement of Dogra forces under Dogra prince, Jawihir Singh, reached and defeated the Tibetan army at Chushul. The Tibetan general was done to death in revenge.
Treaty of Chushul came into play in August 1842. It said that “old, established frontiers” between Ladakh and Tibet would be respected. And trade between Ladakh and Tibet will remain as usual.
Two lead points to take note of. One, Ladakh had not been part of India in case Dogras had not been in power in Jammu Kashmir. And secondly, gains of conquest of Ladakh & Treaty of Chushul were meekly allowed to go down the rat-hole by successive regimes in India.
Let us hope if practices and precedence of Dogra rulers while taking head-on the over indulgent Dragon, act as a lodestar.
India’s tectonic shift:-
While addressing the Combined Commanders’ Conference (CCC) in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, PM exhorts armed forces to “stay ready to deal with new and emerging threats”
And while commissioning INS Vikrant, he had been emphatic ‘Shanti aur Shakti Ek Doosre Ke Liye Zaroori hai. Aur hum dono ko le kar chal rahen hai’
These two assertions signify tectonic shift in India’s latest policy as well as standpoint.
Indian Foreign Minister, S. Jaishanker candidly calls for settling all Indo-China issues while speaking at India Today conclave, “Untill all outstanding issues between India & China are resolved, relations will remain fragile.”
What is the border issue with China: –
India and China have a 3,488km (2,100-mile)-long un-demarcated border divided into three segments. And this un-demarcated border is called as Line of Actual Control. The eastern sector comprises of the one flanking with Arunachal and Sikkim. The middle LAC pivots around Himachal and Uttarakhand. And western LAC is around Ladakh.
Dispute over Aksai Chin: –
India claims it as part of erstwhile Kashmir, while China claims it is part of Xinjiang. Till 1947, Maharaja administration was receiving revenue (Malia) from the only inhabited village, Mansar, of the area. Moreso, Johnson’s line shows Aksai Chin in Ladakh i.e. under India’s control. While McDonald Line places it under China’s control. India recognises Johnson Line while Chinese stick to McDonald Line.
In Pangong Tso, there are eight cliffs, we also call them as fingers. LAC coincides with F – 8 where practically position as on ground remains that India controls areas upto F – 4.
China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), sometimes referred to as the New Silk Road, was launched in 2013 by President Xi Jinping. In a decade, the project has expanded to Africa, Oceania, and Latin America, significantly broadening China’s economic and political influence. It pivots around almost 90 billion of infrastructural push in the disputed area of Aksai Chin and Gilgit Baltistan.
India is no more in a complacent mood. It is now out in the open against the Chinese ‘misadventure’.
How Gilgit and Baltistan are important and integral to India.
It is due to the Old Silk Route that we had access to Central Asia via Aksai Chin and Baltistan. We were 28 % of world economy. From Gilgit, Iran is only 1000 km by road. Gilgit to Moscow is 3500 km by road. From Gilgit the southern part of India, Chennai, is only 300 kms.
Britishers understood the importance of the economic and geo-strategic fulcrum. They ran a bus service from London to Mirpur in PoJK with a travel time of seven days. Out of ten tallest peaks in India eight lie in Gilgit Baltistan. The world famous K 2 Himalayas peak also lies here. An ambitious gas pipeline project from Kazakhstan under TAPI involving Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, India has been continuously been debunked by PAK and China.
China recently stayed off from G 20 meeting in Arunachal Pradesh. Rather it has named a part of Arunachal Pradesh as Southern Tibet. Standoffs on Galwan and Tawang are living examples of as to how relations between China and India have soured with the passage of time. India strived to be flexible, proactive and backroom management too. It has been playing diplomatic hard ball on economic, political and cultural fronts too.
Expansionism and aggression have been hallmarks of China, especially under the Communist dispensations.
India’s has gone ballistic regarding China-Pak economic corridor and India’s claim on Gilgit Baltistan.
Misreading Chinese threat: –
A miscalculated ceasefire by Indian forces in Jammu Kashmir 1948, pointedly at the instance of Sheikh Abdullah, and a resistance-less move-in of Chinese forces in Tibet then into Aksai Chin in December 1949 gave a major area on a platter to China as well as Pakistan.
Another pimple over the ulcer. On April 29, 1954, India and China signed the Panchsheel Agreement which amounted to virtual surrender by India of her traditional rights in Tibet. It also led to closing of Indian Consulates in Lhasa and Kashgar in Sinkiang. By signing this agreement not only India accepted and condoned China’s usurpation of a vast swathe of her territory in the Aksai China, rather acquiesced to the organised loot of her mineral resources in Aksai Chin by the Soviet Union and China.
Another faux pas. India signs Indus Waters Treaty on September 19, 1960. Not only a lion’s share of the waters of Indus Waters System went to Pakistan. India pushed under carpet, and ultimately acquiesced to the illegal usurpation and control of parts of Jammu and Kashmir by Pakistan.
Jawahar Lal Nehru when asked, said on the floor of Parliament, “Not a single blade of grass grows in Aksai Chin.”
AK Antony, UPA’s Defence Minister, was on record in Parliament, when he said “Chinese infrastructure is better as compared to India. Independent India had a policy to not to develop border infrastructure. Undeveloped border is safer than developed one.”
Chinese have been a perennial problem. Even Britishers were not able to tame them. They tried to demarcate the Indo-China border while inscribing Macmohan line at Shimla in 1914. Britain and Tibet agreed. But China wriggled out.
Nehru was also on record to say, “I am so fumed about Mao Zedong. He says something, commits other and then retracts”.
How Modi Sarkar shifts goal posts.
Firstly, it is on the economic front. Tik Tok, UC Browser, Share it, and other 599 apps have been banned. There is decline in imports. Same way FDI from China to India has also considerably dipped. Make in India is the ambitious slogan and torch-bearer of standpointsof Modi Sarkar.
Secondly, strengthening of border infrastructure and especially Darpukh Shayok Daulat Beg Oldie road is going on with full fling.
Thirdly, off late, India has shown assertiveness in South China sea. Let us be firm in admitting that after ‘The Great Cholas, India has shown its assertiveness hereto.
Fourthly, emergence of QUAD and US attributing India as a strategic defence partner means India is as good as a NATO ally. India has emerged out and has been playing the diplomatic, strategic hardball since SAARC Summit 2014. And now the opportunity to chair and host G20 is another shot in the arm.
Anyhow as said by PM a number of times ‘Janbhagidari”. We all need to be strive collectively to reduce our dependence on Chinese products. Make In India is the buzzword, target and collective mood of Bharat.
(The author is BJP Spokesperson)
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