Galwan Valley | India respond

Short answer : What has recently happened between India and China, leading to unfortunate loss of lives near the Galvan valley area, was a m...

Short answer: What has recently happened between India and China, leading to unfortunate loss of lives near the Galvan valley area, was a mixture of Chinese bullying and an unfortunate accident.

Long Answer

While this is a sensitive and complex issue, it is important to understand both the history along with the geography behind this. I will try and simplify this as much as possible.

First a quick background:
Spoiler Alert: India does not control all the land, that we see on the official political map of India. There are 3 major problem areas of inconsistencies in the Indian map, all of them are located in the erstwhile state of Jammu & Kashmir.

Without getting into too much of details:

Before Indian independence in 1947, Jammu and Kashmir was a protectorate of the British Empire, ruled by a Maharaja.
This Maharaja had a weak army and did not have full sovereign control over all parts of his sparsely populated but beautiful AF kingdom.
British officers were given charge to manage Gilgit Baltistan.
Large parts of barren and almost uninhabited Aksai Chin, which was claimed by the Chinese, was mostly left unadministered. Basically, Maharaja’s border management was a mess.
To top that - Maharaja was indecisive. At the time of Indian independence in 1947, he delayed the decision to join India or Pakistan until newly born Pakistan sent hordes of Rapists and pillagers like the Granpa of Shahid Afridi[1] , along with regular Pak Soldiers in Salwar Kamiz (Pakistani soldiers never attacked India in uniform), to attack, burn, pillage and capture land in Kashmir.[2]
When his weak army proved ineffectual and the looters were about to reach capital Srinagar, the Maharaja signed the Instrument of Accession with India, legally making the whole of Jammu and Kashmir, a part of India[3] .
This is the point when the Indian soldiers landed in Srinagar and started pushing back savages like the Granpa of Shahid Afridi and clearing Kashmir off the occupying militia and Pak regulars.[4]
This push back by Indian Army continued until the moment when strangely on India’s insistence, the newly made UN Security Council declared a ceasefire between India and Pakistan.[5]

The 3 Areas

Since that day, except a few incidences, we pretty much have a stalemate in the erstwhile state of Jammu & Kashmir.

Note: There are 3 areas of inconsistencies in erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir, which are as follows:

Area 1: Areas of Gilgit and Baltistan, currently in control of Pakistan. These areas held by British Army officers on behalf of the Maharaja, revolted against the Maharaja of Kashmir and joined Pakistan before Kashmir acceded to India. The crucial CPEC road connecting Chinese controlled Xinjiang to Gwadar, Balochistan, passes through this area.

Area 2: Area on the west of the Kashmir valley, populated mostly with Punjabi speaking Mirpuris, currently in control of Pakistan. When UN Security council declared ceasefire between India and Pakistan in 1948, this is the area that remained in the control of Pakistan, captured from Maharaja’s army, by tribal marauders, looters and rapists (like the grandpa of Shahid Afridi).

Area 3: This area, known as Aksai Chin, is the least populated among the three listed here and has been an important trading route in history. Despite the presence of maps and old treaties stating the contrary, at the time of the Indian Independence, the boundary of this area remain officially undemarcated and the area remained, for all practical purposes, in control of China, which was disputed by the then Maharaja of Kashmir. Aksai Chin is important for China as it connects Tibet with Xinjiang. Successive Indian prime ministers have been ridiculed in the parliament for not taking this area seriously.

The current situation between India and China is taking place in and around Area 3 - Aksai Chin.

Please note: The boundaries of Area 3, between India and China is called LAC (Line of Actual Control) and it isn’t well defined. There is no fence here. Security forces of India and China exercise their respective national sovereignty by doing regular foot patrols.

As per the 3 treaties signed between India and China since 1996, the soldiers here are not allowed to discharge a firearm, nor are they allowed to conduct any security exercise involving heavy weapons. Scuffles and misunderstandings between security forces are usually settled with fist bumps, punches and an occasional throwing of stones.

So since the last few weeks, most of the tussle between India and China has taken place in 3 specific hotspots in and around Area 3.

Hotspot 1: Around Pangong lake. (Dispute on location of LAC)
Hotspot 2: Around Hot Springs (Kongka Pass). (Dispute on location of LAC)
Hotspot 3: Around Galwan Valley. (No Dispute on location of LAC)

Please note: While the land in contention in Hotspot 1 and Hotspot 2 are historically contested between both India and China, it is important to note that the Hotspot of Galwan valley has always been in control of India, even as per the Chinese maps, agreements and documents.

The area around Galwan valley is not disputed between India and China.

So what happened in Galwan?

So, in the afternoon, day before yesterday, a flag meeting was called by the senior officers representing India and China. Basically speaking, both sides agreed to pull back their respective troops a few kilometers (2–5 kms) from the area of contention to de-escalate the situation.[6]

After the handshakes and the photo-ops, As per some of the reports, on the same evening, India sent 2 small groups of soldiers to verify if the agreement was honored by the Chinese counterparts.

Please note: Lately, we have seen instances, where the Chinese soldiers have started carrying spiked batons and clubs to attack their Indian counterparts.

While the first cache of these soldiers were walking through a narrow ridge, which in parts is barely broad enough to carry one person at a time with deep gorge on both sides, they came across a Chinese tent near Patrol Point 14, which the Chinese had earlier agreed to remove. The Indian commanding officer ordered the removal of this Chinese tent, at which point, the smaller Indian team came face-to-face with a larger group of Chinese soldiers.

As per reports, there was a heated exchange of fists and words between the soldiers, during which, one soldier (identity unconfirmed) lost his balance and fell off the ridge, instantly losing his life.

This incident acted as a trigger and backups were called by both parties and a literal hand to hand fight ensued in an area. As per some reports even nailed batons and clubs were used by the Chinese to attack Indian soldiers.

The Accident: In no time, there were more than 200 soldiers vying for the life of each other on a narrow ridge which in parts was barely wide enough to support a single person. As the commotion ensued, it is reported that the whole ridge gave way, turning into a land slide. A majority of soldiers from both sides lost their lives due to falling, injury or hypothermia (there was the chilling water on one side of the ridge).[7]

There were some yet to be confirmed reports, which state that some Indian soldiers were taken as prisoners by the Chinese soldiers as well.

No bullet was fired.

Quick recap:

So, in the ensuing scuffle and the subsequent collapsing of the ridge alongside the Galwan river, more than 60 soldiers lost their lives and many are critically injured. Until the last filed report, official sources in India claim a loss of at-least 20 Indian lives while the Chinese sources are yet to declare their own casualty figures.

Basically speaking, what has recently happened between India and China, leading to unfortunate loss of lives, was a mixture of Chinese bullying and an unfortunate accident.

What to expect in the future?

The loss of lives on both sides, has upped the stakes of this game. Expect the following to happen in the coming days:

China will continue to hide the casualty figures, just like they did in Wuhan.
Indian army will induct full body protector and riot gear for soldiers deployed for patrolling on the LAC.
Chinese soldiers will not move out of the Galwan valley on their own accord here after. Not at least till the winters this year.
The formal de-escalation will take longer than expected and India might end up losing some territory.
Some Indians will find Hindu-Muslim, pakistan and anti Modi/BJP/Nehru/Congress angles in this tragedy and try and score cheap brownies on each other.
Many like this little one here, will miss someone dear to them, for the rest of their lives.

A humble request.

Please do not indulge in chest thumping. And comparing number of dead between India and China. Please stop repeating the age old line that this is not the India of 1962, because this is also not the China of 1962. Please do not restart the whole facade of boycotting Chinese products again - It won’t help beyond a point and if executed across the board, might end up becoming an own goal, affecting critical Indian industries like Pharma, Semi-conductors, Micro-electronics and Rare-earth metals among others.

While Indian army is doing its job, let us ensure that as regular citizens, we do ours.

For a moment, please remember that the soldiers who lost their lives, and the soldiers who are currently injured, did not fight for Modi or BJP - they fought for regular Indians like you and me.

The best way to support them is to simply focus on our own work. We need to increase our own productivity and innovation, which helps create more jobs and brings in more foreign exchange - strengthening the Indian economy.

Soldiers fight - regular people ensure that soldiers fight well equipped, with a full stomach and no harm ever touches their loved ones.

As civilians, It is our duty to try and become Indians worth fighting and dying for.

Focus inwards pliss.

It would be impudent to seek instant gratification here. Instead of a quick Jhatka (instant), what we need perhaps is a slow and cold Halal.

Our biggest strength, is our democracy, and our most effective armor is our freedom, creativity and entrepreneurial zeal.

A repressive regime, controlled by a tyrant dictator, busy consolidating power and hegemony with two banana republics as allies - which has destroyed the health and economy of the whole world, will have to eventually come around and face the consequences.

The dish of revenge will be served, but cold.

And lastly…:

Among a few suggestions, I would like to request the Indian authorities to do a re-think on the Indian official support to the so-called One China policy.[8]

While this is happening, let us not forget that India is going through a tough time as a country. We have even more trying times ahead of us economically. We as a nation have our priority straight and simple - focus on making money and producing goods and services that enthrall the world.

The Automakers (especially bike manufacturers of India) have collectively[9] shown that given resources, leadership, freedom and time, the Indian talent can beat the Chinese in the game of manufacturing. We already have a lead over China in the service industry. It is time to look inwards and join hands in rebuilding the India that we’d love our future generations to inherit.

Everything else is a temporary twitter trend (hopefully).