None of the old maps shows Arunachal Pradesh as part of any mainland Indian territory. Mostly its depicted as either part of Tibet, or an extended part of either Ahom Empire or Bhutan (spelled as Boutan or Bootan). Indigenous tribes such as Daphlas, Miris, Abars, Nishis and Mishmis are mentioned on these maps and the boundaries are often the northern border of Brahmaputra River edging towns like Dibrugarh, Tinsukia, Tezpur and North Lakhimpur, all in today's Assam. Then how did this strip of hilly land became part of India and has been one of the disputed territories between India and China?
Donyi Polosi is a religion familiar to these tribes here. Heavily influenced by Hinduism, the region is one of the most linguistically rich places in Asia. A bunch of Tibeto-Burman languages such as Nyishi, Galo, Bokar, Adi, Apatani etc. and minor languages such as Hindi, Nepali, Assamese, Bengali etc. are spoken here. But such an influence occurred only in the 17th century when the tribes of these hilly areas interacted with the Ahoms. The constant raids by Nyishi tribes to Ahomese lands in Assam lead to a growing hostility between the two clans. The enmity carried forward to the next century even after the arrival of the British. But even after the annexation of Assam to British India in 1826, they didn't bother to interfere with these tribal communities. And that's the reason why none of the old maps show these hilly terrains as part of British India.
Not all tribes were at war with the Ahoms. If Nyishis, Khamtis and Singphos were warring with the Ahoms, the Mishmis were having a good trade relations with them. Koch Kings were rather more happy than the Ahoms so much so that one of the Koch kings, Nar Narayan (1540-1587) had built a temple at Bhairabkunda (at the tip of Arunachal-Bhutan-Assam border) and made one of the tribesmen as a priest. The Daflas fought with the Kochs against Ahoms in various battles. Such was the love-hate relationship of various tribes of Arunachal with the neighboring kings on the onset of British arrival.
Things started to take a turn politically when the Great Game started in 1830 between the two giants - the British and the Russian Empire. The fear of British that the Russians would eat up Afghanistan and Tibet and colonize India lead to a couple of hasty decisions. The creation of Wakhan corridor (that thin strip of Afghanistan between Tajikistan, Pakistan and India) was one in the northwest India and setting frontier borders between Tibet and Assam was another. The latter would lead to a series of troubles, something which is yet unresolved.
The concept of ILP (Inner Line Permit) was started in 1873. The term 'Inner Line' was actually the border of Assam separating it from the hilly tribes so that any trade activities beyond this border would be considered as illegal and it would require a sanction from the Provincial government or an authorized officer to get permission. But even at this point, the external boundary of British India was the Brahmaputra valley and the hilly areas were yet to get politicized.
After annexing Assam and Burma and making Sikkim, Nepal and Bhutan as British protectorates, Tibet was the only Himalayan kingdom unaffected by the British influence. The boundaries separating British India from Tibet - both in Kashmir and Brahmaputra Valley - was yet undecided. The Johnson-Ardagh (1897)/ Macartney-MacDonald Lines (1899) and the McMahon Line (1914) would be later sketched by British officials agreeing with Tibetan authorities, protested by the Chinese government - and that's where all the trouble began. And it was all because of the paranoia by the British - the fear of Russian advancement into India.
After setting the McMahon Line, the hill areas between the new border and Brahmaputra Valley was created as North Eastern Frontier Tract. It was divided into three sections - central and eastern section placed under a political headquarter at Sadiya (in Assam), Lakhimpur Frontier Tract under the additional charge of Deputy Commissioner, Lakhimpur; and western section under a Political Officer headquartered at Charduar (in Assam as well). In 1919, the central and eastern tracts were clubbed and renamed as Sadiya Frontier Tract and the western section was called Balipara Frontier Tract. Note that these areas were administrated from Assam and today's capital Itanagar was yet to be formed.
In 1941, the Governor of Assam Robert Reid had even proposed to carve out northeastern India (except the Brahmaputra Valley) to form a separate British Crown colony as a strategic location between Tibet, Burma and China and to even have a diplomatic relation with Japan. The plan was criticized heavily by British officers itself, accusing it to be a 'divide and rule' plan. Had this plan been taken into effect, this would have been India's first partition prior to 1947.
Soon after independence, in 1954 the region was rearranged and divided into 5 'frontier divisions' - Kameng, Subansiri, Siang, Lohit and Tirap and till 1957 the Naga tribal area of Tuensang was also added. Together it would be known as North Eastern Frontier Agency (NEFA). In 1957, Tuensang was separated out to Naga Hills Tuensang Area, later to be formed as Nagaland.
The administrative headquarters shifted from Kimin (in Assam; 1947) to Sagalee and Doimukh (in 1949); to Naharlogun in 1974 (which was supposedly almost decided to be the capital) when it finally got fixed at Itanagar in 1978. All these towns are located at Lakhimpur border. On January 21, 1972, it was decided to make this region as a Union Territory and renamed as Arunachal Pradesh. On 20th February 1987, Arunachal Pradesh became a state of India.
This makes us arrive to a point - the unsettling of border dispute with China over both Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin - is this a failed Nehruvian policy or a messy British negotiation with Tibet and China that India didn't clear up after independence. While both these areas were never part of any Indian territory prior to 1890s, naturally no one anticipated the future political upheaval which would cause after the failed Tibetan uprising of 1959. The reason for the 1962 Indo-China war had reasons deep rooted by the British Empire, someone who was absolutely quiet during the whole havoc.
The map here shows NEFA between 1954 to 1957. The fluorescent line marks the agreement according to Colombo Conference 1962, the two pockets of Kanzemane and Longju areas whose fate would be decided later and the orange line as the Chinese claimed line.
@mapsbysagar
@mapsbysagar
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