BOTH SIDES HAVE FAILED TO BUILD TRUST
Nantoo Banerjee
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2020-10-19 10:13
India’s current border dispute with China owes its origin in 1950 when China sent its troops to Tibet taking control of the remote mountainous region that declared independence in 1913. The Chinese military further crushed a massive Buddhist uprising in Tibet in 1959. Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader, fled Tibet with his close followers. He was granted asylum in India by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Angry Beijing laid claim to almost 80,000 sq km of India-controlled territory in Sikkim and protected country, Bhutan, the same year. In September 1959, Chinese premier Zhou Enlai in a letter to Pandit Nehru made a formal declaration that claimed China’s sovereignty over the Ladakh region in eastern Kashmir.