Rediscovering Lohit Valley and absurdity of Chinese claims on Arunachal – Firstpost

Lohit Valley is one of the most enchanting areas of the North-East.

Travelling along the green river surrounded on both sides by lush forests is an experience in itself, but some historical reminiscences add to one’s excitement.

Of course, one is the famous Walong Battle, during which the Indian Army gave a tough response to the advancing Chinese troops in October/November 1962, but there is more.

A text found in the National Archives of India states that near Walong lay the ‘limits of the Chinese Empire’. Xi Jinping’s China has completely and conveniently forgotten this fact; today Beijing claims that its territory extends till the foothills, more than 100 km south.

The historical note says, “Chao Erh-feng’s campaigns in Kham between 1905 and 1911 carried the Chinese into the Pomei [today Bome], Sangang and Zayul areas lying immediately north of the present McMahon line.

In 1910-12, Zhao Erfeng (also written Chao Erh-feng) was the Viceroy of Sichuan province (and Commissioner of Tibet for a couple of years); in 1905-06, he had already led military campaigns throughout Eastern Tibet (Kham) and earned the nickname of ‘Butcher Zhao’ for mercilessly crushing the Tibetans.

Pomei is today known as Bome, and Zayul is the area in the Lohit Valley, north of the McMahon Line.

The archive note continues: “In Pomei, which claimed to be independent of Lhasa, the Chinese killed every one of importance or authority. In the Tibetan district of Zayul the Chinese, after advancing on Rima, issued an order to the Chief of the Mijir Mishmis to cut a track from Tibet to [United] Assam.”

Rima was (and still is) the first town north of the Indo-Tibet border.

Zhao also sent an expedition to plant a ‘dragon banner’ at Menilkrai with the inscription “The Southern Frontier of Zayul on the Borders of Szechuan [Sichuan] Province of the Chinese Empire.”

When I recently visited the Lohit Valley, I tried to locate Menilkrai; with the help of locals, I found the nondescript place situated on the banks of the Lohit, 4 km south of Walong, in today’s Anjaw District.

In 1912, the Chinese troops were eventually thrown out of Pomei, and soon after, news was received of the annihilation of the Chinese garrison in Zayul.

The fact remains that despite the military adventures of Zhao Erfeng in the early years of the 20th century, China never ventured to or claimed any territory south of Menilkrai; the ‘border banner’ was, however, one of the main issues which triggered Delhi to explore the possibility of a tighter British administration in this rather inaccessible region; it resulted in fixing the Indo-Tibet border in March in Simla (Shimla now).

On November 19, 1913, the Secretary of State sanctioned a new ‘promenade’ (expedition) under TPM O’Callaghan, the Assistant Political Officer (APO) in Sadiya; accompanied by an escort of the 1/8th Gurkha Rifles, the British officer visited Rima at the invitation of the Tibetan authorities; cordial relations were established. It is probably at that time that the APO found the Chinese markers at Menilkrai (one dating from 1910 and the other one of 1912); he took it upon himself to remove and reposition them upstream, near Kahao, just south of what would become the McMahon Line a year later.

At the end of his ‘promenade’, O’Callaghan noted that a post needed to be established at Walong: “I am more than ever convinced of the necessity of the finishing of the road to our frontier and the opening of a post as near our frontier as soon as possible. From Walong to Rima, there is no difficulty in road making, and the Lohit Valley road [is already] open up to Mankum; only required continuation to Manglor flat, a distance of less than 30 miles, to make the opening and rationing of the post a practicable scheme.”

The APO knew of ‘the immense cost of rationing the post’, but after some enquiries, he became “satisfied that within a few years the majority of the rice and other items required for the supplies can be procured locally, either grown or purchased”.

This was, however, not enough to convince Delhi. More was needed to convince the British government to grant the necessary funds and personnel to open a permanent post near the Red Line. It took more than a hundred years (and a war in 1962) for the Indian government to seriously realise the importance of this axis.

At the time of Independence

It is worth mentioning another interesting development, just before India’s independence.

In late 1946, a ’note’ from the Foreign Affairs Department discussed a complaint from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs protesting against some British ‘intrusions’ in the Walong Sector.

Tellingly, the Chinese never complained about the Tawang area, but they objected to the British visits in the Lohit Valley. According to the note dated August 21, 1946: “The Chinese have made representations to the British Embassy at Nanking regarding the Government of India’s action in the McMahon Line area. …the note appears to relate solely to the Lohit area. Probably the Chinese are basing themselves on the customary frontier between China and India prior to the 1914 Convention which ran through Menilkrai, south of Walong.”

London thought of two courses of action: (1) to deny that the Chinese have any right to concern themselves about what goes on the Indo-Tibetan frontier; (2) to point to the agreed frontier in the 1914 Convention.

Noting that there was not a very great difference between the two, London decided to refer the matter to the Government of India since after the Cabinet Mission’s visit to India in May 1946, a plan had provided for an Interim Government of India.

The Chinese complaint was apparently linked to a proposed Indian road in the area. The British note said: “At some stage since the 1914 Convention [China] created two new provinces – Qinghai and Xikang, bordering on what they conceive to be the Sino-Tibetan Frontier. According to the 1914 Convention, however, these so-called provinces incorporate large tracts of territory belonging to Tibet. What is worse from our point of view is that they also incorporate most of the Assam Tribal Areas, [and] part of Northern Burma.”

To make things worse, the Chinese had printed maps showing their claimed boundary and sent them to London. The irredentism of the Chinese position did not surprise the authorities in Delhi; unfortunately, it continues today with Beijing trying to grab large portions of Indian territory in Arunachal Pradesh and Ladakh.

The telegram to Delhi observed: “I do not think that we should engage in any argument with the Chinese over the exact location of India’s Northern Frontier, and of our right to assert our authority up to it. I would suggest that our reply to the Chinese should be that the North-Eastern Frontier of India and the Eastern Frontier of Tibet are defined in the 1914 Convention.” The India Office in London proposed to inform the Government of India accordingly.

EP Donaldson, another official in the Foreign Office, noted: “The Chinese note is a protest, based on wholly unsupported assertions against alleged acts of aggression said to have been committed by Military Officers acting under orders of the Government of India against ‘Chinese territorial sovereignty’”.

It is interesting to note that after Independence, the Government of India was rather more decisive than the British administration.

The fact remains that a pillar in Menilkrai does not make China the owner of the entire Arunachal; in fact, apart from Menilkrai in 1910-12, the Chinese never visited any areas claimed today by them in Arunachal Pradesh.

Communist China knew this and even admitted it. On April 22, 1957, in a letter from Jawaharlal Nehru to U Nu, his Burmese counterpart, the Indian PM noted: “I am writing to you immediately so as to inform you of one particular development which took place here when Chou En-lai (Zhou Enlai) came to India. In your letter you say that while Premier Chou En-lai was prepared to accept the McMahon Line in the north (of Burma), he objected to the use of the name ‘McMahon Line’, as this may produce ‘complications vis-à-vis India’, and therefore, he preferred to use the term ‘traditional line’.”

Nehru continued: “[Zhou] made it clear that he accepted the McMahon Line between India and China, chiefly because of his desire to settle outstanding matters with a friendly country like India and also because of usage, etc. I think, he added he did not like the name ‘McMahon Line’.”

Whether China likes it or not, the Red Line remains the Indo-Tibet border today, but it should perhaps be called the ‘McMahon-Shatra Line’, since both the British and Tibetan plenipotentiaries signed and put their seal on the map.

A visit to these places (and the site where the heroic Walong Battle took place during the Sino-Indian War of 1962) makes one concretely realise the absurdity of Chinese claims in Arunachal Pradesh.

The writer is Distinguished Fellow, Centre of Excellence for Himalayan Studies, Shiv Nadar Institution of Eminence (Delhi). Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.