Territory tussle

The box, “Manufactured history”  (September 9), extracted from Shyam Saran’s book, How India Sees the World, states that India claimed the territory between the Karakoram and Kunlun ranges in 1958. If one reads the book, India-China Boundary Problem 1846–1947 by AG Noorani, it is evident that from 1840 to 1911, when the Chinese empire collapsed, the British were practically inviting them to come up to the Karakoram, being more worried about the Russians then. 

Noorani makes a profound statement: While that territory might have belonged to the British empire, it was never part of British India. Even Jawaharlal Nehru’s Discovery of India, first edition 1946, shows the boundaries beyond the Karakoram Range as undefined. 

It is a moot point as to how many official papers from 1913 (Simla Conference) to 1962 have been released. From a common man’s point of view, it appears that the territory belonged to no one — neither India nor China. However, China was smart and grabbed it first. 

To say that it was our territory and remain unaware of a road being built for over two years from Sinkiang (Xinjiang now) to Lhasa appears politically immature. Recall that Nehru said the area was remote and nothing grew there. Mahavir Tyagi responded, “Nothing grows on your head either.” 

Whatever the current line of thinking, only a non-Congress government can negotiate a settlement without family egos, which prevented a solution till 2014. Let 2019 be the target.

T R Ramaswami   Mumbai

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