Shed the Historic Baggage

Brig. B.L. Poonia (retd)

The statement by chief of army staff Gen. Upendra Dwivedi on 22 October 2024 that the Indian Army and the PLA were exploring ways to restore trust along the LAC is unfortunately being misinterpreted to mean that the Indian Army does not consider the PLA or China, trustworthy. This is a classic example of misinterpretation of the statement to feed the general perception that China needs to be condemned for every possible thing. Afterall, having fought a war in 1962, and having had so many border skirmishes since then, it is but natural for both sides to restore trust. Hence, there is nothing wrong in the Indian army chief’s statement. However, this doesn’t mean that China is not trustworthy. If Indians perceive absence of trust, Chinese people have stronger reasons to do so too.

The point to emphasise here is that we must stop painting China as the villain all the time. Were we honest about our history, we would realise that it was India who was at fault in the lead up to the 1962 debacle. The sooner we accept this bitter truth, the better it would be for our bilateral relations. In this context, Capt. Basil Liddell Hart’s quote comes to mind. He once said, ‘The only thing harder than getting a new idea into the military mind is to get an old one out.’ Many military leaders would agree that the military organisations are highly resistant to change of perceptions, because of their size, complexity and culture.

But this is equally applicable to the civil population too, since every citizen loves her country to a degree that she finds it near impossible to accept her own country being anywhere, other than on the moral high ground. I am sure every Chinese citizen believes so, and so does every Pakistani citizen, when it comes to the issue of Jammu and Kashmir. And the best part is that the citizens of all three countries are ready to die for their beliefs.

But does belief become the truth, just because one is ready to die for it?

It is the historical truth alone that remains supreme, not the beliefs, which are based on the political narrative in their respective nations. India is no exception. And here lies the real problem. When beliefs take precedence over the facts, one is blinded to not only the reality, but future opportunities too.

S. Jaishankar with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi

Many articles have come up since the announcement by foreign secretary Vikram Misri that India and China have agreed to disengage from Demchok and Depsang. Yet not one article has tried to touch upon the facts of this case. The entire narrative is built upon painting China as the villain, since it gives immense psychological satisfaction. But that is not the way to settle a longstanding border issue. And more than not knowing the truth, the problem lies with the psychological inability to digest the unpalatable truth. We must appreciate that this is a historic opportunity to restore peace on Indo-China borders, which has eluded us since 1962. Now we should not miss this opportunity, the way we had done in April 1960, when the Chinese delegation led by Chou-En-Lai had visited Delhi in an attempt to settle the boundary issue in a peaceful manner through diplomacy, immediately after having resolved the same with Burma.

The Boundary Claims

The only way to overcome our distrust of China is by examining the larger issue of the border dispute pertaining to Aksai Chin and the erstwhile North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA). No one can deny that the basis of laying claim on any piece of territory has to be either conquest or consent. With that clarity, let’s look at Aksai Chin.

Aksai Chin never belonged to India. India’s claim on Aksai Chin is based on Johnson Line, which was a unilaterally drawn line by the British India and included Aksai Chin as part of Kashmir. The legal status of this was shown as ‘Boundary Undefined’. The purpose was to offer it as a boundary proposal to China, which did not happen. Those who believe otherwise, should answer the following questions:

• In which battle did India or the British India conquer Aksai Chin?
• Vide which treaty was Aksai Chin given to India?
• Why was Aksai Chin shown as part of Tibet on the m