Page 202 - DHIS204_DHIS205_INDIAN_FREEDOM_STRUGGLE_HINDI

Unit 12: Border Conflict with China

Asia and Africa would follow the Chinese lead. Thus, the cause of the Indian military humiliation Notes
could not be reduced to Indian foreign policy failure. It could ‘only be characterized as one of
those unforseeable random events of history.
If India’s policy towards China was a failure, which other country’s was a success ? The US did a
complete volte-face in 1971, and the USSR began changing, at least after 1959.
The debacle of the India—China war in no way raises doubts on the correctness of Nehru’s basic
thrust in foreign policy. For example, non-alignment ensured that even in the India-China war,
the US and the Soviet blocs were not ranged on opposite sides and India succeeded in getting
greater or lesser sympathy from both. This was an unusual occurrence in the days of the Cold
War. Secondly, Nehru had been right in pursuing a policy of friendship with China, even if it
ended the way it did. Especially given the hostile relationship with Pakistan (which surfaced soon
after independence with the conflict over Kashmir and grew into a serious threat when it was
exacerbated by the US decision in 1954 to give military help to Pakistan), it was in India’s interest
to try its best to avoid having another hostile neighbour and thus be caught in a pincer movement.
India’s espousal of China’s right to have a seat in the UN was not given up by Nehru even after
the Indo-China war since he rightly believed that the Western powers’ isolation of China only
pushed China into becoming more irresponsible. Besides, as Nehru was most fond of pointing
out, defence was not just a matter of weapons, it was also a function of economic development, of
self-reliance; otherwise defence was only skin-deep. A newly independent poor country like India
could have ill-afforded to divert her scarce resources into building up a massive military machine.
On the contrary, by building up India’s economic strength, Nehru enabled his successors to win
impressive military victories.
Self-Assessment
Fill in the blanks:
1. ............... was the first country to recognize the new people’s republic of China on 1st January
1950.
2. China occupied Tibet in ............... .
3. Dalai Lama was given asylum by India in ............... .
4. In October 1959, the Chinese opened fire on an Indian patrol near the ............... in Ladakh,
killing five Indian policemen.
5. In the western sector, on 20 October ............... forward posts were captured by the Chinese in
the Galwan valley.

12.3 Summary

• China and its neighbours have long been involved in a number of border disputes, many of
them dating back to the end of World War II or the Civil War that followed. Asserting
Chinese sovereignty over borderlands in contention—everywhere from Tibet to Taiwan to
the South China Sea—has long been the top priority for Chinese nationalists, an obsession
that overrides all other concerns.
• Tensions over those conflicts rose sharply in the late summer of 2010, complicating China’s
attempts to present the country’s rise as a booj for the whole region. The disputes have also
handed the United States an opportunity to reassert itself—one the Obama administration
has been keen to take advantage of, potentially creating wedges between China and its
neighbors.
• In the 1962 Sino-Indian War, China seized a Switzerland-sized area, Aksai Chin (Aksayqin),
and overran Arunachal Pradesh (an Indian state the size of Austria). There are also other,
smaller pockets of disputed area. The PRC withdrew from virtually all of Arunachal Pradesh
to the Line of Actual Control (LAC), which approximates the McMahon Line that is found in
a 1914 agreement initialed by British, Tibetan, and Chinese representatives. Chinese and
Indian forces clashed in the Sumdorong Chu valley of Arunachal Pradesh in 1986-87. Relations
began to thaw in 1988.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 197