The long shadow of colonial cartography: Britain and the Sino-Indian war of 1962

McGarr, Paul M.

Abstract

© 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This article examines British responses to the Sino-Indian border war of 1962. It illustrates how, in the years leading up to the war, Britain’s colonial legacy in the Indian subcontinent saw it drawn reluctantly into a territorial dispute between Asia’s two largest and most powerful nations. It analyses disagreements in Whitehall between the Foreign Office and Commonwealth Relations Office over the relative strength of India and China’s border claims, and assesses how these debates reshaped British regional policy. It argues that the border war was instrumental in transforming Britain’s post-colonial relationship with South Asia. Continuing to filter relations with India through an imperial prism proved unsatisfactory, what followed was a more pragmatic Indo-British association.

Citation

McGarr, P. M. (2020). The long shadow of colonial cartography: Britain and the Sino-Indian war of 1962. Journal of Strategic Studies, 42(5), 626-653. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402390.2019.1570147

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 3, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Jan 30, 2019
• Publication Date: Jan 30, 2020
• Deposit Date: Sep 2, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 31, 2020
• Journal: Journal of Strategic Studies
• Print ISSN: 0140-2390
• Electronic ISSN: 1743-937X
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 42
• Issue: 5
• Article Number: 5
• Pages: 626-653
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01402390.2019.1570147
• Keywords: Political Science and International Relations; Sociology and Political Science
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1107394
• Publisher URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01402390.2019.1570147
• Additional Information: Peer Review Statement: The publishing and review policy for this title is described in its Aims & Scope.; Aim & Scope: http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=aimsScope&journalCode=fjss20; Published: 2019-01-30