India’s dilemma, China’s angst
patricia mukhim
THE India-China spat over Arunachal Pradesh is actually a diplomatic slapstick. After nearly 65 years of having held this territory as its own, India has only, in recent times, seen the wisdom of developing the periphery. China, meanwhile, has left no stone unturned to demonstrate its seriousness about never leaving any part of its country to “develop according to its own genius”, as India has done, by following wise advice of Indologist/anthropologist Verrier Elwin.
In this country, anyone who has dared to venture into tribal habitats, especially at the time that Elwin did in the early ’50s and ’60s, is bound to be considered some kind of hero. Elwin was Nehru’s adviser on tribal affairs. We are told that when China attacked India in 1962 and the military generals were waiting outside Nehru’s office for crucial advice, the Prime Minister kept them waiting for at least four hours because he was fascinated by Elwin’s tribal tales.
And what Elwin suggested, Nehru did. The tribal areas of India experienced limited development because the tribes were supposed to come up with development models of their own creation. What was not understood is that the tribes never knew what a nation and its expectations were. But they do now. Sixty years ago they existed as loose fiefdoms and subsisted on barter economy. They engaged in inter- and intra-tribal warfare when their hunting grounds encroached into one another’s territory. From this uncomplicated way of life they were expected to join the “mainstream” when they did not know any stream but their own Brahmaputra, Lohit, Subansiri and the many beautiful vibrant rivers that continue to remain pristine natural flows.
Today, those rivers which served a very simple purpose of washing, bathing, fishing and recreation for the tribes are seen as assets for generating power which a power-hungry, industrially advancing India needs to guzzle. For that reason alone Arunachal Pradesh has become an important part of the country. The state is set to generate 50,000 MW of power or more. But even that is no match for what China is generating. It has negotiated with the Myanmarese junta to build a giant nine-billion dollar 7.1 gigawatt hydropower station across the Salween. So China is no longer talking megawatts but gigawatts. And that not in its own territory but in Myanmarese territory.
Considering that India is supposed to be a strong supporter of democracy in Myanmar, it is ironic that the same country should be negotiating the best economic deals with China. But a reading of Thant Myint-U’s book, Where China meets India, informs us that while India has always been tentative about investment in Myanmar and projects discussed between the two countries have been hanging fire for years, China is quick at making good its promises.
Although Thant Myint insists that Myanmar is psychologically and culturally closer to India, the country finds itself in a bind. It knows that China is all set to control the Indian Ocean via its String of Pearls Policy. But Myanmar is also fearful of the large Chinese influx into the country, especially Mandalay, Lashio, Mongla and those tribal territories that Myanmar struggles to control. This could have repercussions in the future that are perhaps not readily anticipated today since Myanmar, after years of economic sanctions, is struggling to find its feet to keep up with the economies of its Southeast Asian neighbours.
Cut to the chase, Arunachal Pradesh is another territory that China would love to treat as its appendage as it has done with those areas of Myanmar bordering Yunnan province. The McMahon Line, which is still the effective boundary demarcation between India and China, extends 890 km from Bhutan in the west to 260 km east of the great bends of the Brahmaputra river in the east, bordering the crest of the Himalayas. India accepts the McMahon Line as the legal national border. This demarcation was agreed to by Britain and Tibet as part of the Simla Accord of 1914.
The Simla Accord has been a bone of contention between India and China ever since both countries became conscious of their nation-state status. However, since talks between the two countries on this issue have been a futile exercise, the McMahon Line continues to be the effective, if not mutually accepted boundary between the two. In 2003, the Dalai Lama stated that the disputed region (South Tibet, which includes parts of Arunachal Pradesh that China claims as its territory) is part of Tibet. In 2008, the Dalai Lama acknowledged the legitimacy of the McMahon Line and authenticated India’s claim to Arunachal Pradesh.
Now China is not expected to accept any claims made by the Dalai Lama and his idea of a sovereign Tibet, which it sees as the biggest threat to its expansion plans in the south. China’s rejection of the Simla Accord is based on the premise that the Tibetan government was not sovereign and, therefore, did not have the power to conclude treaties. Chinese maps show some 65,000 square km of the territory south of the line as part of the Tibet Autonomous Region or South Tibet that the Chinese forces had briefly occupied during the 1962 war with India. China does, however, recognise the Line Of Actual Control, which includes a portion of the McMahon Line in the eastern part of its border with India. Interestingly, the McMahon Line that’s hotly contested by China in the Arunachal Pradesh sector is accepted as its boundary with Myanmar.
But there are some things that China has done right or, rather, policies that it has put in place which, in some sense, places it on a higher diplomatic plane. China has developed highways and railways right up to the borders of Arunachal Pradesh, only 30 km away. The areas are flourishing townships, quite unlike Arunachal Pradesh which still remains largely dislocated even within the state. Western and eastern Arunachal Pradesh are difficult to traverse and Assam serves as the via media. Large swathes of Arunachal Pradesh are still living in the primitive ages with archaic tribal laws. Slavery is still rampant and child marriages are allowed to happen despite the enlightened policies of women’s empowerment that this country boasts of.
A botanist who visits Arunachal Pradesh quite often shares some horrific stories of life as he sees it in the eastern peripheries of the state where slavery is accepted. He says if a girl is taken as a slave and tries to run back to her family, she is not accepted. The girl is beaten black and blue and whether she survives such brutality is anyone’s guess. Health care in these remote, inaccessible hamlets of Arunachal Pradesh are unheard of. People still survive on indigenous herbs and repose their faith in quacks and traditional healers. I often wonder if Arunachal Pradesh would have continued to languish in this pitiable condition if it were part of China. Why does India neglect its periphery and expect unstinted loyalty from the people who inhabit these spaces? Isn’t there a lesson to be learnt here from China?
It is only now that the bigwigs of this country have deigned to visit Arunachal Pradesh and know what it looks like. Hence the investment in roads, railway and airway infrastructure in recent times! Yet the people of the state have, interestingly, been most loyal citizens of India, unlike their confreres in Nagaland, Manipur and Meghalaya. For this alone the people of Arunachal Pradesh must be rewarded. But like they say, only those who put a gun to the Indian government’s head get all the freebies.
The writer is editor, The Shillong Times
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