"The Sino-Indian Border dispute: A historical background" a talk by Claude Arpi at The Attic, 36, Regal Building, CP > 6:30pm on 12th November 2013

Time : 6:30 pm

Entry : Free (Seating on First-Come First-Served basis)

Place : The Attic, 36, Regal Building, Connaught Place, New Delhi-110001 
Landmark : On Parliament Street close to 'The Shop' showroom & next to the 'Kwality' restaurant
Venue Info : Events | About | Parking and Location | Map
Metro : Nearest Metro Station - 'Rajiv Chowk' (Yellow Line and Blue Line)
Area : Connaught Place (CP)

Event Description : “The Sino-Indian Border dispute: A historical background” a talk by Claude Arpi.

 On March 22, 1959 Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru wrote a long letter to his Chinese counterpart, Zhou En-lai about the emerging border differences between India and China.
As the basis for defining a common boundary, Nehru spoke of three sectors where India had a treaty with Tibet: Sikkim, Ladakh and the McMahon Line in the eastern part of the now Sino-Indian boundary. The Indian Prime Minister added: “Thus, in these three different sectors covering much the larger part of our boundary with China, there is sufficient authority based on geography, tradition as well as treaties for the boundary as shown in our published maps. The remaining sector from the tri-junction of the Nepal, India and Tibet boundary upto Ladakh is also traditional and follows well-defined geographical features. Here, too the boundary runs along well-defined watersheds between the river systems in the south and the west on the one hand and north and east on the other.”
A week after Nehru had sent his letter, India offered asylum to the Dalai Lama and thousands of his followers; it marked a definite turn in the formerly prevalent bhai-bhai relations with China.
In 1960, the first border talks between India and China were held. They lasted several months and went into the details of the alignments proposed by both sides. Tibet, whose ‘traditional’ border it had been for millennia, was not involved/invited to the talks.
The 1962 War- A direct consequence of the Dalai Lama’s flight was the border war between India and China in October 1962; for India, this tragic event has remained a deep scar in the country’s psyche.
During his peregrinations on the Himalayan border, Claude Arpi will go into some relatively little known issues, such as the chequered history of Tawang; the British India policy towards Tibet and even the possibility for India to militarily defend the Roof of the World.
Claude will also look into why the Government still keeps the Henderson Brooks Report under wraps and what were Mao’s motivations for ‘teaching India a lesson’. The main thread remains the Tibet-India frontier in the North-East and the Indo-Chinese conflict.
The more one digs into this question, the more one discovers that the entire issue is intimately linked with the history of modern Tibet; particularly its status as a de facto independent nation.
Claude Arpi is French-born author and journalist who lives in Auroville, India. He has interviewed many eminent personalities including the Dalai Lama. His most recent books include 1962 and The McMahon Line Saga ( 2013), Tibet: The Lost Frontier (2008), India and Her Neighbourhood: A French Observer’s Views (2005), Born in Sin: The Panchsheel Agreement (2004), The Fate of Tibet: When Small Insects Eat Big Insect (1999).

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