A.S. Bhasin, author of Nehru, Tibet and China

China Made All Possible Efforts to Make India Understand the Need for Fresh Surveys… in Both the Sectors, But Unfortunately it Was Nehru Who Consistently Denied the Need For it

In your Epilogue, you write that no settlement is ‘ever possible on conditions imposed by one party.’ Do you think that under the present circumstances, China can impose a settlement on the strength of its military and economic power?

No, China cannot impose a settlement on India with its sheer military and economic strength. Even status quo is in China’s favour since they are in occupation of the entire Aksai Chin since 1962.

Several books have chronicled India’s difficult relationship with China. In what respect is your book different?

My book goes into the roots of the problem which made a settlement difficult. There were several issues just to take the main question, ‘the borders’: India’s borders with Tibet/ China were problematic. The erstwhile NEFA (presently Arunachal Pradesh), until 1951 was known by the Tibetan name Tawang, and despite the McMahon Line it remained under Tibetan occupation since 1914 and they collected the civil revenue as well.

The British had in 1940 assured Tibet that they would redraw the border line to run south of the McMahon Line thus putting Tawang back into Tibet. But the follow-up action to formally carryout this assurance was not taken by the time the British left India in 1947. After Independence, the government of India too assured Tibet that it would adjust the border in Tawang in its favour of Tibet. Despite this assurance in April 1951 as the negotiations for 17-Point Agreement between China and Tibet started in Beijing, India occupied Tawang ignoring Tibetan protests. Delhi feared that if Tawang was allowed to remain under Tibet, after China’s occupation, its borders would come down to the plains of Assam creatin