Borderland: Sino-Indian Border Dispute Writing Assignment

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Borderland: Sino-Indian Border Dispute
Introduction
The Sino-Indian border war of 1962 occurred after an extended territorial dispute between the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and India. According to scholars, the outbreak of the war saw the two countries fighting on two fronts. It is not until November 21, 1962 when the war ended after China announced unilaterally a ceasefire after the Indian Army was defeated (Chaudhuri 841). Practitioners and other scholarly experts argue that since India was defeated, the first Prime Minister known as Jawaharlal Nehru came up with decisions that resulted to the abandonment of the country’s foreign policy of non-alignment. Nehru had appealed to the U.S. to be provided with military assistance, arguing that he had abandoned non-alignment and that India was forming a military alliance with America. This paper critically analyzes the controversies that led to the Sino-India borderland war.
In the early years when the war began in 1962, Neville Maxwell who was a journalist for The Times argued that Indian authorities had abandoned non-alignment. He added that Nehru’s policies were brought down by the border war between India and China. In the post-war period, Nehru sought for non-alignment and he said that India was a U.S. ally especially when it came to the outbreak of the war (Chaudhuri 842). The Director of military operations (DMO) who was known as D.K. Palit said that asking America to intervene was a form of joining a military alliance. Scholarly materials that were published more than 30 years after the war tend to reinforce the argument that India had decided to abandon re-alignment. However, numerous works have attempted to oppose past opinions that India had abandoned non-alignment since there were no military alliances that were formed between India and America.
In the Sino-Indian borderland war, some analysts argue that China was the aggressor who invaded India. Existing literature argues that in the non-alignment policy, India acted just like the way neo-realists could have predicted. Neo-realists argue that when a state feels threatened, it can either bandwagon or balance. This is what was predicted by B.K. Nehru who sought assistance from the U.S., a country that was considered as a more powerful nation. The aim was to balance against China which was the aggressor that led to the emergence of the borderland war (Arif 1). It is also important to note that the strategic preferences used by India were in fact inspired by cultural beliefs and this goes against the arguments of neo-realism. Evidence suggests that the cultural beliefs were inspired by what India experienced during the colonial period, and this was instrumental in shaping the non-alignment policy.
The Sino-India borderland war marked a significant period in the evolution of the Cold War across Asia. Studies have revealed that the long-standing dispute on the border between India and China broke into an open war-fare after China invaded India. Despite the fact that the Indian Prime Minister had implemented the non-alignment policy, the borderland war made India to request the assistance of the U.S. and UK, an issue that showed that India was making a major policy shift (Devereux 71). The question was whether China wanted to intimidate western countries in Asia or it was simply embarrassing India with an aim of gaining regional power. Furthermore, the crisis blew at a time that coincided with the Cuban missile crisis and this influenced the U.S. president to urge the UK and the Commonwealth countries to take an active role in defending India.
The Sino-Indian borderland war also opened the door to solving the long-standing dispute with Pakistan pertaining to Kashmir. Although the UK government had numerous sentiments for the Indian people, it was not entirely convinced that the borderland dispute was highly threatening as it had been mentioned by the U.S (Arif 1). Therefore, the British government only wanted to offer a supportive role instead of committing its military permanent with India. Furthermore, the crisis showed that there were two main western countries that used a geopolitical approach to solving the deep-rooted problem that is associated with regional rivalry and nationalism and very little on ideology.
The Sino-Indian borderland war occurred in to places, which included the Northeast Frontier Agency in the east and the Aksai Chin in the west. However, the conflict was mainly fought in the eastern side between India and Tibet. Evidence suggests that the conflict dates back to the 19th century when the British Indian administrators tried to delineate the boundary in the mostly unmapped Himalayas region (Devereux 72). The Indian-Tibet conference that was held in 1914 at Simla confirmed the deal known as McMahon Line which became the official boundary and it roughly followed the crest of the mountains. However, China claimed Tibet to be part of its region and it never accepted the boundary, with the same sentiments being used by the later communist regime. In addition, China argued that its sovereignty went all the way up to the Indian part of the mountain. This implies that the disputed zone totaled to 5,000 square miles, yet it was environmentally hostile and remote such that it was not subjected to proper survey.
The dispute between India and China was essentially theoretical until the independence of India and the partition in 1947. This made the new government in India to be increasingly conscious about its writ to the maximum level. In addition, when the Chinese communist authorities decided to invade Tibet in 1950, the Tibetan rebels were suppressed in 1959 and this revealed a similar motivation by China to portray national dominion to the highest level possible. In 1954, India recognized that China had authority over Tibet and this ushered in a period of relative friendliness. However, border clashes started when Dalai Lama escaped to India in 1959 leading to the establishment of a ‘forward policy’ as well as India’s military outposts that were located in the McMahon line (Devereux 72). The border clashes started in the western and eastern zones where there was constant deterioration of relations between India and China. Increased iciness was witnessed when Beijing and New Delhi started to exchange notes. Moreover, relations between China and the Soviet Union had rapidly deteriorating, and India decided to exploit this occasion to buy MiG 21 fighters from Russia.
In an article entitled “Forty Years of Folly,” Neville Maxwell analyzes the main reason that led to the Sino-Indian border dispute. He argues that most Indians wrongly believe that the 1962 border dispute was as a result of the aggression from China. However, when Nehru’s government refused to enter into negotiations with China, it led to an intractable dispute yet the boundary problem could have been solved amicable (Maxwell 99). The Indian government tried to impose conditions on China’s realignment yet such a unilateral decision was misled. Moreover, when Beijing refused to accede to such forms of territorial demands, the Indian government started to advance its troops with an intention of forcing china to move away from the territory which India was claiming. This attac...