A Study of Sino-Indian Border Issues

Border promotes a sense of permanence (although not ever permanent) followed by formalisation, mutual acceptance and recognition through tradition, custom, distinctive natural features and mutually agreed artificial agreement. It shows a line that divides one country, state, province from another or a frontier line. One you cannot cross the border without a visa. LAC and LOC, on the other hand, connote a sense of transition which may get altered at any moment as these are neither recognised nor formalised. In short, LAC when delineated on map and demarcated on the ground becomes LOC and when LOC gets the seal of formalisation on the basis of mutual acceptance and settlement, it becomes a border. There is a geographical and geopolitical aspect to the ongoing Sino-Indian standoff in the Doklam region. Geography locates Bhutan on a sensitive part of the Himalayan belt. Its history, small size and state capacity have made it an element in the geopolitical contest between India and China.