Indo-China border dispute: The alternative way forward

 Bishaldeep Kakati

Bagmita Borthakur

deep.kakati99@gmail.com)

Holding weapons to make posts, clubs covered with wires, they in the night assembled together and moved across high cliffs above the Galwan Valley, and engaged in battles fighting for hours, as forces for each country. This statement often remains the actual story whenever we confabulate about the Indo-China conflict. The Indo-China border conflict traces its roots to the colonial period in India. And the major reason behind the conflict is the disputes between both the countries regarding areas covering the borders of Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh.

According to the Treaty of Amritsar (1846), the British recognised Raja Gulab Singh as the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir, an area which also included the area of Ladakh. Post that, William Johnson, a British surveyor, surveyed the region and incorporated the Aksai Chin region to the state of Jammu and Kashmir. This demarcated boundary line later came to be known as the Johnson Line. However, the British revised the borders again and this time they put Akshai Chin on the Chinese side, and this line came to be known as Macartney-Macdonald Line.

The exit of the British from India marked the end of the colonial rule, leading to the formation of two new countries in the form of India and Pakistan and this led to the start of a fresh dispute between both the newly-formed countries as both the countries wanted claim of whole of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. India's claim regarding the princely state was based on the instrument of accession which was signed by its last ruler, while Pakistan's claim was based on the Muslim majority in the state. However, China's dispute regarding this matter was distinctively different as China wanted claim the Macartney-Macdonald Line, while India wanted claim of the Johnson Line that marked India's border with China in that region.

A significant event that took place was the pact between China and Pakistan as post this pact, border issues between Pakistan and China were resolved and as such both the countries regarded Macartney-Macdonald Line to be the legitimate border between both the countries, and this led to Pakistan agreeing to the sovereignty of China over the territories claimed by China including the Aksai-Chin. But on the contrary, there have been continuous battles between India and China as both the countries have not come to a concrete border demarcation as both the nations still claim Aksai-Chin to be theirs.

After China's claim over Tibet, China built a road in that particular jurisdiction, leading to protests in India and with the Dalai Lama seeking refuge in India, China claimed the insurgence of anti-China activities in India which ultimately resulted in the Indo-China war of 1962. The consequence of that particular war was India losing some of its territories to China while China strengthened its control in Aksai-Chin.

History speaks loud that the base of Indo-China conflicts is still the unclear demarcation of borders, while China's expansionist government and India's political instability in the initial post-Independence years worsened the situation. Competition still exists between both the countries in building infrastructure along the LOC, and the construction made by India of a new road to a high altitude base can be regarded as one of the major reasons behind the deadly confrontation between both the countries in 2020. Another face-off was recorded in January, 2021 which resulted in injuries to soldiers from both the countries and the event occurred in the state of Sikkim, near the Bhutan and Nepal borders. A lot of deliberation and talks ensured that both the counties did not engage into a clash for more than a year till another clash very recently happened near the Tawang sector of Arunachal Pradesh.

Engagement in clashes can be deadly for both the countries as both the countries are established nuclear powers and a falling out would also mean economic degradation for China, as India still remains one of the biggest trading partners of China.

De-escalation of wars is a notion that countries across the globe are committed to follow and the same should apply to India and China as well. And as such, both the countries need to operate with a new modus operandi to solve the continuing border disputes. To bring in normalcy, it is desirable that a new set of rules must be established to manage the LOC. In this regard, a few radical steps are seen to be adopted in the form of No-Patrol Zones. No-patrolling zones basically mean disengagement of wars between two countries in areas where both have been in eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation to each other. In fact no-patrolling zones have already been established in Galwan and Pangong Tso and, additionally, more such zones can be established in areas such as Depsang and Kugrang, where the Chinese have been often blocking the access of the Indians, to de-escalate the threat of war. Since no-patrolling zone means disallowing troops from either side for a certain length of time, it can come handy in the case of India and China as both the countries have an undecided boundary and disagreement to the LAC. Another solution to the escalating border dispute between India and China can be found in the statement given by Chinese scholar Qian Feng in FORCE. The Chinese scholar commented about replacing the concept of the line of actual control with the concept of a zone of control and adopt the method of delimiting the disputed 'border belt' in question which do not involve population adjustment, and thereby going beyond the traditional concept of a 'border line'.

Some kind of normalcy can also be expected regarding the border dispute if the Chinese government do not apply their expansionist mindset in an exaggerated manner and not look at their ties with India through the perspective of its relations with third countries. This idea of asking China to not to look at their ties with India keeping in mind third country relations was forwarded by Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar at a meeting between him and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi at the sidelines of the SCO Ministerial meeting at Dushanbe.

As much as it is difficult to predict China's way forward keeping in mind its opaque geo-political strategies as an Asian power, it is high time for India, as a growing counterpart, to tackle the issue diplomatically by moving ahead with non-traditional notions of controlling the borders. In the present context, one cannot also deny the co-existing nature of India-China relations in terms of trading as well as balance of power in Asian sub-continent. Thus, Indo-China conflicts can never be solved through war, but only through mutual negotiations, and if required even by going astray from the conventional ways of solving border disputes.