History of Arunachal Pradesh

The first ancestors of the tribal groups migrated from Tibet during the pre-historic period, they were joined by Thai-Burmese counterparts later.

Except for the northwestern parts of the state, little is known about the history of Arunachal Pradesh, although the Apatani tribe had legendary knowledge of the history. Recorded history was only available in the Ahom chronicles during the 16th century. The tribal Monpa and Sherdukpen do keep historical records of the existence of local chiefdoms in the northwest as well.

Northwestern parts of this area came under the control of the Monpa kingdom of Monyul, which flourished between 500 B.C. and 600 A.D. This region then came under the loose control of Tibet, especially in the Northern areas. The remaining parts of the state, especially those bordering Myanmar, came under the control of the Ahom and the Assamese until the annexation of India by the British in 1858.

Recent excavations of ruins of Hindu temples such as the 14th Malinithan at the foot of the Siang hills in West Siang shed new light on the ancient history of Arunachal Pradesh. Paintings of the Hindu gods and altars remained untouched for many years.

They attracted many local pilgrims. Another notable heritage site, Bhismaknagar, suggested that the Idu Mishmi had a local civilisation. The third heritage site, the 400-year-old Tawang monastery in the Tawang district also provides historical evidence of the Buddhist tribal peoples.

In 1913-14, the British administrator, Sir Henry McMahon, drew up the 550-mile McMahon Line as the border between British India and Tibet during the Simla Conference, as Britain sought to advance its line of control and establish buffer zones around its colony in South Asia. The conference took part between Britain, Tibet, and China, which was acknowledged to have suzerainty over Tibet by Britain, and sovereignty over Tibet by China.

The Tibetan and British representatives at the conference agreed to the line, which ceded Tawang and other Tibetan areas to British India; however the Chinese representative refused to accept the line owing to domestic pressures.

The Chinese position since then has been that since China was sovereign over Tibet, the line was invalid without Chinese agreement. As a result, China has not accepted the validity of the McMahon Line and regards India’s control of Arunachal Pradesh as an illegal occupation.

For the first two decades after the Simla Conference, the Survey of India did not show the McMahon Line as the border between British India and Tibet either; only in 1937 did they publish a map showing it as the official boundary; in 1938 the Survey of India published a map showing Tawang as a part of Tibet. In 1944, Britain established administrations in the area, from Dirang Dzong in the west to Walong in the east.

The situation developed further as India became independent and the People’s Republic of China was established in the late 1940s: with the PRC poised to take over Tibet, India unilaterally declared the McMahon Line to be the boundary in November 1950, and forced the Tibetan administration out of the Tawang area in 1951, despite Tibetan and PRC protests. [3][4] The NEFA (North East Frontier Agency) was created in 1954.

The issue was quiet during the next decade or so of cordial Sino-Indian relations, but erupted again during the Sino-Indian War of 1962. The cause of the escalation into war is still disputed by both Chinese and Indian sources, please refer to Sino-Indian War for details .

During the war in 1962 PRC captured most of the NEFA. However, the PRC soon declared victory and voluntarily withdrew back to the McMahon Line and returned Indian prisoners of war in 1963.

Arunachal Pradesh was administered as the North East Frontier Agency (NEFA) until 1972, when it became the Union Territory of Arunachal Pradesh. It was given full statehood in November 1986 after taking into consideration the security situation in the east and Sino-Indian tensions.