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35°7′N 79°8′E / 35.117°N 79.133°E / 35.117; 79.133

Aksai Chin (अक्साई चीन ) was a constituent and integral part of the princely state of Kashmir and remained in the domain of the princely state up to the accession of the princely state “in its entirety” to the new Dominion of India on 26, October 1947. It is entirely occupied and administered by China; it is however, claimed by India as a part of its state of Jammu and Kashmir.The area is in the north-eastern part of the Highlands of Kashmir and adjacent to the restive and seditious territories of East Turkistan and Tibet , held by China. An official map viz the 1909 map of Kashmir relied by Baroness Nicholson to determine which territory constituted an integral part of Kashmir, unequivocally depicts inter alia Aksai Chin as a part of Kashmir. The European Parliament has also endorsed the report on Kashmir of Baroness Emma Nicholson with an overwhelming majority. The cease-fire line that separates the rest of Ladakh from the area of Aksai Chin is known as the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Aksai Chin is one of the areas in India claimed by the Chinese controlling East Turkistan and Tibet.

Aksai Chin (according to a view, the name allegedly literally means "white (ak) brook (sai) pass (chin)" is a vast high-altitude desert of salt that reaches heights up to 5,000 metres. Geographically part of the highlands of Kashmir, a section of Aksai Chin is referred to as the Soda Plain. Lingzi Thang and Chang Thang are other areas in Aksai Chin. The region is almost uninhabited, has no permanent settlements, and receives little precipitation as the Himalayan and other mountains block the rains from the Indian monsoon. The rivers Karakash (The Gomati in classical Kashmir) and Yarug Kash originate in the Aksai Chin area before crossing the Kuen Lun range on the edge of the highlands of Kashmir to enter Khotan.

History

Aksai Chin was historically part of the Himalayan Kingdom of Ladakh until Ladakh was annexed from the rule of the local Namgyal dynasty by the Dogras and the princely state of Kashmir in the 19th century. It was subsequently absorbed into British India. One of the main causes of the Sino-Indian War of 1962 was India's discovery of a road China had built through the region, which is historically part of Ladakh. The so called China National Highway 219, connecting Tibet and East Turkistan, passes through no sizable town in Aksai Chin, there are only some military posts and truck stops, such as (the very small) Thaldat (4850m) or Haji Langhar (4200m, see external Link below). The road in the Aksai Chin area is strategically important to China in order to control the two restive and seditious Countries . The Aksai Chin area was traversed in 1865 by W. H. Johnson , Civil Assistant of the Trigonometrical Survey of India of the Survey of India. In July 1865, he was instructed to explore the country of Khotan. “He followed the familiar route from Leh as far as Kyam, and then broke news ground by marching in a northern direction. He travelled through NIschu, Huzakhar, and Yangpa, describuing these isolated places in the Aksai Chin in great detail. He was the first European to cross the Yangi Diwan Pass between Tash and Khushlashlangar, and to take a route which Juma Khan, ambassador from Khotan to the British Government, had travelled some time before. He waited at the source of the Kara Kash for someone to receive him at the first village on the northern side of the Kuen Lun. On the twelfth day his patience was rewarded; a bearer came from the Badsha of Khotan saying ‘he had dispatched his wazeer, Sarfulla Khoja, to meet me at Bringja, the first encampment beyond the Ladakh boundary, for the purpose of escorting me to Khotan. Three miles from Khotan, Khan’s two sons were waiting to welcome him. The Khan had a great deal to say. Four years before he had visited Mecca and on his return he was made the chief Kasi of Khotan. ‘Within a month,’ he said ‘he succeeded in raising a rebellion against the Chinese, which resulted in their massacre, and his election by the inhabitants of the country to be their Khan Badsha or ruler.’ When the Chinese were defeated in Khotan, Yarkand, Kashgar, and other places in Central Asia, Yaqub Beg set up an independent Muslim country which survived until 1877 when the Chinese troops recaptured Kashgar”. W.H. Johnson’s survey established certain important points. "Brinjga was in his view the boundary post" ( near the Karanghu Tagh Peak in the Kuen Lun in Ladakh ), thus implying "that the boundary lay along the Kuen Lun Range". Johnson’s findings demonstrated that the whole of the Kara Kash valley was “ within the territory of the Maharaja of Kashmir” and an integral part of the territory of Kashmir . "He noted where the Chinese boundary post was accepted. At Yangi Langar, three marches from Khotan , he noticed that there were a few fruit trees at this place which originally was a post or guard house of the Chinese". “The Khan wrote Johnson ‘that he had dispatched his Wazier, Saifulla Khoja to meet me at Bringja, the first encampment beyond the Ladakh boundary for the purpose of escorting me thence to Ilichi’… thus the Khotan ruler accepted the Kunlun range as the southern boundary of his dominion.” According to Johnson, “the last portion of the route to Shadulla (Shahidulla) is particularly pleasant, being the whole of the Karakash valley which is wide and even, and shut in either side by rugged mountains. On this route I noticed numerous extensive plateaux near the river, covered with wood and long grass. These being within the territory of the Maharaja of Kashmir, could easily be brought under cultivation by Ladakhees and others, if they could be induced and encouraged to do so by the Kashmeer Government. The establishment of villages and habitations on this river would be important in many points of view, but chiefly in keeping the route open from the attacks of the Khergiz robbers.” In the words of Dorothy Woodman, “But for its accessibility, Aksai Chin might have been used as an alternate rioute for traders who could have thereby escaped the high duties imposed by the Maharaja of Kashmir. The Kashmir authorities maintained two caravan routes right upto the traditional boundary. One, from Pamzal, known as the Eastern Changchenmo route, passed through Nischu, Lingzi Thang, Lak Tsung, Thaldat, Khitai Pass, Haji Langar along the Karakash valley”(obviously via Sumgal) “to Shahidulla. Police outposts were placed along these routes to protect the traders from the Khirghiz marauders who roamed the Aksai Chin after Yaqub Beg’s rebellion against the Chinese(1864-1878)”.

The Chinese completed the reconquest of eastern Turkistan in 1878. Before they lost it in 1863, their practical authority, as Ney Elias British Joint Commissioner in Leh from the end of the 1870s to 1885, and Younghusband consistently maintained, "had never extended south of their outposts at Sanju and Kilian along the northern foothills of the Kuenlun range. Nor did they establish a known presence to the south of the line of outposts in the twelve years immediately following their return". Ney Elias who had been Joint Commissioner in Ladakh for several years noted on 21 September 1889 that he had met the Chinese in 1879 and 1880 when he visited Kashgar. “they told me that they considered their line of ‘chatze’, or posts, as their frontier – viz. , Kugiar, Kilian, Sanju, Kiria, etc.- and that they had no concern with what lay beyond the mountains” i.e. the Kuen Lun range in northern Kashmir where the Hindutash pass in Kashmir is situate. Hindutash which literally means "Indian stone" in the Uyghur dialect of East Turkistan is a pass in the Kuen Lun range “which is the southern border of Khotan”.

T.D. Forsyth who was entrusted with the rather unambiguous task of visiting the Court of Atalik Ghazi pursuant to the visit on 28, March 1870 of the envoy of Atalik Ghazi, Mirza Mohammad Shadi , stated that "...it would be very unsafe to define the boundary of Kashmir in the direction of the Karakoram…. Between the Karakoram and the Karakash the high Plateau is perhaps rightly described as rather a no-mans land , but I should say with a tendency to become Kashmir property". Two stages beyond Shahidulla, as the route headed for Sanju, Forsyth’s party crossed the Tughra Su and passed an out post called Nazr Qurghan.“This is manned by soldiers from Yarkand”. In the words of John Lall, “Here we have an early example of coexistence. The Kashmiri and Yarkandi outposts were only two stages apart on either side of the Karakash river..." to the northwest of the Hindutash in the north eastern frontier region of Kashmir. This was the status quo that prevailed at the time of the mission to Kashgar in 1873-74 of Sir Douglas Forsyth. “Elias himself recalled that , following his mission to Kashgar in 1873-74, Sir Douglas Forsyth ‘recommended the Maharaja’s boundary to be drawn to the north of the Karakash valley as shown in the map accompanying the mission report’. Elias’ reasons for suggesting a boundary that went against the situation on the ground and the recommendations of Sir Douglas Forsyth, who had been directed by the Government of India to ascertain the boundaries of the Ruler of Yarkand, seem to have been prompted atleast partly , by his ill- concealed contempt for the Ladakh Wazir’s plans”.This had been motivated by the discovery of a lapis lazuli mine near the Kashmiri outpost at Shahidulla by a Pathan from Bajaur, not a Kashmiri, as if the nationality of the finder had anything to do with the rights to the territory. Lapis lazuli, he pointed out , had no value at the time. “So the only reason for raising the question is a worthless one, and prompted only by the usual Kashmiri greed for every thing they can lay hands upon.”

When the Government of Kashmir in 1885, at a time when the Chinese were least concerned or bothered of the alien trans- Kuen Lun areas in the highlands of Kashmir , beyond their eastern Turkistan dominion and literally “had washed their hands of it”, prepared to reunify Kashmir and the Wazir of Ladakh , Pandit Radha Kishen initiated steps to restore the old Kashmiri outpost at Shahidulla, Ney Elias who was British Joint Commissioner in Ladakh and spying on the Government of Kashmir raised objections. “This very energetic officer’ , he wrote to the resident, who duly forwarded the letter to the Government of India, “wants the Maharaja to reoccupy Shahidulla in the Karakash valley ….I see indications of his preparing to carry it out, and, in my opinion, he should be restrained, or an awkward boundary question may be raised with the Chinese without any compensating advantage”. In the circumstances, since Elias had represented to the Supreme Government, it was a relatively simple matter for him to ensure that the plans were dropped. He told the Wazir that he had reported against the scheme to the Resident, and pretty soon the subservient Wazir succumbed and assured him that he did not intend to implement it. Elias was also promptly meticulously backed up by the Government of India. A letter dated 1st September was sent to the officer on Special Duty (as the Resident was called before 1885) instructing him to take suitable opportunity of advising His Highness the Maharaja not to occupy Shahidulla”. Elias had already killed the proposal. Kashmir, however never forfeited her territorial integrity, though she had been under duress and coercion prevented from restoring the outpost at Shahidulla to command the Kuen Lun.

The Chinese Karawal or outpost, of Sanju was at the northern base of the Kuenlun, three stages from the pass of that name. Nevertheless, F.E.Younghusband could not disguise the objective fact that the Chinese considered the Kilian and Sanju Passes as the practical limits of their territory, although they ‘do not like to go so far as to say that beyond the passes does not belong to them….”.

In 1893, Hung Ta Chen , a senior Chinese official had given officially a map to the British Indian Counsel at Kashgar. It clearly shows the major part of Aksai Chin and Lingzi Thang in India. Besides, in 1917, The Government of China had also published the “Postal map of China”, published at Peking in 1917. "It shows the whole northern Boundary of India more or less according to the traditional Indian alignments". Actually, an imperialist map of China during the relevant period, besides the depiction of Aksai Chin as part of India, the map incidentally depicts all the pre-1947 Himalayan princely states in Pre-1947 India including inter alia Nepal, Sikkim, and what is now Arunachal Pradesh as integral parts of India.These maps prove that the Chinese Government had way back in 1893 recognised Aksai Chin as an inalienable part of Kashmir and also the same had also been reiterated in 1917, and that Aksai Chin is not a disputed territory.(the aforesaid maps provided in the article)

The renowned German geologist visited Aksai Chin in 1927. He called it the4 westernmost Plateaux of Tibet’ because, he writes, ‘geographically the Lingzithang and Aksai-chin are Tibetan, though politically they are situated in Ladakh. “His journal reveals that there were no Chinese in this part of the country, and that it was indeed within the boundaries of India”. "I must confess", he wrote "that I have rarely seen such utterly barran and desolate mountains".

Aksai Chin is currently under the occupation of the People's Republic of China. Most of it has been incorporated into the Khotan County, in the primarily Muslim East Turkistan which the Chinese have named as Xinjiang or New Possession, meaning it is not ab initio part of China but a recently annexed territory, to which it was transferred by China rather than to contiguous and adjacent Tibet. What little data exists suggests that the few true locals in Aksai Chin have Buddhist beliefs, although some Muslim Uyghurs may also live in the area because of the trade between Tibet and Xinjiang. India also claims the area as a part of the Ladakh district of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Both sides in the dispute have at present agreed to respect the Line of Actual Control and there is a resolution of the Indian Parliament to liberate the area and the issue is very emotional in India and this dispute is likely to result in actual hostilities in the long run.

Pakistan also has laid a claim on Jammu and Kashmir. However, border agreements between Pakistan and China in 1963 which transferred the Trans-Karakoram Tract and 1987 say that Pakistan acquiesces China's claims on the areas. No Pakistani Government has ever officially claimed this region. The Pakistani Government has given tacit approval of China by considering Aksai Chin as a part of China.

References

1. (Trotter 1878, p. U8) harv error: no target: CITEREFTrotter1878 (help)
2. Letter of Baroness Nicholson dated 22, May 2007 to the Ambassador, Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to the European Union
3. Himalayan Frontiers by Dorothy Woodman. Pg.67-68 , published inter alia by London Barrie and Rockliff The Cresset Press 1969.
4. Himalayan Battleground by Margaret W. Fisher, Leo E. Rose and Robert A. Huttenback, published by Frederick A. Praeger Pg.116.
5. Report of the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India, 1866, p.6.
6. Himalayan Frontiers by Dorothy Woodman. Pg.66, published inter alia by London Barrie and Rockliff The Cresset Press 1969
7. Aksaichin and Sino-Indian Conflict by John Lall at pages 56-57, 59, 95, Allied Publishers Private Ltd, New Delhi.
8. 19. For. Sec.. F. October 1889, 182/197.
9. Gazetteer of Kashmir and Ladak compiled under the direction of the Quarter Master General in India in the Intelligence Branch. First Published in 1890 by the Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta. Compiled under the Direction of the Quartermaster -General in India in the Intelligence Branch. 1890 Ed. Pg. 520, 364
10. For. Pol.A. January 1871, 382/386, para58
11. Aksaichin and Sino-Indian Conflict by John Lall at pages57-58, 61,69 Allied Publishers Private Ltd, Nav Dehli
12. For. Sec. F.Pros. November 1885, 12/14(12)
13. Aksaichin and Sino-Indian Conflict by John Lall at page 60, Allied Publishers Private Ltd, New Delhi
14. Sec. F. November 1885,12/14(12)
15. For.Sec.F.Pros.October 1889,182/197(184)
16. Himalayan Frontiers by Dorothy Woodman. Pg.67-68,81, published inter alia by London Barrie and Rockliff The Cresset Press 1969.
17. * Trinkler , Dr. Emil, Himalayan Jounnal, Volumes 3 and 4, 1931-32, April 1931. Notes on the Westernmost Plateau of Tibet.

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• Map referred to in Art.9 of the Simla Convention between Great Britain, China and Tibet, 1914 signed by the Chinese representative.
• Atlas of the northern frontiers of India . Pg.20

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Maps

• A lower-resolution 1909 Map of the Princely State of Kashmir and Jammu. Sumgal at the base of the Hindutash Pass, Ladakh, Kashmir is shown in the top right corner.
• Map of Aurel Stein (1911) based on that of the Survey of India showing the "Hindutash Dawan" in the Kunlun Mountains in Ladakh

• Map of W. H. Johnson showing the route of his trip to Khotan from Leh; in this map, Johnson refers to the pass as "Hindotak diwan Pass." He himself traveled through the Yangi diwan Pass, some 20 miles up-river from Hindutash, on his outward journey, and returned via the Sanju diwan Pass near Shahdula. Johnson placed the border of Kashmir with Turkistan at Bringja. (Refer accompanying maps for position of Bringja) The Map unequivocally and with out an iota of doubt depicts Hindutash pass as part of Kashmir.
• Hung Ta Chen’s map . This is the tracing of a map given officially by Hung Ta Chen , a senior Chinese official, to The British Indian Counsel at Kashgar, in 1893. An imperialist map of the Chinese during the relevant period, It clearly shows the major part of Raskam, Aksai Chin and Lingzi Thang as part of Kashmir.

• Extract from the Map referred to in Article 9 of the Simla Convention between Great Britain, China and Tibet dated the 5th July 1914, depicting the southern border of Khotan and East Turkistan with Kashmir on the Kuen Lun range in the area of Hindutash in Kashmir as a red line. The map was initialed by the British representative and signed by the Tibetan and Chinese representatives. The latter two did not merely initial the Convention but signed it. The map attached to the Simla Convention, July 3, 1914.
• The “Postal map of China”, 1917 , a Government of China’s official Government publication, published at Peking in 1917. Actually an imperialist map of China during the relevant period, besides the depiction of Aksai Chin as part of India, the map incidentally depicts all the pre-1947 Himalayan princely states in pre-1947 India including inter alia Nepal, Sikikim, and what is now Arunachal Pradesh( the province of Assam under went a number of partitions) as integral parts of India. .

Google Earth Speculation

In June 2006, satellite imagery on the Google Earth service revealed a 1:500 scale terrain model of eastern Aksai Chin and adjacent Tibet, built near the town of Huangyangtan, about 35 kilometres South West of Yinchuan, the capital of the autonomous region of Ningxia in China. A visual side-by-side comparison shows a very detailed duplication of Aksai Chin in the camp. The 900m × 700m model was surrounded by substantial facility, with rows of red-roofed buildings, scores of olive-colored trucks and a large compound with elevated lookout posts and a large communications tower. Since terrain models are known to be used in military training and simulation (although usually on a much smaller scale), posters in the Google Earth online community advanced theories regarding the purpose of the model, including usage as

• a model for walk-through terrain visualization exercise in pilot training

• a navigation/gunnery training area for unmanned aerial vehicles that drop small flour or paint bombs in an exercise to simulate trajectories and dispersal patterns

• a model to study dispersal patterns of chemical or biological weapons

• a tank training facility.
• a model simulating water catchment areas of China's major river systems in climatology research.

Local authorities in Ningxia, however, maintain that the model is part of a tank training ground, built in 1998 or 1999.

External links

• Letter of Baroness Nicholson which refers to the 1909 map of Kashmir
• Excerpts of telegram dated 26 October, 1947 from Jawaharlal Nehru to the British Prime Minister, Clement Attlee
• EU passes Emma Nicholson's Kashmir report with an overwhelming Majority
• Graveyard of Indian idealism, Tibet, The Last Frontier by Claude Arpi.
• China, India, and the fruits of Nehru's folly by Venkatesan Vembu, Daily News & Analysis, June 6, 2007
• Facing the truth Pakistan has solved its border problem with China, but India is caught in a prolonged dispute.
• The Great China-India Game An informative history of the always-ambiguous China-India border in Aksai Chin.
• Aksai Chin: China's disputed slice of Kashmir
• Detailed satellite image of Dahonglutian, the largest truck stop place in Aksai Chin
• Conflict in Kashmir: Selected Internet Resources by the Library, University of California, Berkeley, USA; University of California, Berkeley Library Bibliographies and Web-Bibliographies list
• Satellite image of large scale terrain model of Aksai Chin
• Diagram explaining the situation
• Photos from Google Earth
• Landscape photos of Aksai Chin by a cyclist
• Why China is playing hardball in Arunachal by Venkatesan Vembu, Daily News & Analysis, May 13, 2007

References

1. Google Earth Community posting, 29 June 2006
2. Google Earth Community posting, 10 April 2007
3. Chinese X-file not so mysterious after all, 23 July 2006

• Independent India
• History of Jammu and Kashmir
• Territorial disputes of the People's Republic of China
• Kashmir
• Geography of Xinjiang
• Territorial disputes of India
• Wars involving China