"On 1 October 1949, the People's Republic of China came into being and changed forever the course of Asian history. Power moved from the hands of the nationalist Kuomintang government to the Communist Party of China headed by Mao Tse Tung. All of a sudden, it was not only an assertive China that India had to deal with but also an increasingly complex situation in Tibet which was reeling under pressure from China. Clearly, newly independent India, with Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru at its helm, was navigating very choppy waters. Its relations with China progressively deteriorated, eventually leading to the Indo-China war in 1962. Today, more than six decades after the war, we are still plagued by border disputes with China that seem to routinely grab the headlines. It leads one to question what exactly went on during those initial years of the emergence of a new China"--Publisher's summary.

This book deals with the 70-year-old peaceful struggle for autonomy/independence of the Tibetan Buddhist living in the 'Roof of the World', Tibet. In 1950, Tibet, an erstwhile independent entity intermittently under the suzerainty of China, was coercively annexed by the People's Republic of China (PRC). It is located in the Himalayan region bordering India and the PRC, the two major players in Asia. The book describes the contemporary history of Tibet and analyses the implications of autonomy especially in the context of geostrategic significance of Tibet to India and China. The response of the PRC and India towards Tibetan autonomy is very important to understand the undercurrents of international relations in the Himalayas. Concomitantly in the 21st century the international response is also significant in helping the move towards autonomy to erstwhile groups of people that have a common cultural identity. The relative significance of the right of a modern state to territorial integrity and people's right of self-determination are discussed in detail. Though people's right to self-determination has been an internationally recognised principle, its implementation depends on the persistence of the struggle for autonomy/independence, the means adopted, and the international response toward it. The interplay of international politics with national interests of major players in the era of globalisation is also dealt with. Thus, in the era of human security and human rights, the Tibetan quest for autonomy has solicited great significance.

A deep dive into understanding India-China relations Why did India and China go to war in 1962? What propelled Jawaharlal Nehru's 'vision' of China? Why is it necessary to understand the trans-Himalayan power play of India and China in the formative period of their nationhoods? The past shadows the present in this relationship and shapes current policy options, strongly influencing public debate in India to this day. Nirupama Rao, a former Foreign Secretary of India, unknots this intensely complex saga of the early years of the India-China relationship. As a diplomat-practitioner, Rao's telling is based not only on archival material from India, China, Britain and the United States, but also on a deep personal knowledge of China, where she served as India's Ambassador. In addition, she brings a practitioner's keen eye to the labyrinth of negotiations and official interactions that took place between the two countries from 1949 to 1962. The Fractured Himalaya looks at the inflection points when the trajectory of diplomacy between these two nations could have course-corrected but did not. Importantly, it dwells on the strategic dilemma posed by Tibet in relations between India and China-a dilemma that is far from being resolved. The question of Tibet is closely interwoven into the fabric of this history. It also turns the searchlight on the key personalities involved-Jawaharlal Nehru, Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and the 14th Dalai Lama-and their interactions as the tournament of those years was played out, moving step by closer step to the conflict of 1962.

Challenging the Westphalian view of international relations, which focuses on the sovereignty of states and the inevitable potential for conflict, the authors from the Borderlands Study Group reconceive borders as capillaries enabling the flow of material, cultural, and social benefits through local communities, nation-states, and entire regions. By emphasizing local agency and regional interdependencies, this metaphor reconfigures current narratives about the China India border and opens a new perspective on the long history of the Silk Roads, the modern BCIM Initiative, and dam construction along the Nu River in China and the Teesta River in India. Together, the authors show that positive interaction among people on both sides of a border generates larger, cross-border communities, which can pressure for cooperation and development. India China offers the hope that people divided by arbitrary geo-political boundaries can circumvent race, gender, class, religion, and other social barriers, to form more inclusive institutions and forms of governance.

One of the last great imperial adventurers, Sir Francis Younghusband (1863–1942) was a British army officer whose explorations yielded major contributions to geographical research. In addition to charting a new route across the Gobi Desert, Younghusband was among the first Britons to enter the forbidden Tibetan city of Lhasa, where he headed a 1904 civil and military campaign. Younghusband's expedition forms a landmark in British exploration, the culmination of more than 140 years of attempts to establish good diplomatic terms with Tibet. This survey offers an in-depth examination of relations between India and Tibet from 1772 through 1910, the year Tibet was invaded by China. The account focuses particularly on Younghusband's firsthand observations on the 1904 mission and the treaty negotiations between Great Britain and Tibet.

In this lucid, informative, and insightful book, a leading expert on the subject decodes the complex history of India-China relations and argues that the path ahead is a difficult one that could see more military confrontations, including violent border clashes.

Why are India and China not able to develop long-term stable and friendly relations? While trying to answer this question, this book provides a new perspective for understanding the relations between the two nations by highlighting the asymmetry of the threat perceptions between them. The major issues of India-China relations, including the nuclear issue, the boundary problem, the Tibet issue, regional competition and cooperation, and China-India relations in the global context, are further examined with an analytical approach.

There is a new 'great game' being played in the Buddhist Himalayas between India, China and Tibet, which makes for a crucial third player. Together, they are leveraging their influence with the Buddhist communities to create strategic dominance, with varying degrees of success. China's 'Buddhist diplomacy' has focused on Nepal and Bhutan, and the Indian Himalayan regions of Ladakh, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim, which have sizeable Buddhist populations and are vulnerable to this influence. The crisis in Doklam brought into focus what will be one of the most difficult issues to unfold in the Himalayas in future: India's insufficient ability to deal with China only through the prism of military power. If Xi Jinping, who is known to be working towards a resolution of the Tibet question, succeeds, and the Dalai Lama does indeed return to Tibet, how will it impact Indian interests in the Buddhist Himalayas? If the Tibet issue remains unresolved, how will India and China deal with and leverage the sectarian strife that is likely to intensify in a post-Dalai Lama world? The Great Game in the Buddhist Himalayas includes several unknown insights into the India-China, India-Tibet and China-Tibet relationships. It reads like a geopolitical thriller, taking the reader through the intricacies of reincarnation politics, competing spheres of sacred influence, and monastic and sectarian allegiances that will keep the Himalayas on edge for years to come.