In February 2008, when Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh visited Arunachal and called it the ?Rising Sunshine State?, the Chinese protested over his visit. This prompted the Indian Foreign Minister to state, ?Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India and the Prime Minister can visit any part of the country.?
The author points out that since January 2007, the Chinese have crossed the Line of Actual Control a hundred and forty times. The Indian Defence Minister has assured us that there is a mechanism on the ground to sort out these intrusions and ?we do not want to aggravate the prevailing tensions on the border,? but we are tempted to ask what have we done to resolve issues that were thrown up after the 1962 war with China? While we have tried to hold talks, China has upped its demands and now lays claim to Arunachal.
This book, written by the first Governor of the State from March 29, 1984 for three years, tries to show that we, from mainland India, have taken little interest in the northeast which constitutes one-eighth of the landmass of our country and that only when an insurgency or tribal conflict erupts or when China lays its claim to the region that the northeast finds space in the media and in our awareness. He feels that the whole region has remained somewhat isolated from the rest of India and our ignorance is due to ?distance, geography and indifference?.
He admits that though Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi loved and adored the northeast, political parties have been busy in coalition politics at the Centre at the cost of the wider and more serious issues of national security and development of border areas. While India has been dallying-dallying, the Chinese have been active not only in developing the infrastructure in the Tibet region but are also using the television and other propaganda measures and meeting the local people to whip up support to their cause. They are cleverly infiltrating their minds knowing that in remote mountain areas, boundaries do not separate people. In a way ?ethnic affinity, social customs, religious beliefs and barter trade to share each other'sproducts and requirements, reinforce their interdependence.? The so-called international boundaries are soft targets, especially where the border is not demarcated on the ground; nor can it be patrolled by troops because of the high mountainous terrain and harsh living conditions. So in this sparsely populated region, the people of Arunachal can be our best defence, asserts the author.
In the prologue, the author gives a brief geographical description of the region and the parameters of the Chinese claim. Also included are the basis and the background of India'sfirm assertion to sovereignty over the area. China lays claim to the southern border of Arunachal Pradesh described by them as the ?traditional customary boundary? which is generally along the Inner Line devised by British administrators to identify the geographical area occupied by the tribes and for administrative purposes to separate them from the people of Assam living on the northern bank of the Brahmaputra river. What seemed to be a border issue with China in 1962 has been for the Chinese an issue over the territory lying between the Inner Line and the McMahon Line. Thus what is at stake is the major area comprising Arunachal Pradesh.
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