The Sino-Indian Boundary Issue continues....

The meeting was held between the British

Indian Government, the Tibetan Government which was practically independent of Chinese control at that time, and was attended by a Chinese diplomat Chen I-fan (or Ivan Chen), who added his ‘chop’ to the map proposing the lines, but stated his inability to negotiate the issue on behalf of China. Chinese governments have then and thereafter, to today, rejected the validity and the legality of this line. India’s concerns are only with the red line between Tibet and eastern India, which was drawn on an ‘eight miles to one inch’ map, generally following the ‘highest crestlines principle’ or the edge of the Tibetan plateau itself.

It was broadly speaking drawn along the top of the highest ridges that separated waters flowing northwards into Tibet from waters that flowed southwards into Assam, and along the ‘crest-line’ of the Himalayas on the southern rim of the Tibetan Plateau.

This line is not always the actual watershed, as the major rivers that originate on the Tibetan plateau all cut through the Himalayan chain at some point, and there are a number of other rivers as well that cut through this ‘line of the highest crest-lines’ to flow southwards into the Indian subcontinent. The original map names the major known passes through which the ‘Outer’ Line passes.

These can easily be transposed onto modern cartography if the line itself needs to be used as a basis for negotiation and agreement.

There were some minor variations from this principle, for example, to leave a particular village in Tibet, but the only major variations occur in those sections where the old line is not defined by place names which can be transposed onto modern maps, and is thus vague, and thus open to various interpretations on the ground.

To be continued....