McMahon Line 

The McMahon Line marks boundary between Chinese-held and Indian-held territory in the eastern Himalayan region. The line was the focus of a brief war in 1962, when Indian and Chinese forces struggled to control a disputed area (shown in red), much of which is a high altitude wasteland.

The McMahon Line is a demarcation line drawn on map referred to in the Simla Accord, a treaty between Britain and Tibet signed in 1914 at the end of the Similar Convention. Although its legal status is disputed, it is currently the effective boundary between China and India.

The line is named after Sir Henry McMahon, foreign secretary for the British-run Government of India and the chief British negotiator of the convention. It extends along the crest of the Himalayas for 550 miles (890 km) from Bhutan in the west to the great bend of the Brahmaputra River in the east. After Simla, the line was forgotten until 1935 when British civil service officer Olaf Caroe revived interest in it and convinced the government to use it on official maps.1

The McMahon Line is regarded by India as a legal national border. The Dalai Lama's Tibetan government-in-exile also accepts the line as an official border.2

China rejects the Simla Convention on the grounds that the Tibetan government was not sovereign and therefore did not have the power to conclude treaties.3 Chinese maps show some 56,000 square miles (150,000 km2) of territory south of the line as Chinese. Chinese forces briefly occupied this area during the Sino-Indian War of 1962-63. China does recognize a Line of Actual Control which includes the "so called McMahon line," according to a 1959 diplomatic note by Prime Minister Zhou Enlai.4

In 2008 ministerial statement, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband announced that, "we regard Tibet as part of the People's Republic of China."5


Contents

History

Map from Imperial Gazetteer of India, Oxford University Press, 1909. It shows the "Outer line" in the eastern section on the top right.
Official map from Imperial Gazetteer of India, namely The Indian Empire and surrounding countries", shows the "Outer line" as the boundary between the British Raj and the Chinese Empire.

Drawing the line

Early British efforts to create a boundary in this sector were triggered by their discovery in the mid-19th century that Tawang, an important trading town, was Tibetan territory. In 1873, the British-run Government of India drew an "Outer Line," intended as an international boundary.6 This line follows the alignment of the Himalayan foothills, now the southern boundary of Arunachal Pradesh. Britain concluded treaties with Beijing concerning Tibet's boundaries with Burma7 and Sikkim.8 However, Tibet refused to recognize the boundaries drawn by these treatiescitation needed. British forces led by Sir Francis Younghusband invaded Tibet in 1904 and imposed a treaty on the Tibetans.9 In 1907, Britain and Russia acknowledge Chinese "suzerainty" over Tibet and both nations "engage not to enter into negotiations with Tibet except through the intermediary of the Chinese Government."10

British interest in the borderlands was renewed when the Qing government sent military forces to establish Chinese administration in Tibet (1910-12). A British military expedition was sent into what is now Arunachal Pradesh and the North East Frontier Tract was created to administer the area (1912). In 1912-13, this agency reached agreements with the tribal leaders who ruled the bulk of the region. The Outer Line was moved north, but Tawang was left as Tibetan territory.11 After the fall of the Qing dynasty in China, Tibet expelled Chinese forces and declared itself independent (1913).12 In 1913, British convoked a conference at Simla, India to discuss the issue of Tibet's status.13 The conference was attended by representatives of Britain, China, and Tibet.14. "Outer Tibet," covering approximately the same area as the modern "Tibet Autonomous Region" would be under the administration of the Dalai Lama's government as well as the "suzerainty" of China.14 A suzerain is a state which has certain authority over a dependent state. The agreement refers to a map with the McMahon line drawn on it. After Beijing repudiated Simla, the British and Tibetan delegates attached a note denying China any priveleges under the agreement and signed it as a bilateral accord.15

Britain attempts to enforce line

Simla was initially rejected by the Government of India as incompatible with the 1907 Anglo-Russian Convention. The official treaty record, C.U. Aitchison's A Collection of Treaties, was published with a note stating that no binding agreement had been reached at Simla.16 The Anglo-Russian Convention was renounced by Russia and Britain jointly in 1921,17 but the McMahon Line was forgotten until 1935, when interest was revived by civil service officer Olaf Caroe.1 The Survey of India published a map showing the McMahon Line as the official boundary in 1937.1 In 1938, the British published the Simla Convention in Aitchison's Treaties.16 A volume published earlier was recalled from libraries and replaced with a volume that includes the Simla Convention together with an editor's note stating that Tibet and Britain, but not China, accepted the agreement as binding.18 The replacement volume has a false 1929 publication date.16

When the British demanded that the Tawang monastery, located south of the McMahon Line, cease paying taxes to Lhasa, Tibet protested. However, Lhasa raised no objection to British activity in other sectors of the McMahon Line. In 1944, NEFT established direct administrative control for the entire area it was assigned, although Tibet soon regained authority in Tawang. In 1947, Tibetan government wrote a note presented to the Indian Ministry of External Affairs laying claim to Tibetan districts south of the McMahon Line.19 In Beijing, the Communist Party came to power in 1949 and declared its intention to "liberate" Tibet. India, which had become independent in 1947, responded by declaring the McMahon Line to be its boundary and by decisively asserting control of the Tawang area (1950-51).13

India and China dispute boundary

In the 1950s, India-China relations were cordial and the boundary dispute quiet. The Indian government under Prime Minister Nehru promoted the slogan Hindi-Chini bhai-bhai. (India and China are brothers). In 1954, India renamed the disputed area the North East Frontier Agency.

India acknowledged that Tibet was a part of China in a treaty concluded in April 1954.20 Nehru later claimed that because China did not bring up the border issue at the 1954 conference, the issue was settled. But the only border India had delineated prior to the conference was the McMahon Line. Several months after the conference, Nehru ordered maps of India published that showed expansive Indian territorial claims as definite boundaries, notably in Aksai Chin.21 In the NEFA sector, the new maps gave the hill crest as the boundary, although in some places this line is slightly north of the McMahon Line.4

Occupation of Tibetian territory by China, climaxing in the flight of the Dalai Lama to India in March 1959, created a great deal of sympathy for Tibet in India and led Chinese leaders to suspect that Nehru had designs on the region. On August 1959, Chinese troops captured an Indian outpost at Longju, just north of the McMahon Line. In a letter to Nehru dated October 24, 1959, Zhou Enlai proposed that India and China each withdraw their forces 20 kilometers from the "line of actual control."22 Shortly afterward, Zhou defined this line as "the so-called McMahon Line in the east and the line up to which each side exercises actual control in the west".4

In November 1961, Nehru adopted a "Forward Policy" of setting up military outposts in disputed areas, including 43 outposts north of Zhou's LAC.4 Chinese leader Mao Zedong, at this time weakened by the failure of the Great Leap Forward, saw war as a means of reasserting his authority.23 On September 8, 1962, a Chinese unit attacked an Indian post at Dhola on the Thagla Ridge, three kilometers north of the McMahon Line.13 On October 20, China launched a major attack across the McMahon as well as another attack further north. The Sino-Indian War which followed was a national humiliation for India, with China quickly gaining control of NEFA.13 The Soviet Union, the United States, and Great Britain all pledged military aid to the Indians. China then withdrew to the McMahon Line and repatriated the Indian prisoners of war (1963). New Delhi attributes the retreat to the superiority of the Indian Air Force and to Chinese logistical problems.

NEFA was renamed Arunachal Pradesh in 1972. (Chinese maps refer to the area as South Tibet.) In 1981, Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping offered India a "package settlement" of the border issue. Eight rounds of talks followed, but no agreement.

In 1984, India Intelligence Bureau personnel set up an observation post in the Sumdorong Chu Valley, which was located north of the McMahon Line, but south of the hill crest. The IB left the area before winter. In 1986, China deployed troops in the valley before an Indian team arrived.2425 This information created a national uproar when it was revealed to the Indian public. In October 1986, Deng threatened to "teach India a lesson". The Indian Army airlifted a task force to the valley. The confrontation was defused in May 1987 and the armies have since withdrawn.26

Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi visited China in 1988 and agreed to a joint working group on boundary issues, but it has made no progress. A 1993 Sino-Indian agreement set up a group to define the LAC, this group has likewise made no progress. A 1996 Sino-Indian agreement set up "confidence-building measures" to avoid border clashes. Although there were several tense encounters along the McMahon Line following India's nuclear test in 1998, this agreement has generally been effective.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c Guruswamy, Mohan, "The Battle for the Border", Rediff, June 23, 2003.
  2. ^ "The McMahon Line is the international boundary" said Tashi Wangdi, the Representative of the Dalai Lama.Interview with Tashi Wangdi, David Shankbone, Wikinews, November 14, 2007.
  3. ^ Lamb, Alastair, The McMahon line: a study in the relations between India, China and Tibet, 1904 to 1914, London, 1966
    Grunfeld, A.T., The Making of Modern Tibet, 1996
  4. ^ a b c d Noorani, A.G. "Perseverance in peace process", Frontline, August 29, 2003.
  5. ^ "Written Ministerial Statement on Tibet", (29/10/2008)"
  6. ^ Calvin, James Barnard, "The China-India Border War", Marine Corps Command and Staff College, April 1984
  7. ^ Convention Relating to Burmah and Tibet (1886)
  8. ^ "Convention Between Great Britain and China Relating to Sikkim and Tibet (1890)"
  9. ^ "Convention Between Great Britain and Tibet (1904)"
  10. ^ Convention Between Great Britain and Russia (1907)
  11. ^ British maps published in 1904-1914 shows the Tibeto-Assamese boundary lying on the foothill, in conformity with China's claim. This was before the 1914 agreement.See North East Frontier of India (1910 & 1911 editions)
  12. ^ "Proclamation Issued by His Holiness the Dalai Lama XIII (1913)"
  13. ^ a b c d Maxwell, Neville, India's China War, New York, Pantheon, 1970.
  14. ^ a b "Convention Between Great Britain, China, and Tibet, Simla (1914)"
  15. ^ Goldstein, Melvyn C., A history of modern Tibet, 1913-1951, 1989, p. 75
  16. ^ a b c Lin, Hsiao-Ting, "Boundary, sovereignty, and imagination: Reconsidering the frontier disputes between British India and Republican China, 1914-47", The Journal of Imperial & Commonwealth History, September 2004, 32, (3).
  17. ^ [1]
  18. ^ Schedule of the Simla Convention, 1914
  19. ^ Lamb, Alastair, The McMahon line: a study in the relations between India, China and Tibet, 1904 to 1914, London, 1966, p580
  20. ^ The Sino-Indian Treaty of 29 April 1954 identifies Tibet as a "Region of China"
  21. ^ Noorani, A.G. "Fact of History", Frontline, September 30, 2003.
  22. ^ "Chou's Latest Proposals"
  23. ^ Chang, Jung and Jon Halliday, Mao: The Unknown Story (2006), pp. 568, 579.
  24. ^ Vajpayee claps with one hand on border dispute, Asia Times Online, Aug 1, 2003
  25. ^ A.G. Noorani, "Perseverance in peace process", India's National Magazine, August 29, 2003.
  26. ^ Natarajan, V., "The Sumdorong Chu Incident", Bharat Rakshak Monitor, Nov.-Dec. 2000, 3 (3)

Further reading