Not far from the Rezang La-Rechin La mountain range, which has emerged as a key point of friction between Indian and Chinese troops, the clutter of the Chushul brigade headquarters still houses artifacts, including a golden statue of the Buddha. Laughing seized by Sikh regiments more than a century ago. .
The soldiers were part of an eight-nation mission to neutralize the Chinese Boxer Rebellion at the beginning of the last century, an uprising led by young farmers and workers against foreign influence. The British Army had incorporated Sikh and Punjab regiments, among others.
The alliance troops moved to Beijing after boxer fighters threatened foreigners and kept 400 foreigners hidden in Beijing’s Foreign Legation Quarter. The siege lasted for 55 days before 20,000 alliance troops arrived in Beijing and broke through. Almost 8,000 of them belonged to the British Indian Army, mostly Sikh and Punjab regiments. After the victory, according to an account by an Indian sepoy, the British army indulged in looting: French and Russian troops killed civilians and raped women.
The statue of the Laughing Buddha in the army canteen in Chushul was one of the items brought by the soldiers. A gilded bronze bell dating from the Ming dynasty 1368-1644, one of 16 missing, looted by a British general, was finally returned by the Indian army to the Beijing Temple of Heaven in 1995.
In his seminal book, India’s China War, Australian journalist Neville Maxwell said that the Chinese leadership used the humiliation suffered after the revolution to build a movement to restore the country. Maxwell also believed that there was a link between this mentality and the 1962 war.
An Indian army commander said that this historical context could be one of the reasons why the psychic operations of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army are so focused on Punjabi or Sikh soldiers.
China’s PLA has installed loudspeakers at sticking points spewing its propaganda into the standoff, accusing New Delhi of mounting tensions to deflect internal problems, and even chanting Punjabi pop numbers aimed at Indian soldiers deployed to counter the PLA. .
India and China have held several rounds of talks at the military and diplomatic level. The last was at the level of Foreign Minister S Jaishankar, who had a two-hour meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Moscow that helped ease tensions between the two countries. But there is no evidence yet that a resolution is around the corner.
New Delhi is not impressed by the Chinese political rhetoric that India should disconnect first, that the genesis of the current standoff is to be found in the 5 August 2019 cancellation of article 370 and the redesigned map of India or whatever, like the envoy. Chinese Sun Weidong says, both sides must meet halfway to restore peace on the border.
India believes that China should reestablish the status quo as it prevailed on April 20 this year when the PLA was stationed closer to the Royal Line of Control, sparking a series of clashes with Indian Army patrols in various locations throughout throughout LAC in Ladakh. and in other places.
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