Voices from the Border: Response to Chinese Claims over Arunachal Pradesh

This volume deals with one of the most complicated inter-state border disputes involving India and China-the two most populous countries in the world. Sino-Indian border is conveniently divided into three sectors-Western Middle and Eastern Sectors. The focus of the volume is on the Eastern Sector where China claims 98000 square kilometer of territory lying south of the McMahon Line presently under Indian occupation that roughly corresponds to Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh which China calls South Tibet. The contributions in this volume interrogate the nature of contesting claim over Arunachal Pradesh by the two neighbouring nations question the adequacy of historical evidences behind such claims analyze the dynamics of territorial politics being played out by them in order to obfuscate their mutual role in the politics of containment to each other and caution to the danger of nuclear holocaust in the event of any sort of war adventurism as the war-waging capacity in them has metamorphosed from conventional to nuclear capability. The contributors have emphasized the benefits of “cooperative relationship” between India and China which can open up immense opportunities in terms of enhancement of bilateral trade investment and technology and underlined the costs of “adversarial relationship” that might ruin the aspirations of the people. They have suggested for a pragmatic approach towards the resolution of the border dispute particularly in the Eastern Sector by way of converting the Line of Actual Control into international border between them with a “give and take” spirit.