Thread by @PankajSaxena84

1. Great Game Series – Thread 0

#China is a territorial enemy of India & it keeps trying to violate India’s sovereignty by intruding at various places along our long border. But this has a deep history. This thread series on the Great Game will tell you how.

#ArunachalPradesh

2. Hindus today might find it hard to believe, but India has been the greatest prize of any colonial power ever, long before the British came to dominate our geography. It has to do with our geography and the civilization that was built on that geography.

3. Central Asia, its mountains and plateaus, are one of the most critical geographical areas to hold all over the world. This is the reason that Pakistan grabbed Gilgit-Baltistan and China grabbed Aksai Chin and now tries to grab more mountainous areas from India.

4. All other great powers have understood the importance of Central Asian Mountains, steppes and valleys. For anyone having control of the pieces of Kashmir and Pamir alongside other regions north of Kashmir would be in an immensely profitable position.

5. This is why in history, regional powers such as China have fought fiercely for pieces of Central Asia such as Tibet, Sinkiang and Aksai Chin. That is why it keeps trying to claim and take Arunachal Pradesh.

6. But not just that, European powers like Russia, Britain, France, Germany & even Sweden have fought for pieces of land and influence in Central Asia. This series is a story of this rush for land and influence in Central Asia. And that story has a glorious name: the Great Game.

7. But before we embark on our journey of the Great Game or rather Great Games, for there were many, we need to analyze how the current situation came about. China before 1950 did not use to have a border with India.

8. To anyone who is privy to the pre-independence history of India it seems odd that China is actually venturing into India’s territory, because for most of our history China never had a border with India.

9. India bordered Tibet, Sinkiang and many nations in Central Asia, but never China. It was the great upheaval of the mid-20th century which suddenly brought China on India’s doors. And it benefitted from India’s folly.

10. This is a story of how great countries ignore geo-politics only at their own peril. And how that created a giant enemy at its own gates. This is story of all our faults and all the lessons that we can learn from it so we don’t repeat them again. Stay tuned.

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