1. @narendramodi ji and @AmitShah ji @HMOIndia china occupied territories of Ladakh are very important for India because of their strategic and security importance particularly India's endeavours in South Asia and Central Asia.
2. There is a common perception in India is that India has a problem with Pakistan over Kashmir, with western neighbour sitting on large chunks of India’s territory ( PoJK) but it has not been readily acknowledged that India also have a CoL problem in addition to the PoJK one.
3.CoL is China-occupied Ladakh and this part of China accounts for nearly a fifth of the original Jammu & Kashmir state that joined the Indian Union in 1948 after its #MaharajaHariSingh signing the #InstrumentofAccession.
4. Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh forms the head of the Indian sub-continent, and has been the traditional trade route of Central and South Asia to the East and Tibet, generally called the ‘Silk Route’.
5.They are bounded by more countries than any other state of India; in the North East with Tibet, and further North with Xinjiang province of China, in North West with Wakhan corridor of Afghanistan, in the West Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and in South with Punjab of Pakistan.
The Sinkiang (Xinjiang) and Tibetan plateaus constitute a wedge into the Himalayas and were considered by China to be very strategic. They wanted to grab those areas that allowed them to establish roads between Sinkiang and Tibet.
7.With the undetermined border between Soviet Turkestan and Sinkiang a source of friction and tension with Russia, China needed an effective line of communication with Sinkiang through Aksai Chin.
8. China is spending huge sums to build infrastructure through highways connecting Tibet to Xinjiang through the Chinese-occupied Aksai Chin plateau, and Xinjiang to Pakistan via the Karakorum highway through the Kunzreb pass.
9.This highway then connects Gwadar port on the Arabian Sea, giving a warm water port and access to the Indian Ocean to China.
10. Its importance can be visualised in that China trade can avoid the bottleneck of the Malacca straits as also cuts down turnaround to the interior provinces of China.
11. It is not going to be easy for India to reclaim the parts of Kashmir it has lost to Pakistan and China. But that does not mean it should not be brought on to the table for discussion. China is in habit of putting claim on every strategic territory bordering it.
12. It lays claim on Aksai chin and areas of Tibet which historically falls in territory of J&K. But India has never countered China with historical facts and agreements
13. Following the Sino-Sikh War (May 1841-August 1842) when Jammu ruler Gulab Singh and Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s general, Zorawar Singh, were expanding the Sikh kingdom.
14. While Gulab Singh fought in the North West Frontier Province and Khyber Pakhtunwa region, Zorawar Singh captured Ladakh, Kargil, Suru Valley, Baltistan, Gilgit, Hunza and Yagistan between 1835 and 1840; these became part of the unified kingdom of Maharaja Gulab Singh in 1846.
15. In 1841, Zorawar Singh invaded western Tibet, possibly to gain control over the lucrative pashmina wool trade, though some scholars believe he wanted to build a land bridge between Ladakh and Nepal for a Sikh-Gorkha alliance against the British.
16. The climactic Battle of Chushul (August 1842) was won by the Dogras who executed the enemy general to avenge the death of Zorawar Singh.
17. In this treaty Dogras were also part as independent entity as the Treaty was contracted between the Jammu & Kashmir ruler and Tibet, and a representative of the Manchu court was present
18. China later formally annexed Tibet but India instead of showing its resentment and protests silently agreed to China’s claims over Aksai Chin and other territory gifted to it by Pakistan.
19. This illegal control of China over J&K is becoming more strategically problematic for India in the shape of China- Pakistan economic corridor and such other activities of two hostile neighbours.
20.India has to take strong diplomatic and strategic postures to check such #IllegalOccupation activities of #China.
