You may have been reading about the recent standoff between India and China at the border. In fact, as you read this, Army delegations from India and China have already had several meetings to ease off the border dispute that began in May 2021 between Indian and Chinese Troops.
Let me take you all back to the echelons of history today to understand the reason behind this tension and how a line features in the story.
The McMahon Line is a line that runs between Tibet and the North East region of India – covering 890 km from Bhutan in the west to 260 km east of the Brahmaputra River in the east.
It was proposed by the British government so that they could finalize India’s Northern boundary. At the 1913-14 Shimla Summit where Chinese representatives were also invited,
British colonial administrator Sir Henry McMahon put forth the idea of a line between India and Tibet which was agreed and signed between the British (who were ruling India at that
time) and Tibetan representatives.
Interestingly, the delegates of the Chinese republican government refused to sign the agreement in Shimla as they did not consider Tibet as a sovereign government that could sign independent treaties. This has led to a dispute which is still going on. The 1962 war between India and China was a result of this dispute.