Thread by @ramitmkaul

Indian and Chinese armies are again at each other. It is important to learn a little history to understand the context of present-day problems.
May 1951, which is watershed in the history of the relations between India, Tibet and China.
#HindiCheeniByeBye

On 23rd May, 1951, Tibetan officials signed a 17-Point Agreement with China. Mao's army had invaded Tibet a few months earlier. The Roof of the World was now under occupation and no nation was ready to support the peace-loving Tibetans.
#hindichineebyebye #HindiChiniByeBye

Tibet was now an 'autonomous region' of China as per the new agreement. FOR THE FIRST TIME in fifty years, India was not a party to an accord between Lhasa and Beijing, resulting in disastrous consequences for India and Tibet.
#HindiChiniByeBye #hindichineebyebye

On 29th April 1954, India signed the (in)famous Panchsheel treaty, The Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. The treaty was signed in Beijing by the Indian Ambassador N. Raghavan and Chang Han-fu, the Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister
#HindiChiniByeBye #hindichineebyebye

This agreement was concerned with India and Tibet. However, China and India signed it. This was the last nail in the Tibetan coffin; Delhi for the first time officially acknowledged that China was its new neighbor.
#hindustanibhau #hindichineebyebye

Let's go back to 1952. As Delhi was contemplating it's next steps to deal with China's Tibet as a neighbor, first incursion took place through porous borders. The then PM great Nehru had started dreaming a great friendship with the dragon.
#HindiChiniByeBye #hindichineebyebye

Nehru had even written to Chief Ministers “For the first time, China possesses a strong Central Government whose decrees run even to Sinkiang and Tibet. Our own relations with China are definitively friendly.”
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By 1952, the Chinese were controlling most of Tibet. When Nehru was asked in a press conference about situation in Tibet, he replied. “Nothing very definite has taken place yet… cont.."
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“ Obviously once it is accepted & admitted that the Chinese Govt is not only the suzerain power in Tibet but is exercising the suzerainty, then something will flow from it. Then you cannot treat Tibet as an independent country with an independent representation from us.”

Nehru continued to backpedal, Beijing increased pressure. It wanted India to downgrade the Indian Mission in Lhasa into a Consulate General. June 1952 Nehru stated for 1st time that “the status of the representative in Lhasa has never been defined for the last thirty years.”

The great statesman of India acknowledged that circumstances have changed and Tibet is no longer an Independent country. Tibet is now under the effective suzerainty of China.
#HindiChiniByeBye #HindiCheeniByeBye

Nehru said "China is now exercising it's suzerainty". In the same month, the clever Zhou Enlai told KM Panikkar, the gullible Indian Ambassador in China that he “presumed that India had no intention of claiming special rights arising from the unequal treaties of the past" contd.

"and was prepared to negotiate a new and permanent relationship safeguarding legitimate interests.” Nehru finally told Panikkar that India has no objection to convert the mission in Lhasa to Consulate-General.
#HindiChiniByeBye #HindiCheeniByeBye

Chinese also got a Consulate in Mumbai. Nehru added: “We would naturally prefer a general and comprehensive settlement which includes the Frontier.” This never happened. In 1952 in another press conference, Nehru denied presence of Chinese troops in our areas.
#HindiChiniByeBye

When S Sinha, Indian rep in Lhasa asked for help for Tibetians, Nehru wrote "We have to judge these matters from a larger world point of view which probably our Tibetan friends have no means of appreciating". Nehru saw invisible larger perspectives
#HindiChiniByeBye

On Sep21, 1951 border issue was raised by Zhou Enlai when he met Panikkar. Nehru sensed something was wrong & writes his apprehension to Panikkar. In Feb 1952, during a PC, Nehru accepted MacMahon line as frontier.
#HindiChiniByeBye

However when the journalist pointed out the north-west sector, the Prime Minister was less assured: “I do not know. The McMahon Line is a definition of that border on the north-east.”
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But the journalist insisted: “There is a certain tract which is undefined so far – even on the maps it is shown as undefined – towards the north-east and north-west, between Nepal and the province of Kashmir: near Lake Manasarovar.” #HindiChiniByeBye

Nehru answered, “I don't know that any question has arisen; it hasn't come up before me at all at any time.”
& once again when press pointed out:“But even on the maps it is shown as an undefined border.” Nehru could only say “Maybe. All these are high mountains. #HindiChiniByeBye

Nobody lives there. It is not very necessary to define these things.”
That was it!
Rumors of Chinese intrusion were thick by Oct 1951. Border Defence Committee under Lt Gen. Kulwant Singh had been set up as well. #HindiChiniByeBye #hindichineebyebye

However, very little was achieved in term of intelligence gathering and manning the border till the early sixties. Anyhow, Nehru optimistically concluded “I do not think that we need take too gloomy a view of the situation.”
#HindiChiniByeBye #hindichineebyebye

In another shocking revelation made by Lakshan Singh Jangpangi, who served as Trade agent, told Nehru hat the Chinese had started to build on the arid Aksai Chin plateau. This was in 1951-52. #HindiChiniByeBye

Nehru answered: “My own impression is that we are clear about the boundary. But Tibetans have regularly come across it here as well as in Assam and collected rent or revenue.”
#HindiChiniByeBye

The Chinese were systematically building roads & a comm network from Lhasa to borders of India. Soon they would claim as part of China, all areas where the Tibetans had once collected (monastic) revenue, whether it was on the Tibetan or the Indian side of the McMahon Line.

In central and western sectors, situation was even more complicated as frontier was not physically demarcated. Tibet and India had lived for millennia as neighbours and friends with no problems. But in the early 50s the situation had changed drastically.
#HindiChiniByeBye

Sept 1952, Nehru wrote to the Foreign Secretary “Definitely and precisely that they should not be allowed to come and they should be pushed back if they cross over.” Note that in 1952 the question was only about Tibetan incursions into Indian territory.
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A year or two later it would be far more serious; it would be Chinese troops. Though they had never visited these areas before, their policy was clear: wherever Tibetans had made claims on Indian soil, this territory automatically became Chinese territory.
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But PM saw things from a different angle. He saw this as problem of underdevelopment in border areas. He believed that the people of the border areas, if provided better opportunities would be the first to defend India’s borders.
#HindiChiniByeBye

By Feb 1953, G B Pant, UP CM raised this development issue again. Nehru noted “Nothing is moving, we must get this moving. I am particularly interested in the roads, because without the roads nothing else can really be done."
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In Mar 1953, Dr Shyamaprasad Mukherjee raised the issue of broken frontiers in Parliament. Dr. Lanka Sundaram also raised this is in end of 1953. He claimed 60K to 100K Chinese troops across the frontier.
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He also pointed out India’s special responsibility towards Bhutan, Sikkim, Nepal and Tibet. Nehru replied to Dr Lanka Sundaram on December 24, 1953: “Now, Dr Lanka Sundaram gave some facts which rather surprised me.
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He said that 100K or, I forget 50K troops are concentrated there. I have a few sources of information too, but I have not got that information. I am in intimate touch this way & that way on the border, on both sides, & those figures which he mentioned,
#HindiChiniByeBye

so far as I am concerned are completely wrong, and far out from truth".
Indian negotiators avoided border issues during the discussions on Pancnsheel agreement. 2 months into Panchsheel, India was punched by intrusion in Barahoti (Jun 1954) #HindiChiniByeBye

Barahoti was first of a series of incursions numbering in hundreds which culminated in the attack of Oct 1962.
If Indians read history well, they will understand the role Nehru played and how he played with India's defenses. His role during war, some other day
#HindiChiniByeBye