6-STORY OF INDIA-CHINA WAR
This episode is
consisting of the stories before and after the infamous India-China war. And
for this the first and most instant event was the story of Tezpur of Assam.
This city got fully evacuated within a single night and what was the reason and
why it all happened, this will be the major crux of this chapter. It was all
happening due to the attacks and forward march of Chinese soldiers into the
territory of Assam. People were so nervous and fearful that any time the
Chinese army can attack here, so they were worried about their lives and for
which they were leaving Tezpur. It was 20th October 1962 when the
war between India and China started and people got more scared when they got to
listen the speech of Nehru during that point of time. And from that speech
people thought not only Tezpur but also the whole of north-eastern of India
will be captured by China. It all started in the mid night of 19th
October, when Chine started war by attacking Indian camps in the north east
region of India. It was just fifteen years to the country’s independence and
one big country towards the north of India and it is China who was happens to be
a big country in terms of geography and demography as well attached India in
all front. Prior to the war against China in 1962, India tried to maintain a
friendly relation with China but finally the time came when the war occurred
and India as a country suffered a lot from that devastating war with China and
most importantly the Indian Army was not at all ready and expecting any sort of
war at that point of time. An eminent journalist of India of that time named by
BG Vergese was the war correspondent and he went to Tabang area of Arunachala
Pradesh just to see the preparatory sessions of Indian army before the war.
From the visit he saw that Indian army is lacking with many resources and they
didn’t have many resources as it was required for the war. Brigadier SP Srikant
was a Major during that point of time and he was also an awardee with the
Mahaveer Chakra award for his efforts during the war against China. But his
efforts couldn’t break the forward speed of China’s army into Arunachala and
Ladakh regionof India. From day one of war it was clearly visible to the people
that Indian army will certainly fail short against China’s army. And time to
time China was able capture few areas of Indian Territory and they were just
flying Red flag of china as they were sealing the soil of India. On day three
of the war Nehru again gave speech in radio and few people took that speech as
the defeat of Indian army in the war against China. Through that speech Nehru
was trying to console all Indian that we have to be ready and prepare ourselves
for a long war against our enemy. But China didn’t give chance to India for any
more war cause on 2Oth November night China’s Prime Minister called up the
Indian ambassador and said that by mid night China will go for ceasefire and
within one week and so our army will back themselves by 20km away from the Line
of Actual Control. With that one side declaration from China side the war
stopped for that time. War got stopped but the scar stocked for times to come
in every Indian’s heart. The war which lasted for almost one month India has
lost many lives and many invaluable things due to that war against China. From
that war china could able to occupied 42,375 square km of Indian land. It was
like an area where Delhi like 28 cities can be adjusted to that space. India lost
1383 brave soldiers who lost their great soul and 1047 got severely injured for
the safeguard purpose of their country. And almost 4000 Indian soldiers got war
imprisoned by Chinese army. We have lost to China in a bad manner. Even after
50 years to that war against China, still our relation with China is being
affected by that war of 1962. Question is why we have lost to China in that war
and the big question is that why and how the war happened? Was there no other
way out to the existed issues with China? What was the sole reason behind that
war, and for this the year 1950 is very important? Both the country India and China came to a
new era of time with their Independence. India got independence in 1947 and
china got the name that is Republic of China under untiring and quality
leadership Mao Setung and Chao En LI. India supported China in all matter but
in 1950 China betrayed India by attacking a small state named by Tibet and
occupied it and declared it one of the state of China. And which changed the
international map yet again. India got hugely affected by this move of China
because China erased the distance by occupying Tibet which was standing between
India and China. Which raised many security questions before India? During that
time the ministry of external affairs was coming under Prime Minister Nehru, so
he issued a letter to the ministry and he mentioned about the move of China and
how it is going to be a threat for India in future to come. India was not at
all interested to go for any bilateral talk with China in reference to the LOC
issue. India was waiting for the time to come when china will talk in that
issue, then only India will talk in reference to the LOC issue. But the then
Home Minister of India named by Sardar Patel was bit uninterested with this
approach of Nehru, so he wrote a letter to Nehru and tried to make Nehru
understand about the trap of China. But Nehru was not interested to go for talk
with China in reference to boarder issue. The line between India and China is
famously known as McMahan Line, which was fixed in the year 1914 in the Shimla
Commission under active presence of the members from China, British India and
Tibet. But when Indian administration reached Tabang area then they got great
hospitality but the strange thing was, China was simply silence over this move
of India, so Indian government sent KM Panekar to China to meet the Prime
Minister of China and try to know what is the original intention of China over
these boarder issue, because India wanted a clear cut approach from China
Before China’s move towards Tibet. But China didn’t talk anything about the
boarder issue with KM Panekar. Most of the members of the External affairs
insisted Nehru that India should directly approach China to talk about the
Boarder issue and should let china to know about the Indian boundary. But Nehru
avoided these proposals. According to him it is not the right time to talk with
China about the boarder issue, when the right time will come, we will make
everything clear-cut before China about our stand. It was not the end of all
these things, even China accepted and signed the paper on 19th April
1954, which is known as Five Principle Treaty. In which both the countries were
entitled for the peace and harmony among each other. These moves of both the
countries were getting applause and appreciation from every corner of the
world. In that treaty India admitted that now Tibet is a part of China but
India couldn’t able make clear-cut stand about its stand in terms of land. And
India surrendered its reach in Tibet to China. After that treaty Prime Minister
of China came to India, lot of official talk happen but nothing in relation to
the border line. During that time Dalailama of Tibet was not happy and
satisfied with the behaviour of China in Tibet, so he came to India for help,
but Nehru justified before him that it will be unjustified and wrong to help
Tibet over its internal issue, because India is admitting that Tibet is now a
part of China. But India got disturbed after the road of Aksai Chin which was
connecting Tibet to China. Because the area based on which the road was
connecting to Tibet, which was coming under India according to Macmahan Line.
So soon after that Nehru wrote a letter to his counterpart of China and
mentioned about that road and justified that both the countries were committed
that Macmahan line as the line between India and China. But India got a
strangely reply that the letter of China was clarifying that there had been no
permanent and concrete official decision over the border line of India and
China and another thing which was mentioned in that letter it was that China
didn’t raise the boarder issue because it has some other important thing to do
during that point of time. But one big thing happened during that time, that
was Tibet declare a war against China and Dalailama and few of his disciples of
Tibet thought that China may arrest him so he came to India for help and have
stayed in India. India also welcomed him and Nehru personally went to Mysore to
meet him. And China was not at all happy with this move of India. And the
bilateral relation with China got affected and people were worried about this
move of the Indian government. The members of the opposition were protesting in
a big way against this move of Nehru, so finally the day came Nehru presented a
white paper which was containing the information of China. He presented that
paper with a view that it will stop the protest, but after that presentation
the protest got more momentum. It became a total political issue; from this the
diplomacy with China got affected. One of the reason was VK Krishnamenon the
defence minister of India of that time. He and the then army chief KS Themeiya was
not ageing in one state. While the army chief was in favour that China is our
enemy country and we should prepare for China, but defence minister was
sticking to Pakistan, according to him the true enemy country was Pakistan. The
rising dispute between the army chief and defence minister came to the public
sphere when an officer of Indian army named by BM Kaul got promotion to the
post called lieutenant general by superseding twelve other senior officers on
him. Kaul was happening to be in one of the relatives of Nehru and Kual himself
publicised this matter before others. Army chief was not in support of Kaul to become
Lieutenant general. During that time one more letter came in the name of Nehru
where China mentioned that they don’t admit that McMahan line as the line between
India- China, so a new treaty should be there to decide for the wellbeing
purpose of both the countries. And due to this information the tensions of India got
more serious and it became an issue for the diplomats, because the diplomatic
sense was not successful with the China. The pressure on the border issue was
increasing day by day. And Nehru called a meeting with higher officials and
then it was decided that India will be forwarding its army division to boarder
for the China issue and it is known as Forward policy. It was a big decision of
Nehru. China was aiming the Aksai China of Ladakh Region and they didn’t agree
with the McMahan line. Then all of a sudden it was an information which came in
favour of Nehru that his counter part of China will be coming to India soon, so
the pressure on Nehru was at a high level, because his members of the congress
party were insisting him that he should be hard on this issue and he should
deal on all things but not compromise with Indian land. But the meeting was
meaningless on India’s part. The diplomatic talk between the two countries was
happening at a regular basis but no meaning was coming out of it. So both the
countries were moving forward for the ultimate war. But in 1960, December Nehru
took a stand in favour of China at the UNO. In between 1961-62 Nehru was
centred with the boarder issue with china in the parliament and china was
regularly attacking on Indian camps. By October 1962 it was clear that there
was no other way out than war. Then the war started, even if forward policy has
already been implicated but still the preparation was not up to the mark and
for which India had to suffer a huge loss from that war. It was hurting Nehru
in a big way, he got saddened by that defeat and after one and half year he
left his last breath and with that a chapter of whole Indian history got closed
for ever.
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