“Since then there have been worries in China that India would make life difficult for China going forward,” said Pant. Pant, a professor of International Relations at King’s College, London, can be found in India’s revocation last year of the special status granted to Jammu and Kashmir, and the splitting of the former Indian state into two territories. The genesis of the current crisis, according to Harsh V. This created an uneasy status quo which persists today, where neither side quite agrees on the border, both regularly accuse the other of overstepping it or seeking to expand their territory, and excuse for conflict is easy to come by. “While India recognized the so-called ‘McMahon line,’” a holdover of the British colonial era, analyst Larry Wortzel writes in a US military report, “China never formally accepted it, opting instead for the ‘borders of habit’ that had existed between adjoining peoples for decades previous.” India claims the region as part of Ladakh, a remote, mountainous territory east of the Kashmir Valley which was until last year part of the Indian-controlled but semi-autonomous state of Jammu and Kashmir, the part of the wider disputed region that ended up in Indian control following the 1947 war with Pakistan. Decolonization only brought with it further confusion and antipathy, particularly after Pakistan split with India in the wake of independence.Īksai Chin is part of greater Kashmir, and after the bloody war between Pakistan and India in 1947 resulted in the partition of that region, the border between China and India was left ill-defined. The Line of Actual Control, the loosely-defined, de facto border, emerged out of the Sino-Indian border war of 1962, which itself was sparked by longstanding historical territorial disagreements.Īs Maxwell writes in his book “India’s China War,” sovereignty over the Aksai Chin region has always been somewhat confused.įor much of the 1800s, the Himalayas was a focus of the military and political rivalry between the three empires of Russia, Britain and China, with all three claiming various parts of the region. So why is the area so important to both sides? In his book on the region, British historian Neville Maxwell describes it as a “no-man’s land, where nothing grows and no one lives.” And yet, India and China went to war over it in 1962, leaving thousands dead on both sides, and between that month-long conflict and Monday’s skirmish, the region saw numerous fist fights and minor clashes between border guards and outraged statements from Beijing or New Delhi accusing the other of seeking to overstep the de facto border. The Indian army initially confirmed three casualties, but later said an additional 17 soldiers “exposed to sub-zero temperatures in the high altitude terrain have succumbed to their injuries.” The altitude and freezing temperatures may have contributed to Monday’s death toll. Located high in the Himalayas, the average altitude is 14,000 feet (4,200 meters), almost double the height where altitude sickness kicks in, meaning any humans in the area have to undergo tedious, gradual acclimatisation or suffer crippling headaches, nausea and fatigue. It is cold and inhospitable, draped in snow with temperatures around freezing, even in summer.
For its part, China had already moved large numbers of troops and armaments to the region, while India has also reportedly reinforced its position, though New Delhi has been less vocal about its military strength there.Īksai Chin, the area in contention, is claimed as part of Xinjiang by China and Ladakh by India. The two nuclear-armed neighbors are now attempting a rapid deescalation of tensions, even as some jingoistic and hawkish voices in both countries are demanding greater defiance and aggression. The details of the encounter remain confused, however, and may never be fully clear. Both sides have accused the other of overstepping the de facto border, the Line of Actual Control (LAC) that runs along the western sector of the valley. It is unclear if or how many Chinese soldiers died. After over four decades of saber-rattling and minor scuffles, a border dispute between China and India has again turned fatal.Īt least 20 Indian soldiers were killed in a bloody brawl with Chinese troops on Monday in the Galwan Valley, close to Aksai Chin, an area controlled by China but claimed by both countries.
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