With Dalai lama being again in the news, it is interesting to take a look how things developed leading to the1962 Sino-India border conflict.
In 1956, the Chinese premier Zhou Enlai visited India. Dalai lama accompanied him as a member of the official delegation. The Tibetan leader told Nehru that the conditions were so harsh in his country that he wished to flee to India. Nehru advised him to return.
To see the developing situation in Tibet for himself, Nehru communicated his wish to the Chinese Government to visit Tibet in 1958. But he was refused. The situation turned tense again as the Chinese Government published a map which showed large swathes of lands in India as belonging to China.
The bilateral relation involving the two neighbours took a turn for the worse as a revolt broke out in Tibet in 1959. The rebellion was put down and Dalai lama fled Tibet and came to India, seeking asylum. Nehru kept on hesitating on providing the monk-king from Tibet official asylum, as he was convinced that China would surely consider it as an unfriendly act and would retaliate. But Indira Gandhi, his daughter, was firm that India was morally bound to provide asylum to Dalai lama. She persuaded her father on the imperative of taking the decision, irrespective of its political/ strategic repercussions. Nehru acted in the way intended by his daughter to the chagrin of the Chinese dispensation.
Sporadic border skirmishes began the same year the Dalai lama arrived in India. Though Nehru was still convinced that a full-fledged war was most unlikely he opted for a step to protect the interests of India which the Chinese dispensation had least expected. He was supposedly persuaded by a senior and trusted Intelligence official, BN Mullick to sanction the provocative line known as ‘Forward Posts’. It was a preemptive move by way of posting detachments at areas along the border which were being claimed by both sides. ‘Forward Posts’ policy meant pushing Indian posts stealthily forward.
Zhou Enlai came to India again in 1960 to persuade India to refrain from such provocative acts. He suggested a way-out-India should connive with the Chinese border incursions along the western sector of the McMahon line while China would gloss over India’s penetration along the eastern sector of the disputed frontiers. Nehru was supposed to be somehow open to the proposal. But the Indian public opinion that turned belligerently anti-China, prevented Nehru from advancing with Zhou Enlai’s proposal.
Clashes broke out in July 1962 between the two troops along the western sector. These were followed by the same on the eastern borders too. The Crops Commander, Crops-IV, raised to encounter the Chinese challenge head- on, received command from Nehru to ‘throw out’ the Chinese in September 1962. The Chinese Chairman, Mao Zedong said on 6 October 1962 while addressing several senior Chinese generals in Beijing, “It seems, armed coexistence wouldn’t work. Nehru really wants to use force. Since Nehru sticks his head out and insists on us fighting him, for us not to fight with him would not be proper.”
The Indian troops gallantly resisted the Chinese incursion on the western borders, but they were overwhelmed on the eastern frontiers. The Chinese fought with automatic weapons while the Indians had only outmoded 303 in which each shot was to be loaded separately. It was alleged that the jawans even did not have blankets against the blistering cold. The ground forces were exposed to the enemy fire sans air-cover as it was decided not to use the Air Force.
The Chinese swept simultaneously through all the sectors, Tawang, Walong in North East Frontier Province and ladakh and also down to Brahmaputra Valley, reaching as far as the Assam town of Tejpur with Calcutta coming under the striking distance. Nehru addressed the nation on All India Radio and expressed his sympathy and agony for the people of Assam in a tone that indicated that he was almost reconciled to Assam having been occupied and over-run by the Chinese.
Chaos reigned in Tejpur. The district commissioner fled the scene leaving the people to fend for themselves. With things seemingly headed towards a disaster, Indira Gandhi decided to visit Tejpur. Nehru was horrified as he thought that the Chinese would capture her and hold her hostage. But she defied her father and reached Tejpur by helicopter from Guwahati. Swarms of people surrounded her and expressed their agony. little food was left. There was no district official to manage the crisis with the Chinese force camping 30 miles away from Tejpur. Interestingly, the same day, China decided to pull back.