McMahon Line

The McMahon Line marks boundary between Chinese-held and Indian-held territory in the eastern Himalayan region. The line was the focus of a brief war in 1962, when Indian and Chinese forces struggled to control a disputed area (shown in red), much of which is a high altitude wasteland.

The McMahon Line is a demarcation line drawn on a map referred to in the Simla Convention, a treaty between Britain and Tibet signed in 1914.

It is named after Henry McMahon, a diplomat who signed the agreement.

After India became independent from Britain in 1947 and China invaded Tibet in 1950, the line became the border of India and China. Some people disagree, but it is now part of the real boundary between China and India (called the Line of Actual Control).

This disagreement was a reason for a war between China and India in 1962 (the Sino-Indian War).

Map of the whole China-India border with McMahon line labelled to the east (right), 1963.

Related pages

• Arunachal Pradesh
• Durand Line
• Radcliffe Line

Further reading

• GlobalSecurity.org, India-China Border Dispute
• Kawaguchi, Yuki. "Arunachal Pradesh Territorial Dispute between India and China," Archived 2010-10-01 at the Wayback Machine ICE Case Studies (US). No. 161, November, 2005.