The North-East Frontier of India (1865-1914)

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

This book, written by Dr. D. P. Chaudhury, is based on archival records preserved in various places in England. It is a valuable study of basically Indo-Chinese relations with regard to India's North-East Frontier. Since some of the questions regarding this subject are unsolved or partly solved, the Reprint of this book is felt to be necessary. I hope that both the general readers and the specialists on the subject would find this work useful.

THE purpose of the present work is to analyse British policy on the north-east frontier of India between 1865 and 1914. The period under study shaped the policy which culminated into what is called the McMahon Line. Until recently the concept of the north-east frontier of India did not have a precise geographical connotation. In the nineteenth century and even in the early twentieth century this term often meant the tribal areas of Assam and sometimes even the northern border of Bengal. We shall use it here only to mean the tribal area in the eastern Himalaya which stretches from the western boundary of Bhutan to the tri- junction of India, Burma and Tibet, and lies between the Brahmaputra valley in the south and the highlands of Tibet in the north. It roughly corresponds to the present Arunachal region of India. Scenically this is one of the most magnificent countries in the world with the rich natural splendours of eternal snow on the high Himalayan range, deep gorges, torrential rivers, dense forests teeming with wild life, and many colourful, warlike tribes. It is more varied and possibly more impressive than the far-famed north-west frontier of India.