Historical and Geographical Information as Related to the Common Book

Sino‑Indian War (1962): A conflict over two areas of the Sino‑Indian border which had not been agreed in a formal treaty and where the maps used by each side differed considerably. In the east is an area of 35,000 square miles called the North‑East Frontier Agency (NEFA), which is shown as part of China on Guomindang maps but has never been administered by China. In the west is the Aksai‑Chin plateau, mainly desert and uninhabited, which India claimed as part of Ladakh. It was shown as part of British India on maps of the Raj but was never administered by Britain or by India after independence. Trouble arose as a result of the Tibetan revolt against China in 1959, when India discovered that China had built a road through western Tibet and across the Aksai‑Chin plateau. China said that the border, never defined, should be fixed by negotiation and proposed a compromise which would give the Aksai‑Chin to China and NEFA to India. The Indians would not accept this and in 1962 attacked Chinese troops in NEFA. The Chinese reacted forcefully and won an overwhelming victory, leaving India humiliated and bitter. They expelled India from the whole of the disputed area but did not go beyond the territory China claimed. China then announced a cease‑fire and handed NEFA to India, thus giving India two‑thirds of the disputed territory. There was no agreed settlement and Sino‑Indian relations remained sour for the next 20 years. (Delaney, CSU Northridge.)