Sino-Indian War Research Articles

India’s North Border Conflicts: Between Reality and Fiction

Ever since the Republic of India became an independent nation in 1947, the Indian state has strived to keep its territorial integrity, in spite of the numerous territorial claims made by neighboring states. Firstly, the Kashmir region is home to both Muslim and Hindu populations; therefore, when the Indian and Pakistani states were created, the region was split between the two new states. However, both states hold the belief that the entirety of the Kashmir region should be part of their territory. This situation sparked numerous local conflicts and four local wars (1947, 1965, 1971, and 1999). Secondly, another disputed area is located on the border with the People’s Republic of China, as the Chinese state does not recognize the McMahon Line, which was agreed upon by British India and Tibet. This led to the conflict in 1962 and to a tension-filled relationship between China and India. This paper approaches both the historical evolution of the conflicts and the way in which these two conflict areas are portrayed in literature. While Veera Hiranandani, in The Night Diary (2018), and Khushwant Singh, in Train to Pakistan (1956), focus on the conflicts between Muslims and Hindus after the partition of India and Pakistan, Salman Rushdie, in Midnight’s Children (1981), analyzes the traumas of the conflict in Kashmir. Furthermore, Jon Cleary, in Pulse of Danger (1966), presents the context of the Sino-Indian war. The most disturbing novel about the Indian conflicts is Humphrey Hawksley’s novel, Dragon Fire (2000), because the author presents an apocalyptic war between the Republic of India, on one side, and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan allied with the People’s Republic of China, on the other side.

O sojuszu amerykańsko-indyjskim w XXI wieku. Lekcja z historii wojny indyjsko-chińskiej 1962 roku

The article discusses the problem of the American-Indian alliance in the Indo-Pacific region as a response to the expansionist policies of China. The author, referring to selected opinions and analyses, points to a certain “strategic deficit” of such an alliance and draws attention to its possible limitations. He evokes a very important historical context: the Sino-Indian War of 1962 and US-British military aid to India. Quoting declassified American/Indian documents, the author emphasizes the decisive role of President Kennedy and Prime Minister Macmillan in ending the conflict. He suggests that this half--forgotten precedent could be used in the process of strengthening current US-Indian relations.

The Sino-Indian war and the evolution of wireless monitoring capabilities in the Indian Intelligence Bureau (1959–1968)

ABSTRACT This article is the first academic work exploring the evolution of wireless monitoring capabilities (COMINT) in India’s Intelligence Bureau (IB) between 1959 and 1968. Until 1968, the IB was India’s foreign intelligence agency and experienced its biggest failure in providing estimates for the 1962 Sino-Indian war. B.N. Mullik, the then IB chief, argued that the availability of foreign exchange was directly responsible for determining the COMINT capabilities prior to, and after the war. Consulting recently declassified governmental documents, this article contests this claim and highlights that bureaucratic politics played an impactful role. It reveals that pre-war weaknesses were a result of bureaucratic lethargy among some individuals and factionalism within the IB. In the post-war period, even though foreign exchange became available, bureaucratic battles continued and compelled the IB to explore domestic and in-house alternatives to imports. Therefore, the article offers fresh insights into the history of India’s intelligence by exploring a hitherto unexplored domain.

The Past and Future of the Vernacular Cultural Landscapes of Johar Valley, Uttarakhand, India

Nowhere is the inextricable linkage of nature and culture more apparent than the Johar Valley of the Indian Himalayas. For centuries, the inhabitants of the valley’s small, remote high-altitude villages have followed a life closely integrated with seasonal cycles and natural landscapes. The villages retain a unique traditional vernacular architecture and planning reflecting environmental sensibilities. However, geopolitical shifts following the 1962 Sino-Indian War disrupted traditional livelihoods, leading to partial abandonment of upper-altitude villages and leaving traditional vernacular stock to natural elements. Growing ecotourism has renewed interest in these villages, while construction of a road is opening the valley for development. Johar Valley now stands at a major crossroads for preservation planning; yet very little work has been conducted to understand its cultural landscapes, nor to consider the confluence of pressures it faces, nor to imagine its possible futures in this context. In this article, I begin this process by detailing the indigenous village planning and traditional architecture of Johar Valley. I describe the threats facing it, and explore a possible future that draws on the example of National Heritage Areas from the United States in tandem with other homegrown approaches to promoting community-based tourism.

Pregnant Bodies in Transit: Maternity, Migration, and the 1962 Sino-Indian War in Rita Chowdhury’s Chinatown Days

Signed as a response to the Sino-Indian war in 1962, the Defence of India Act facilitated the mass incarceration of Indians having Chinese ethnicity, not even sparing children and pregnant women. Rita Chowdhury’s historical fiction Chinatown Days (2018), translated from the Assamese novel Makam (2010), rescues this systematic elimination of the Assamese-Chinese narrative that is otherwise absent in the dominant paradigms of this war history. Chowdhury conducts a rare historiography tracing the origin of the community in colonial India, their internment at the Deoli camp following the war of 1962, and ultimately their deportation to China. Chowdhury’s novel illustrates that the worst victims of this forced migration were the women who had to bear the burden of their reproductive bodies. By borrowing specific contexts from Chowdhury’s fiction that illuminates the challenges faced by pregnant Assamese-Chinese women, this paper conducts a gendered investigation into the events of this state-sanctioned forced displacement and deportation. It interrogates the idea of constructive nation-building through state-sanctioned banishment of the unborn racially undesirable Assamese-Chinese children. It examines how the displaced pregnant female bodies are doubly marginalized in internment camps, having no access to proper sanitation or nutrition, and how they are treated as mere tools to stage political dissent.

Sino-Indian War 1962: Impacts on Foreign Policy of Pakistan towards Kashmir

Sino-Indian War 1962: Impacts on Foreign Policy of Pakistan towards Kashmir

War and Control: A Study of Chinese Migrants in Assam in the Late Colonial Period

World War II (WWII) directly impacted the lives of Chinese migrants living in Assam, the Northeastern frontier of British India. The major wars that impacted the lives of Chinese migrants in Assam were the Sino-Indian War of 1962 and WWII. Most of the literature focuses on the Sino-Indian War of 1962, its impact, internment and sociopolitical and cultural aspect of the community afterwards. This study shifts its attention to WWII and its effect on the community. This article investigates the relationship between the colonial state and the migrants. While the state tried to control the population, the community found many ways to negotiate with these control mechanisms, though they were vulnerable. It argues that the community’s experience during WWII is central to understanding their experience during the Sino-Indian War of 1962. The control mechanism, like registration, provided them with legal status in Assam but did not ensure legal activities. Sometimes, these activities can be seen as reacting to the control mechanisms.

The role of national identities in China’s decision for war in the 1962 Sino-Indian border conflict

ABSTRACT By conducting discourse analysis on Chinese textual materials around 1962, this paper tries to inductively explore the national identities of Chinese people during the 1962 Sino-Indian border conflict. It finds that China perceived itself as a persistent and resilient nation in the ongoing fight against invasion and oppression. The predominant social discourse around 1962 showed a strong enmity and resistance toward the imperialism which was then imposed on India. These national identities have formed a natural response as maintaining a tough stance toward incursion and repression, and have contributed to China’s resolution to defense its territory with resorting to military force, even though it might not be beneficial in terms of diplomatic relations and economic interests.

Implications on Nepal’s Foreign Affairs of the Sino-Indian Rapprochement over Lipulekh

When China and India get closer, will Nepal be uncomfortable with losing its strategicspace? The available literature on Sino-Indian conflict and competition in the Himalayanregion do not divulge the impacts of Sino-Indian cooperation on Nepal. By examining theSino-Indian rapprochement over Nepal’s Lipulekh, this study elaborates the implications ofIndia’s and China’s neighborhood policies on Nepal’s foreign policy. In 2015, while Nepalwas concentrating on post-earthquake relief, rehabilitation, and reconstruction, China andIndia—the two Asian geopolitical rivals, decided to use Nepal’s Lipulekh as a trading corridor,without Nepal’s consent. The Sino-Indian agreement over Nepal’s Lipulekh not only stirredcontroversy in Nepal but also raised questions over the intention of Nepal’s two immediateneighbors. Although 2015 was not the first time that Nepal’s neighbors agreed upon the Lipulekhroute, the case of the Sino-Indian rapprochement in Lipulekh is studied and methodologicallyanalyzed under the framework of exploratory research design. By situating Nepal’s case in theconceptual framework of small states, first, this study surveys Nepal’s foreign policy behaviorin the context of Nepal’s Gulliverian neighborhood through deductive reasoning. Second, theimpacts of the multi-faceted Sino-Indian interactions on Nepal’s foreign policy are identifiedthrough inductive reasoning. Finally, the implications of the neighborhood policies of Chinaand India toward Nepal are discussed against the backdrop of the Sino-Indian rapprochementover Nepal’s Lipulekh.

Shock and Reconciliation? The Case of India–Pakistan, 1962–63

This paper examines the interstate reconciliation between India and Pakistan after the shock of Sino-Indian War of 1962. The post-1962 war political-security equations, particularly at the regional level, gave rise to a situation that necessitated India’s reconciliatory negotiations with Pakistan over Kashmir. Though the rival parties engaged in a six-round political dialogue, the process ended up in a deadlock followed by spirals of armed clashes that culminated in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965. The paper shows that this reconciliation process proved counterproductive because it was imposed from outside and the principal parties, in a window-driven haste and under the political-strategic constraints, could not mutually agree on to reconcile their political differences and settle the territorial dispute over Kashmir.

China, India and Myanmar Triangular Relationship: In the Context of Rohingya Issues

Myanmar’s geo-political and geo-economic position is very important to China and India. India and China are the two regional powers of Southeast Asia, although it shares border with the two coutries. Basically, Myanmar is the center of connectivity to South Asia and Southeast Asia with the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal. The new economic super power of the world. China’s ambitious project BRI connects Myanmar with two corridors. Especially in the case of importing fuel oil and exporting products to the global market, Chinese ships have to go around the Malacca Strait, which is time consuming and costly and strategically risky. But using Kukpyu Port in Rakhine State will reduce China’s dependence on the Malacca Strait and expand trade. That is why the bilateral relationship between the world’s second largest economy China (GDP $14.140 Trillion, 2019) and the 73rd economy Myanmar (GDP $ 69.994, 2019) is very important (Ahamed, Rahman & Nur, 2020) . China has been playing an important role in Myanmar’s economic development through bilateral trade relations since 1988. From 1988 to 2018, 26% of all foreign investment in Myanmar came from China and as of June 2020, Chinese investment in Myanmar was US $21350.668 Million (DICA, 2020). India shares a 1643 km land border with Myanmar with 4 northeastern states of Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur. Myanmar is the gateway to the implementation of ‘Act East Policy’ and ‘Neighborhood First Policy’ announced by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014 (Ahamed, Rahman & Nur, 2020). In addition, the world’s two most important sea routes, The strait of Malacca and The strait of Hurmuz, are connected to the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean through the Bay of Bengal. Myanmar has a 725 km coastal boundary with the Bay of Bengal. Because of this, Myanmar is geo-politically and geo-strategically India., important to the Western world including China. Due to US presence in Indian Ocean, recent Sino-Indian conflict and Myanmar’s strategic location, Sino-Myanmar relations have become one of the research topics at present. This article will analyze the multifaceted aspects of China-Myanmar relations.

Global and Regional Implications of Sino-Indian Rivalry: A Focus on the Strategic and Economic Dimensions

The paper makes an effort to answer two key questions. To begin, what strategic and economic implications does the Sino-Indian conflict have? Second, what are the global and regional trends in Sino-India conflict in the future? Even though there is a lot of literature on Sino-Indian ties and conflict, there’s much less academic concentration on the implications of Sino-Indian conflict, especially in the hard power dimension. The paper observes that in international and regional affairs, the Sino-Indian competition is not a new phenomenon. The dispute between India and China has posed significant geostrategic challenges to regional peace and security in Asia in recent years. The paper further points out that the geopolitical rivalry between India and China would likely enhance China's naval presence in the Indian Ocean region to challenge India and its western allies. In terms of the economic dimension, India and its western allies, such as the United States and Japan, can develop new supply chains in IOR in order to diminish China's reliance. It argues that while the future of the Sino-Indian conflict may bring great competition rather than cooperation, the reality of the economic system and transnational developments may enable India and China to expand their economic collaboration.

Influence of the USA and Pakistan on the development of the Sino-Indian border conflict at the present stage

Influence of the USA and Pakistan on the development of the Sino-Indian border conflict at the present stage

An Assessment of Drivers and Dynamics of 2020 Sino-Indian Border Conflict

An Assessment of Drivers and Dynamics of 2020 Sino-Indian Border Conflict

The Frontier Complex: Geopolitics and the Making of the India-China Border, 1846–1962 by Kyle J. Gardner

Reviewed by: The Frontier Complex: Geopolitics and the Making of the India-China Border, 1846–1962 by Kyle J. Gardner Benjamin Holt The Frontier Complex: Geopolitics and the Making of the India-China Border, 1846–1962. By Kyle J. Gardner. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021. xxi + 280 pp. ISBN 978-1-108-84059-0. $99.00 (hardcover). A central aim of Kyle Gardner's The Frontier Complex is to demonstrate how colonial border-making shaped ideas about territory that created legacies still felt in contemporary Asia (p. xvi). Supplementary ambitions are to bring Ladakh into greater focus within histories of South Asia (p. 20) and amalgamate top-down narratives of border-making with ground-level experiences. The book delivers on these aims. To do so, Gardner traces the history of the frontier to reveal how colonial concerns with geography and security created the foundation for the postcolonial borderland. Thus, the book rejects the stasis of borders in favor of an in-depth temporal analysis of developments in the northwest Himalaya, with primary focus on Ladakh. A core argument made by Gardner is that the creation of a borderland is not merely a routine exercise in map-making. Rather, the process is critical for understanding ways that "geography, politics, and power" are understood (p. 2). When this historical process is recognized, notable insights follow. For instance, Gardner is particularly keen to stress the ramifications of the "new, geopolitical way of seeing space" that dominated British thinking from the late nineteenth century (p. 184). The focus on security was propelled by colonial anxieties and this—alongside the inability to properly demarcate a clear boundary—produced lasting effects. This conundrum proved to be a key factor behind the Sino-Indian war of 1962, the temporal endpoint of the book. [End Page 532] The notion of the "frontier complex"—that is the various practices used by colonial officials, from surveys and mapping, to construction, information, and regulation (p. 21)—provides the framework for analysis. The first chapter covers the diverse ways the region was "seen" before the British arrival, suggesting that "Ladakh" was—in a sense—a colonial construct. The second then suggests the colonial state developed both natural and political understandings of the region but failed to construct a "scientific frontier" regardless.1 This desire to politicize geography is a continuing theme in chapters three and four as roadbuilding and colonial texts take centre stage. The former was a conduit of imperial security; the latter reflected the colonial vision of territory. Chapters five and six then delve into the rise of geopolitical thought from the 1880s, as colonial anxieties clashed with previous ideas about exploration and commercialization. The final chapter then confronts the postcolonial legacies of the frontier complex. A key strength of The Frontier Complex is its advancement beyond top-down narratives of border-making to continually examine groundlevel interactions with colonial visions of space. For instance, chapter four provides a compelling overview about how lopchak and chaba—essentially tributes paid between Ladakh and Lhasa—proved problematic for colonial governance and prestige (pp. 158–165). This approach is made possible by a rich and diverse source base. The only issue this reviewer would highlight relates to the 1962 war. Considering how heavily it weighs upon the book, the immediate prelude to war is mostly overlooked (pp. 248–250). A more concerted explanation for the midand short- term dynamics could be provided, narrated alongside the longer-term structural factors that Gardner's book reveals. This would help to recalibrate traditional narratives of the conflict, providing more convincing context for the diplomatic failures leading to 1962, of which Gardner is critical (p. 61). Despite this relatively minor area of contention, The Frontier Complex is a richly researched work that provides significant insight for several fields. This is clearest for borderlands studies and adds to a growing repertoire of historically focused analyses in recent years.2 [End Page 533] Viewing borders as something more than "hard territorial lines" is a clear point of departure for the subfield, but Gardner's book reinforces the benefits of understanding the temporal development of the borderland to reveal how spaces are conditioned by the changing interests of associated polities...

PAKISTAN-CHINA STRATEGIC COOPERATION (1972- 2015)

Pakistan’s search for security right after the independence led their policies to join western bloc in the midst of cold war due to threats posed from New Delhi and Kabul over territorial issues including Jammu & Kashmir issue, and Pak-Afghan Border. Pakistan’s foreign policy was driven by its commitment to Washington’s containment policy, which earned it hostility of communist bloc. Pakistan did not agreed to Washington’s policy of supporting New Delhi during the 1962 Sino-Indian War. This led Ayub Khan to explore other options and resulted in signing border agreement of 1963 with Beijing, which established the foundation of strategic partnership with Beijing. Islamabad played a significant role to end the Chinese isolation when it arranged the Nixon’s visit to Beijing in the early 1970s, which led to the Sino-US rapprochement. Since then, Beijing and Islamabad never looked back and have forged close association through the multilateral agreements over the years in the fields of military cooperation, nuclear cooperation as well as political and economic cooperation. The article summarizes the findings of doctoral studies by Noonari, which aims to explore the strategic cooperation between China and Pakistan and its impact over the US interests in the region.

A review of the acculturative stress scale for the Chinese community of Kolkata

Kolkata serves as a hub for many immigrant ethnic groups, including Armenians, Jews, Parsis, Chinese, and others. Among them, the Chinese appear to be the most important. The research emphasizes on the Chinese community of Kolkata, which attempted to integrate into the host culture by perceiving which qualities or behaviours are socially acceptable and shunning those that are harmful. Chinese rejection within society has been a very prevalent phenomenon since the Sino-Indian conflict of 1962. The Chinese minority in Kolkata experienced increased stress as a result of social adjustment, resulting in culture shock among this ethnic community. They are subjected to uneven treatment, particularly following the 1962 conflict, which widened the gap between the Chinese-Indian community and the general public. The objective of this study aims to create a culturally competent scale to assess the acculturative stress experienced by the Chinese community of Kolkata after the Sino-India conflict in 1962. Acculturative stress arises when an ethnic group is faced with adversity in social circumstances. The exploratory factor analysis was initiated on a series of 27 items, representing four unique stressor domain labels, which include fear (10 items), perceived discrimination (7 items), negative feelings (4 items), and social isolation (6 items). The major findings of this research are that the community is plagued by anxiety, and non-acceptance by the host culture after the 1962 war imposed a psychological impact upon the mind-set of the Chinese at that time and that fear of non-acceptance has remained among the Chinese immigrants which linked to apprehension about how to live in the new society but they tried effectively dealing with acculturative stresses in their lives.

Traditional Vernacular Architecture of Kumaon: The Case of the Hill Towns of Munsiyari, Uttarakhand

Munsiyari is a region located at an altitude of 2,200 meters in the hilly state of Uttarakhand, India. The eponymous town is surrounded by twenty-two villages mostly inhabited by Bhotiya tribes, who once formed a community that traded with those crossing from India to Tibet, though this trade came to an abrupt end with the 1962 Sino-Indian war. Owing to the region’s prosperity, the villages exhibit a very interesting typology of hill architecture. This architectural identity is also a manifestation of a geographical and cultural response to a difficult terrain. Our study was carried out as part of the preparation of a dossier for inventorying the Kailash sacred landscape with the aim of documenting the present state of the traditional vernacular heritage of the selected indigenous community for the UNESCO nomination of the wider region. That thorough documentation process was used as a means of analyzing local vernacular heritage and its current situation, and with a view to offsetting the rapid transformation of the past two decades.

The Development of Sino Indian Trade from the Perspective of “The Belt and Road Initiative”

Since ancient times, the two ancient civilizations of China and India have had a long history of trade exchanges, and such trade exchanges have left an important mark in the history of Sino-India relations. Chronologically，this article takes the Sino-Indian trade exchanges as a research perspective to outline two thousand years of trade history between two countries. From the Sino-Indian Business Road that began in the Qin Dynasty and Han Dynasty to the origin of the Silk Road on which Zhang Qian went to the Western Regions as an envoy, explored the Sino-India-Tibet Road and Maritime Silk Road trade; analyzed the opium trade between China, Britain and India in modern times. At the same time, it uses the founding of People’s Republic of China, the Sino-Indian War, the Belt and Road Initiative and the important events of the global epidemic as nodes to describe the development of Sino-Indian trade. In the long history, this kind of rich trade history also shows that China and India are more likely and should establish a better and more extensive trade cooperation relationship, and learn to effectively deal with the turmoil. This will provide reference for operating the trade activities between the two countries.

Geopolitical Reflections of Sino-Indian Conflict and its Implication on Nepal’s Survival Strategy

Border disputes between China and India in June 2020 almost lead South Asian countries to take a side. But, Nepal, situated between India and China, has always expressed a stern belief in neutrality and non-alignment. Even though New Delhi doubted Nepal’s neutrality and non-alignment citing China’s growing footprints in Nepal, Kathmandu reckoned such suspicion as the result of a new map row between two countries connected by open borders. While Nepal’s repeated calls to diplomatically resolve India-Nepal border problems remained unheeded by New Delhi, it provided room for the ruling communist party in Nepal to reap geopolitical benefits out of the Sino-Indian dispute. But, interestingly, such geopolitical benefits are usually targeted in tempering Indian influence in Nepal, by getting closer with China. Apprehending the same, this study aims to assess the geopolitical implication of Sino-Indian conflict on the survival strategy of Nepal. To fulfill the same objectives, the Chinese perception of Nepal-India relations, and Indian perception of Sino-Nepal ties have been critically assessed in this study. This study is methodologically based on the information collected from the secondary sources. In order to critically evaluate the geopolitical expression of Sino-Indian conflict in Nepal, this study reviews India’s perception of Nepal-China relations, and China’s perception of Nepal-India relations. Also, the reports and the press releases of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, historical facts, treaties, government reports and decisions have been studied and analyzed. Media sources are also reviewed to understand the diverse narratives produced on the geopolitical reflection of Sino-Indian conflict. The themes that emerged from the reviews are thematically analyzed and interpreted, to discover that cultivating relations with one country at the expense of the other may be counterproductive to Nepal’s survival strategies.