A Brief Synopsis of India's China War. - 1962

Below are some salient points and facts behind the Sino-Indian border war of 1962. A good knowledge of the historical background  of the disputed boundaries is essential to the understanding of the dispute.

There are many cumulative factors that cause the Sino-Indian border war in the foothills of the Himalayas mountain ridges in 1962. There is the historical factor of British colonialism and imperialism in India expanding right into Chinese territories in Tibet, India's ambitious Forward Policy of building military outposts deep into Chinese territories far beyond the McMahon Line , a boundary illaterally drawn by the British but never recognized by China, US/UK Western political and psychological support as well as Soviet Union's behind the scene instigation and support that encouraged India to attack China. Also it was due to India's ambition of inheriting the mantle of British colonialism and imperialism at the expense of China and India's overconfidence and miscalculation that China would not fight back in the event of Indian attack on Chinese border troops , a false and fake feedback given to India by US/UK and Soviet Union that finally goaded India to attack China.

Throughout the 18th and 19th century British colonialism in India expanded maliciously towards the Chinese territories in Tibet. British expansionism incurred on Chinese territories in the Himalayas in both the north west region of Aksai Chin and the north east of southern Tibet in Tawang province. 

England refused to budge from occupied Chinese territories inspite of endless years of negotiations taking advantage of a weak and decadent Chinese government then.

British failure to settle its occupation of Chinese territories before it left India laid the foundation to the border war between India and China. Nehru's India was adament in refusing to talk and negotiate with China over the Chinese lands stolen from China by the British and now inherited by India as fait accompli Indian territories. Thus India wants to inherit the mantle of British colonialism and imperialism at the expense of China.

During the same period of 18th and 19th century another European imperial power Russia was expanding into Chinese territories both in Siberia in the north up to the Pacific coast where Vladivostok ( a former Chinese city ) is and in the south and south west in Xinjiang and Tibet in the Hindu Kush and Karakoram mountains.

Both England and Russia had the same compulsion to expansion. And wherever new territories were occupied they established military outposts to fortify and strengthen their illicit and illegal occupation and to overcome local resistance. And that was how China lost vast territories to England in the south and three million and five hundred thousand square miles of Chinese lands to Russia in the north as well as thousands of square miles of Chinese territories in the Illi region of Xinjiang.

                                             

                                                   PART      TWO

On 14th March, 1899, in Peking, England agreed that the whole Karakash Valley and all Aksai Chin territory belonged to China. In the Simla Convention in 1914 Britain confirmed that Aksai Chin belonged to China. However, in 1947 when India became independent it refused to recognize Aksai Chin as Chinese territory.

When British forces reached the Himalayas it found that the states of Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan were all under some sort of Chinese suzerainty. In 1914 England illegally took the Tawang district of southern Tibet from China in which China objected and protested strongly. In 1946 an Indian map of Nehru's book "Discovery of India" 1st edition showed the Tawang province as Chinese territory. However, Britain's failure to reach an agreement with China left unresolved boundary problems to independent India in 1947, when it was granted independence on 14th August, 1947.

China had always protested the stealing of Chinese territories in Aksai Chin and Tawang and considered the Simla Convention in 1914 invalid. In October 1962 , China officially asked India to return to China a large swathe of territory from Ladakh to Assam which include Sikkim and the Darjeeling district.

India not only refused to return Tawang to China but renamed the province as the North-East Frontier Agency. India then adopted a forward policy of the British in grabbing more Chinese lands beyond the illegal McMahon Line and building military outposts to strengthen its occupation. When China called for talks and negotiations to settle the boundary issues it was always rebuffed by India which stubbornly maintained that they were Indian territories and there was nothing to talk or negotiate. India's attitude was on the model of the arrogant Americans or the west and that is 'accept what I claim or else there is nothing to talk about.'

In September 1962, India arm forces pressed forward in the western sector of Aksai Chin and the eastern sector - the North East Frontier Agency ( NEFA ). Thus it was India's forward policy which led to war. India believed and the belief was strengthened and assured by UK,US and Soviet Union that China would not fight back if India pressed forward and attack Chinese troops at the border. This strong conviction that China would not retaliate in the face of Indian attack encouraged India to continue its attack  on China more aggressively from 6th October, 1962.

In the meantime China appealeed to India to talk and negotiate a peaceful settlement instead of resorting to fighting. However, India's attitude meant that settlement must be on India's terms.. When India continued to attack China finally had to retaliate and pushed back Indian forces. It was then that India shamefully claimed that  China had carried out an unprovoked attack on India.

India had committed aggression against China but was quick to reversely put the blame on China for attacking India.It was a terrible shameful lie. It  showed how dishonourable India can be.

India turned panicky with the disastrous defeat of its armies in the border war. Nehru appealed to America and England for military aid. India gave a list of the weaponeries it required from USA . On 29th October, 1962, Nehru accepted US military aid. This exposed India's false and fake non-alignment policy. India was looking at war with China as hours of greatness. From the 12th to 16th November,1962, India carried out large scale attack on Chinese forces in the north-east, NEFA. Again Indian forces were routed by the Chinese peasant armies. 

On the night of 20th November, 1962, Nehru appealed for US intervention to bomb Chinese forces and also requested for US to despatch an aircraft carrier to the Bay of Bengal.

                                                         PART     THREE

                     China declared unilateral ceasefire

On 20th November, 1962, China announced to the world of its unilateral ceasefire and withdrawal to 20KM behind the line of actual control which existed between China and India on 7th November, 1959  -  The McMahon Line which China had never recognized.

China's army had advanced into the territory south of the McMahon Line ,  "in order to  thoroughly rout the Indian reactionaries and to shatter their plan of altering the border status quo by armed force and to create conditions for a negotiated settlement. It was the first time in recorded history that a great power has not exploited military success by demanding something more."  ( Quote from Neville Maxwell ) . China could have marched easily into into New Delhi, India's capital.

China repatriated to India all 6,000 Indian prisoners together with all their  guns, mortars, artilleries, brand new American automatic rifles and a Russian helicopter in serviceable condition.

China called for talks and negotiations again but was constantly rebuffed by India despite appeal by some Afro-Asian nations viz Egypt,UAR and Sri Lanka. Instead India in 1963 conducted a joint Anglo-American air exercise with long range fighter aircraft flying in to operate from Indian Air Force bases. Nehru had in November, 1962 called for Anglo-American intervention in the Sino-Indian border war. It was a betrayal of the Afro-Asian non-aligned neutral spirit. Further India also called for Soviet Union's help to build up her defenses.

It was India's intransigence in refusing to talking peace through negotiations that the borders were therefore settled down into an armed truce and diplomatic relations between China and India were frozen in limbo. In 1969 a suggestion by Mrs Indira Ghandi to mend diplomatic relations with China was rejected by Congress.

Nevertheless, China's long standing offer to negotiate a boundary settlement on the basis of the status quo when India is ready to do so still stands. 

                                                          PART     FOUR

In September, 1971, Neville Maxwell's book on India's China War had aroused a hostile uproar in India. Led by politicians and parliamentarians the public demanded punitive action against the publisher and the writer, Blames for the defeat of the border war were hurled and levelled at each other between and among the different groups of politicians, parliamentarians, Indian Intelligence Bureau and the military. 

Subsequently the retired army general - General Thapar broke his silence and in an article in the Statesman of 9th January, 1971 blamed the civilian defense minister , the director of Indian Intelligence Bureau and the civilian government not only for interference in purely military matters on flimsy political grounds but also for provoking the border war, when the defense minister ordered the army to evict the Chinese from Thag La ridge and other border areas both in the west and the east despite General Thapar's misgivings regarding Chinese reactions and its consequences.

It was generally believed by Nehru , his cabinet  and his generals that China would not react strongly to India's forward policy and to India's attack on Chinese border troops. General Kaul was a warhawk who persuaded Nehru and the parliamentarians to strongly support the forward policy and eviction of Chinese troops from their outposts that led the Indian army to establish advance checkposts to outflank Chinese positions. Further India supported the CIA armed  Tibetan emigres to foment and organize a separatist armed rebellion in Tibet . In fact Mullit the director of India's Intelligence Bureau and Nehru as well as many Indian generals and parliamentarians believe that India's national security can only be preserved by either India's occupation of Tibet or by helping to establish an independent Tibet state subservient to India. This has become a permanent feature of India's foreign policy.

Foot note:       

This synopsis base on Neville Maxwell's book, " India's China War " is written to present the truths elicited from facts to refute the false and fake representations by some overseas - ASEAN Indian intellectuals who still hold strong social and emotional ties to India that they cannot overcome their Psychological pain of India's defeat in the Sino-Indian war of 1962. Therefore they pretentiously claimed innocense of India and blame China for the border war. Thus for years they persistently and consistantly talk, speak and write damaging articles to disparage and demonise China to give China a bad image. They are also quick to condemn China in any dispute between China and other countries viz US, Japan, Vietnam or the Philippines without any logical basis other than their chronic pathological hatred for China .

Hopefully this brief synopsis will set them in the right perspective of historical truth and not base on their irrational thinking arising out of their emotional ethnic ties to India.

Southernglory1

Wednesday, 11th July,2018