India's Border Dispute with China

Abstract

Long before he assumed office, Jawaharlal Nehru envisioned the friendliest of ties between India and China working together for a resurgent Asia. Despite the Tibet issue, India did its best to rehabilitate Mao's China in the comity of nations. The early 1950s witnessed a shortlived euphoria of Hindi-Chini bhai-bhai and Panchsheel. Tibet apart, India's northern frontiers became a matter of unseemly controversy in the late 1950s. The 1962 war made matters worse. China insists that the border conflict with India was not of its making. Chinese leadership held that Nehru was determined to establish a greater Indian empire even as the Raj had done. Nehru's India was accused of harbouring the ambitions of a regional hegemon in order to block China's natural and rightful relations with its neighbours. India, for its part, has been equally clear that China's political culture admits no compromise on the use of military power to regain what it deemed its domain. No wonder that the border issue has, to date, remained unresolved.