Now that the 75th anniversary of Independence is over, it’s time for a reality check of India’s lost territories as the Chinese threat spreads thick and fast – from Taiwan to Hambantota, from Tawang to the tertiary terrain of India. To every nook and corner of South Asia, thanks to the unbridled aggression of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
The Han psyche suggests that their time to rule the waves is here like the British did from the 18th-to-mid-20th century and the USA thereafter: from Yalta to Vietnam and across oceans. However, Hans forgets that Taiwan has been sovereign since the 1940s. Tibet lost sovereignty in the 1950s and the establishment of the Indian republic precedes that of China by over two years.
Yet, India has been mauled since the 1960s; the Chinese aggression continues from Tawang (Arunachal Pradesh) to Tangtse (Ladakh). It multiplied under the Xi-led CPC-PLA’s ballistic missile use in Taiwan and the Japanese zone; giving a warning of ‘dire consequences to all neighbors, especially India.
So, India must wake up from selective amnesia to face the worst of times as the world to rises from its torpor. A selective chronological fact-sheet of chronic Han hostility to Hindustan (1954-1962), therefore, is essential amidst the CPC-PLA’s fresh fury as India and Taiwan’s territorial bully.
In April 1954, India and China signed the Tibet Agreement. On July 17, 1954, China protested against Indians in Barahoti. On June 28, 1955, Chinese troops entered Barahoti. On July 26, 1956, China claimed Barahoti. In October 1957, the CPC-PLA announced the completion of Tibet-Xinjiang highway G-219 which cut deep inside India, violating her sovereignty and territory. In June 1958, China occupied the Khurnak Fort, inside Ladakh. In July 1958, the Chinese map claimed large areas of NEFA (Arunachal) and Ladakh. In September 1958, Chinese troops re-entered Barahoti. A month later, the Chinese built outposts at Lapthal and Sangchanalla. In March 1959, the Dalai Lama escaped from Tibet. In July 1959, armed Chinese entered western Pangong Lake to set up the Spangur camp. On August 7, 1959, the Chinese intruded into Khinzeman, Arunachal Pradesh. On August 25, 1959, the Chinese overpowered troops at the Indian outpost of Longju, Arunachal Pradesh. On August 27, 1959, the Chinese hoisted their flag near Rezangla (Ladakh), 35 km south of Spangur.
Understandably, on August 28, 1959, the Indian PM handed over Arunachal’s defense to the Army. And within 11 days, on September 8, 1959, the Chinese PM wrote a letter to the Indian PM, claiming 64,000 square km of Indian land.
Expectedly, the unilateral and baseless claim made by China increased the heat, creating irreversible animosity. Tensions rose as the PLA penetrated 80 km inside Indian territory, near Kongka-la, and fired at an Indian patrol party, killing nine soldiers on October 20-21, 1959.
Unsurprisingly, the next move of the CPC and PM Chou-en-Lai followed with the letter of November 7, 1959, cunningly proposing the withdrawal of the armed forces of both Dragon and Delhi 20 km from the McMahon Line in Arunachal Pradesh, and from Ladakh’s Line of Actual Control. Understandably, India saw through the unscrupulous Chinese proposal for a mutual withdrawal of 20 km. On November 16, 1959, it agreed to withdraw in Ladakh as far west as the line claimed by the CPC-PLA as the boundary, provided China too withdrew behind the traditional boundary alignment as claimed by India. The Han-PLA supremo was unprepared for this superb counter-trump logic and diplomacy of Nehru. Expectedly, the cunning proposal failed as India handed over Ladakh to the Army.
