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Tawang became part of modern India when Tibetan leaders signed a treaty with British officials in 1914 that established a border called the McMahon Line between Tibet and British-run India. Tawang fell south of the line. The treaty, the Simla Convention, is not recognized by China.

This is a border dispute in India’s North East, a region I pay attention to as I have many friends from a state in the region called Nagaland. The McMahon Line and the Simla Accord are lines and rules that India seems quite able and vigorously keen on respecting. Interesting that accords signed with Nagaland are largely ignored! While it all sounds honourable that the Indian Army is mobilized to protect its territory, while the untold story is that the armed forces special powers act provides military personnel with the right to do whatever they want with complete immunity. In Nagaland, Manipur and Assam this means torture, rape, harassment, the burning of villages and disappearances carried out by the Indian army against local indigenous people. It also means, there is restricted access to the entire north-east region as India calls it a protected area and an area of border disputes. It also restricts communication infrastructures, disabling people in the region from communicating with the Nation and the rest of the world. And it controls very carefully what is said about the region by the locals. When people build mesh networks, try to set up cellphone towers or other wireless networks these are immediately torn down in the name of national security!

While India has filled the place with military personnel, it neglects this area socially and economically. It provides little or no national support to the region by way of schools, libraries, infrastructure, health care, internet connectivity, telephones, roads, trains, and so on.

So what is the point of protecting a border when you fail to protect and in some instances terrorize the people on the side you are protecting?