The Senkaku/ Diaoyu are a cluster of islands off the coast
of Taiwan that are in close proximity to both Japan and China. The reason that
these islands have been a source of conflict is that they are of Geo- strategic
importance to both China and Japan who are both competing to expand their
sphere of influence in the region. Japan has the distinction of being one of
the countries that has an amount of consideration for land claims, even if it
does not skimp on security arrangements to back its own claim.
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| Map Unveiled by China in 2014 Source: dailymail.co.uk |
Under Shinzo Abe, there has been a distinct change of
narrative that has emerged from Japan. Its distinct nationalist flavor now has
diluted some of the bi- partisan brownie points that Japan might have earned in
political discourse if it had maintained its school textbooks, and the
different claims made by different countries over contested regions.
It is in this vein that I hope to bring up the Jammu and
Kashmir and Arunchal Pradesh land issues that India faces in its interaction
with both China and Pakistan. We shall stick with the problem of POK and the
Aksai Chin region, since we are dealing with the Kashmir issue here.
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| Status Quo Boundaries Source: economist.com |
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| As Claimed by Pakistan Source: economist.com |
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| As Claimed by China Source: economist.com |
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| As Claimed by India Source: economist.com |
Here I
propose that as opposed to being militant and shrill about the land issues, it
would make sense to educate children in the actual politics of land and how
these varying claims also have varying degrees of legitimacy and Indians being
aggrieved by this issue makes us no better than that one spokesman of the
People’s Republic of China who claims that Arunchal Pradesh and China’s claim
to it is for the purposes of ensuring that the people of China have an
understanding of China’s “maritime” and “geographical” claims, as it were.
The only people who can legitimately be aggrieved by this
situation are the people in the contested territories. Both the valley and
Aksai Chin. Where, when the politics of the South East Asian region play out,
we treat their homes like tiles on a chess board.
Sources/ References:
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