The Sino-India Boundary issue continues ....

Nevertheless, among the possible areas of negotiation for the formulation of fresh ‘give-and-take’ formulas are, as before: (1) Aksai China and Arunachal Pradesh trade-off in broad terms.

(2) Division of Aksai Chin into a northern sector which is needed by the Chinese, and through which the Chinese road connecting Sinkiang and western Tibet runs, and a southern sector. The division of Aksai Chin along the Lokzhung Range, as offered to China by the British in 1899 (the Macartney-MacDonald Line), would be the most suitable divide as it is geographically definable and realistic, and reasonably takes care of thelegitimate security concerns of both countries.

(3) De-militarisation and easy pilgrim access for Mt. Kailash-Mansorawar in the central sector of the Indo-Tibet border, and for Tawang in the eastern sector (4) De￾militarisation of the Chumbi Valley in Tibet and of northern Sikkim in India, along with opening of both trade and regular tourist travel through the Siliguri-Gangtok/Kalimpong-Yatung-Lhasa route.

The Issue of the Various ‘Lines’: An understanding at this stage of what the issue of the various ‘lines’ is, may be useful for an understanding of the Sino-Indian border dispute. It is of central importance to realize that precisely-defined borders, demarcated to the last inch, is not an Asian concept, but is instead a European concept imported by the empire-building British. Asian societies and rulers had undefined boundaries in frontier areas that separated cultures, or feudal arrangements of ‘overlordship’ and ‘suzerainty’ in which regions were separated by the tax-collection arrangements of different rulers.

The notion of defined and demarcated boundaries arose from the dual impact of the European love for precision, and the concepts of the ‘nation-state’ and ‘citizenship’ in Europe. Competition for empire in Asia between Britain and Russia (the so-called ‘Great Game’) led to the British urge for buffer-states such as Afghanistan and Tibet, and thus the necessity for ‘fixed’ borders with these regions.

The British themselves had at various times suggested different Sino-Indian boundaries, based on their perceptions of Russian intentions at the time, and the various suggested lines are generally based on issues of Anglo-Russian rivalry.

To be continued......