India's Forgotten Victory Over China In 1967
|By- Ajay Tomar|
The stories and data has been taken from the various articles published and available online.
Most of us know the defeat of 1962 war. But very few have an idea that we have actually beaten Chinese army in 1967. The current on-going scenario between India and China is a minor mirror reflection of 1967 skirmish conflict. When Indian army bravely gave china a bloody nose. The only India-china conflict that remains etched in the collective memory of all of us is the 1962 war, which India tragically lost. But very few know that five years later, in 1967, India and china faced off once again in the heights of Cho la and Nathu la at the Sikkim border. This time, overcoming the odds, India triumphed. The fallout of these forgotten battles was immense. China shied away from actively allying with Pakistan and the US during the 1971 India-Pakistan war.
What actually happened in 1967 between Indian and Chinese armed forces is listed as “incident/clash” and not as war primarily because it was a clash between the two armies in a very limited region.
The Chinese, however, blamed the Indian troops for provoking the clashes, alleging that the firing had started from the Indian side.
In the year 1967, China had a desire to taken up Bhutan and Sikkim under their territory. At that time china wanted to occupy the region as fast as possible because they needed to overcome the hardship of economy after the “great cultural revolution” which had led to Chinese famine a lot.
Meanwhile, India geared up their powers after China warned to support Pakistan. China thought that they could reply to this action easily. However, for some reason that year, when Chinese army attacked Sikkim, they were bravely retaliated by India suddenly. By this action they got stunned.
This was such became a humiliating loss for china. Of course, it was not large like 1962, but it turned to be a pain which China would never forget. And China never taught this in their schools.
What actually happened in 1967 between India and China
It happened because of Chinese liberation army. They entered in Sikkim to infiltrate king's army. Sikkim was not a part of India till then and the aristocratic government was running in Sikkim.
When Chinese troops entered in Sikkim (in Cho la and Nathu la) they tried to infiltrate king's army but till then Indian army reached and fought with them resulting in killing of more than 300 Chinese soldiers.
As a result, Chinese army withdrew its troops from Sikkim on 10th Oct. And Sikkim became a part of India in 1975. Which was accepted by china in 2003. Chinese already got a bit too haughty after their win in '62 and this time ironically they underestimated the power of India.
Nathu la pass was a way more strategically important location than Ladakh or Arunachal Pradesh. You can see this in map, it is very close to Siliguri corridor, which is narrowest part of main Indian land mass. (India is 27km thick over there). And this corridor happens to be the only link between 7 north eastern states and rest of India.
This time. It had installed 2 artillery position at height and the political leadership at Delhi was much more determined to protect Nathu la for above mentioned reasons.
There were two clashes that happened
1. September 11
In 1967 Indo-China border the skirmish took place in Nathu la and Cho la of Sikkim border, in Nathu la from sept 11–15 and Cho la on oct-01. Over border fencing at the Sikkim border by Indian soldiers. In Nathu la Chinese were inching towards Sikkim border digging trench, Indian soldiers at border post observed this, now they took precaution and started laying fence from Nathu la to Sebu la of the Sikkim part of the border just to demarcate the border. Chinese rushed towards the spot, both side involved in a tussle, both side soldiers get some minor injuries. Chinese were infuriated at it. All of a sudden they started artillery firing at Indian soldiers who are busy at border fencing, which caused on the spot death of some Indian soldiers. They immediately took positions and started firing. The short local war lasted for four days. Indian soldiers came down to the Chinese positions, destroyed all Chinese fortifications and killed maximum number of Chinese soldiers. And Chinese faced humiliating defeat.
2. October 1
This happened at Cho la. Chinese got in a heated argument with commander of 7/11 Gorkha regiment and killed him. Gorkhas obviously responded fiercely. Face off lasted for 10 days and china had to move back 3 km inside Tibet.
As we have already seen Chinese inching warfare strategy in Sikkim did not work. Chinese regarded Sikkim & Bhutan as part of Tibet. They had future plan to take control of these territory. But India’s move to border fencing along the Sikkim border hindered Chinese secret plan of conquering Sikkim and Bhutan as part of its expansionist policy. Indian soldiers stood firm in their positions, expelled Chinese to a far distance position to avoid Chinese casualties in the face of Indian artillery firing.
Indian casualties: 88
Chinese casualties: 340
*Chinese data may vary.
On both these occasions (in 1962 and 1967) China was the aggressor and India was only defending its claims. So India was never interested in capturing anything Chinese.
This time China claimed Sikkim which at that time was a protectorate state of India, for i.e. Indian army was responsible for protecting Sikkim from external aggressors.
In 1962 India was completely unaware and not prepared for the type of full-scale war. Which the Chinese launched. A "forward post policy" is not the same as the declaration of war, unlike what those like Neville Maxwell who claim, "India started the war" would have you believe. It's a little odd here when people claim that a guy like Mao, who is generally regarded as one of the biggest mass murderers in history, along with Hitler and Stalin, is regarded as a good guy in comparison with Nehru, who was a follower of the most famous proponent of peace in history.
Because India was unaware and not prepared for any face war, India only had 1-2 battalions along the entire border, and these were ill-trained for mountain warfare. China on the other hand had 15 battalions stationed in Tibet, ready for war. Thus the "war" was pretty lop-sided. Essentially India initiated a shouting match, not knowing that the Chinese had come prepared for a gun fight.
Now the thing to note is that the Indian border is a very remote location for the Chinese army to be positioned at for a long period of time. And post-1962 India substantially increased its preparedness along the Chinese border. So if china had to "teach India a lesson" because of the Cho la incident, it would have meant another costly mobilization of resources all along the border for a war which India was now well prepared for.
This was probably also the reason why china did not attack India during the 1971 war with Pakistan. China was strongly against the formation of Bangladesh, and Nixon was very supportive of any Chinese pressure on India that would have helped Pakistan.
China did not say a word because of those 1967 battles and after that they did not had as big battle as in 1962 and only had face offs and military confrontations in the coming years. One example is the recent one, the Dokhlam issue and the most recent one, face off in 2020.
Yes, India defeated china after a glorious battle in Nathu la pass and Cho la pass which has also known as the forgotten battle over the years but the significance of it is very big to India and it will always remain.
As India is a peace loving country and any country would not want to have a battle as it has great losses and also impact on economy and global side to that country which was very important for India at that point of time.
P.S- On the incident of 1967, Bollywood movie ‘Paltan’ released in 2018 directed by J.P Dutta and starring Arjun Rampal, Sonu Sood.
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