The North-Eastern Frontier
Tibet and Sates on the Northern Frontier
Though nominally subject to the suzerainty of China, Tibet was for all practical purposes an independent theocracy under the two great Lamas, the Dalai Lama of Lhasa and the Tashi Lama of the famous monastery of Tashilhunpo near Shigatse. Political power was centered in the hands of the Dalai Lama or the council that ruled during his minority.
The earliest attempts to establish British relations with Tibet were made as early as the year 1774. Warren Hastings sent Bogle on a mission to the Tashi Lama of Shigatse. The object was mainly to obtain facilities for trade with that country. But in subsequent times the Tibetans began to resent British intercourse with their country. In 1887 they made an ” inexplicable invasion” into the protected State of Sikkim, but were driven out the next year by General Graham. The provisions of the Anglo-Chinese Convention of 1890, relating to the Sikkim-Tibet boundary and some commercial facilities, made more definite in 1893, were coldly received by the Tibetans.
On his arrival in India, Lord Curzon found British relations with Tibet “at an absolute deadlock “. The problem more complicated at this time through two factors. On the one hand, the Dalai Lama having passed beyond his period of minority had overthrown the regency government by a coup d’etat with the help of his tutor, Dorjieff, a Russian Buddhist, and had been trying to show himself a strong ruler. On the other hand, the Tibetans, eager to throw off Chinese sovereignty, were willing to welcome Russian friendship as a counterpoise. Dorjieff led Tibetan missions to Russia in 1898, 1900, and 1901, and rumours spread that he had concluded a treaty with Russia virtually placing Tibet under the protectorate of Russia. The Russian Government officially contradicted this rumour and assured the British ambassador at St. Petersburg that the object of these missions was religious. But this could not remove England’s suspicions about Russian designs. As a matter of fact, British policy in Tibet represented but one phase in the long-drawn-out rivalry between England and Russia in Central Asia.
To meet the situation, Lord Curzon proposed in 1903 to send a mission to Tibet, with an armed escort, which the Home Government sanctioned with much hesitation. A mission under Colonel Younghusband accordingly started for Tibet, and after several sharp encounters with the Tibetans reached Lhasa on 3rd August, 1904. Finally, a convention was signed, by which the Tibetans agreed to open trade marts in Gyantse, Gartok and Yatung, to pay an indemnity of twenty-five lakhs and to allow the English to occupy the Chumbi valley for three years as a temporary pledge. In June, 1906, England and China concluded a convention by which the former agreed neither to annex Tibetan territory nor to interfere in the internal administration of Tibet and the latter promised not to allow any other foreign power to interfere with the internal administration or territorial integrity of Tibet. Further, England was granted the power to open telegraph lines connecting the trading stations with India, and the provisions of the Convention of 1890, and the Trade Regulations of 1893, were declared to be in force. The indemnity was paid by the Chinese Government in three years, and the English evacuated the Chumbi valley.
The political results of the Younghusband mission were not very important. Its only direct result was the opening of three trade marts and the establishment of a British Trade Agent at Gyantse. Younghusband is given the credit of “unveiling Lhasa “, but it should not be forgotten that in ancient and medieval times Buddhist monks from Bengal had penetrated into Tibet on religious missions, and also that, long before Younghusband, a famous scholar and explorer, Rai Bahadur Sarat Chandra Das, C.I.E., having no dread of the unknown, had entered the forbidden land of the Dalai Lama at the risk of his life.
By the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907, both England and Russia agreed to carry on political relations with Tibet through China. The suzerainty of China over Tibet, hitherto a mere ” constitutional fiction “, was now explicitly reaffirmed, but in 1910, in violation of this convention, China invaded Tibet and occupied the whole country. The Dalai Lama took refuge in India. Taking advantage of the Revolution in China in 1911 leading to the fall of the ruling Manchu dynasty, the Tibetans revolted against the Chinese and drove them from Tibet. The Dalai Lama returned to Tibet in June, 1912, and claimed that the old vassal-suzerain relationship which was based on his personal allegiance to the Manchu Emperors had come to an end with the extinction of the Manchu dynasty. He assumed full and complete sovereign rights over Tibet. In order to ease the tense situation caused by the refusal of Tibet to accept Chinese overlordship, and to maintain peace along India’s northern frontier when a big European war was almost in sight, the British invited the representatives of China and Tibet to a Tripartite Conference at Simla in 1913. On 27th April, 1914, a convention was initialled by the representatives of the three Governments. Under its terms Tibet was divided into two zones and the suzerainty of China over both was recognized. But China agreed to recognize the complete autonomy of ” Outer Tibet “, skirting the Indian frontier and including Lhasa, Shigatse and Chamdo, and to abstain from all interference in its administration. She engaged to abstain from sending troops, stationing civil or military officers or establishing Chinese colonies there.
The Simla Conference also fixed the frontier between Tibet and North-eastern India from the east of Bhutan for a distance of 850 miles. This frontier came to be called the MacMahon Line, for Sir Henry MacMahon, Secretary to the Government of India in the Foreign Department, acting as the British Plenipotentiary, signed it on behalf of the British Government.
Although the Convention was initialled by the Chinese Plenipotentiary, the Chinese Government refused to ratify it. But later, China notified Great Britain that except as regards the boundary between Outer and Inner Tibet she agreed to the Convention in all respects. Thus China acknowledged the MacMahon Line to be the boundary between Tibet and North-eastern India.
The changes in Russia after the revolution of 1917, and the growing confusion in China, relieved the Government of India of the menace of external forces affecting English interests in Tibet, and Britain and Tibet since then remained on terms of cordiality with each other. A British Goodwill Mission, led by Mr. B.J.Gould, I.C.S., of the Political Department, visited Tibet during the winter of 1936-1937 and established or renewed friendly relations with the chief officials of the Tibetan Government and the people of Tibet.
Relations with Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan, with which India’s northern frontiers are in contact, were cordial. To resist Chinese activities in Tibet, the Government of India in 1910 strengthened their relations with Bhutan by raising the amount of their subsidy from fifty thousand to a lakh of rupees a year and undertaking to guide Bhutan in her foreign relations. The Government afterwards officially notified China that they would protect the rights and interests of Bhutan and Sikkim.
Sikkim became in May, 1975, an “Associate” State. India’s ties of friendship with Bhutan have been strengthened. King Jigme Singye Wangchuk recently visited India and he observed that his talks with senior Indian leaders in New Delhi had been “most fruitful and rewarding”. The talks have been useful for India as well. There would be a common approach to matters directly affecting the two countries and their foreign policies would continue to be closely coordinated. Bhutan now has a constitutional form of Government, like that of India, in the place of an absolute monarchy.
Assam and Burma
On the partition of Bengal in 1905, the new province of Eastern Bengal and Assam was formed by the amalgamation of Assam and the Surma valley with fifteen districts of the old Bengal province. But this arrangement being annulled in 1912, Assam was again made a separate administrative unit. Of the several Assam border tribes, such as the Daflas, the Miris, the Abors and the Mishmis, none gave much trouble to the British Government except the Abors. In 1911 the Minyong Abors murdered Mr. Williamson and Dr. Gregorson, whereupon the Government of India sent an expedition to the Dihang valley of the Abor country on the north-east frontier, to subdue the tribe. The expedition proved successful in its object, and friendly missions were sent to the Miri and Mishmi countries. Owing to the rather undefined boundary of the Chinese province of Yunnan on the frontier of Burma, the British Government apprehended minor incursions into Burmese territory, and carefully guarded this frontier. Negotiations between China and Great Britain were carried on with a view to settling the frontier between Burma and the Chinese province of Yunnan, and a Delimitation Commission, consisting of British and Chinese Commissioners, with the famous Swiss engineer, Colonel F. Iselin, as its neutral Chairman, conducted enquiries into this matter during 1935 and 1936 and submitted a unanimous report in the spring of 1937, which definitely fixed the frontier line between Burma and Yunnan.