The war with China
Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh
China attacks in Ladakh and the North-East Frontier on 20 October; after a month of Indian defeats it declares a ceasefire and keeps Aksai Chin.
The dispute was over two stretches of frontier: Aksai Chin in Ladakh, where China had built a road linking Xinjiang and Tibet in the 1950s, and the McMahon Line of 1914 in the east, which China rejected. Tawang fell within days of the attack. In November the Chinese broke through at Se La and Bomdila and overran Rezang La in Ladakh. China announced a unilateral ceasefire from 21 November and withdrew in the east, but stayed in Aksai Chin.
The war left the Line of Actual Control as the working northern border; in Ladakh it runs well inside the boundary India claims. India's own inquiry, the Henderson Brooks-Bhagat report, had not been officially released by 2026, and the balance of blame between Nehru's forward policy and Chinese intentions has been argued ever since.
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