Trans-Karakoram Tract

thumb|300px|[[Central Intelligence Agency map of the former British Indian princely state of Jammu and Kashmir with present-day borders, showing the Trans-Karakoram Tract in the northern part of the state (hatched red)]]

The Trans-Karakoram Tract (), also known as the Shaksgam Tract (), is an area of approximately north of the Karakoram watershed, including the Shaksgam Valley. The tract is administered by China as part of its Taxkorgan and Yecheng counties in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

Following the accession of Jammu and Kashmir to India in 1947, India claimed sovereignty over all its territory. At that time the northern boundary of Jammu and Kashmir was marked along the Yarkand River. In the 1950 border definition, India retracted the northern border south of the Yarkand River, but included the Shaksgam Valley within Jammu and Kashmir. However, the adjoining Gilgit-Baltistan region came under Pakistani control through the First Kashmir War. Pakistan and China signed Sino-Pakistan Agreement in 1963 and a border based on 1899 Macartney–MacDonald Line was recognized as the international border by China and Pakistan. India has never accepted the Sino-Pakistan Agreement, asserting that Islamabad "unlawfully" attempted to cede the area to Beijing.

Most of the tract is composed of the Shaksgam Valley and was formerly administered as part of Shigar, a district (formerly a tehsil) in the Baltistan region. A polo ground in Shaksgam was built by the Amacha rulers of Shigar according to local traditions, and the Rajas of Shigar used to invite the Amirs of Hotan to play polo there.

The tract is one of the most inhospitable areas of the world, with some of the highest mountains of the Karakoram Range, including Broad Peak, K2 and Gasherbrum. On the southeast, it is adjacent to the highest battlefield in the world on the Siachen Glacier region which is controlled by India.

History

thumb|300px|Boundary of Kashmir in the 1888 [[Survey of India map of India. The undefined boundary shown in dash line from Malubiting, Raskam, Aktagh to Karakunlun Shan ]]

thumb|300px|Detailed map showing part of the Trans-Karakoram Tract near the [[Shaksgam River (United States Army Map Service, 1953)]]

thumb|300px|The Shaksgam Valley ([[Xinjiang|Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region) photographed in August 2008]]

Historically the people of Hunza cultivated and grazed areas to the north of the Karakoram, and the Mir of Hunza claimed those areas as part of Hunza's territories. Those areas included the Raskam Valley, north of the Shaksgam Valley.

In 1889 the first expedition to the Shaksgam Valley by a European was undertaken by Francis Younghusband (who referred to the Shaksgam as the Oprang).

In March 1899 the British proposed, in a formal Note from Sir Claude MacDonald to China, a new boundary between China and British India. The Note proposed that China should relinquish its claims to suzerainty over Hunza, and in return Hunza should relinquish its claims to most of the Taghdumbash and Raskam districts. It further outlined a border broadly following the main Karakoram crest, dividing the watersheds of the Indus and Tarim rivers, with a deviation to pass through a Hunza post at Darwaza near the Shimshal Pass. The Chinese did not respond to the Note and the Indian government never revisited the boundary in the same form again. The MacDonald Line was modified in 1905 to include in India a small area east of the Shimshal Pass, to put the border on a stretch of the Shaksgam River.

thumb|300x300px|Map comparing <br>1. 1899 [[Macartney–MacDonald Line (dashed segments with circles)<br>2. 1905 modification to Macartney–MacDonald Line (solid dots)<br>3. The China-Pakistan Border as settled in 1963 (star symbols)<br>4. Traditional border shown on many British maps (dashed lines)]]

At the same time, in view of "The Great Game", Britain was concerned at the danger of Russian expansion as Qing dynasty China weakened and so adopted a policy of claiming a border north of the Shaksgam River. This followed a line proposed by Sir John Ardagh in a Memorandum of 1897. That border included the Mir of Hunza's claim over the Raskam Valley. However, British administration never extended north of the Karakoram watershed.

From 1899 until the independence of India and creation of Pakistan in 1947, the representation of the border on maps varied. In 1926 Kenneth Mason explored and surveyed the Shaksgam Valley.

In 1927 the Government of British India abandoned any claim to the area north of the MacDonald Line, but the decision did not find its way on to British maps. By 1959, however, Chinese maps were published showing large areas west and south of the MacDonald line in China. That year, the Government of Pakistan announced its willingness to consult on the boundary question.

Since 1947, India has claimed sovereignty over the entire area of the pre-1947 independent state of Jammu and Kashmir and maintains that Pakistan and China do not share a common border.

In 1954 the Times Atlas predominantly depicted the Cis-Kuen Lun Tract (the region between the Karakoram and Kuen Lun mountains) as a part of Kashmir under the caption "Undefined Frontier area". The northern border published by the 1954 Times Atlas more or less followed the watershed of the Kuen Lun range from the Taghdumbash Pamir to the Yangi Dawan pass north of Kulanaldi, but east of the Yangi Dawan Pass, the border deviated from the watershed of the Kuen Lun range on the edge of the highlands of Kashmir.

Sino-Pakistan Frontier Agreement

thumb|300px|Official alignment of the Government of Pakistan in 1962 according to the [[Ministry of External Affairs (India)|Ministry of External Affairs of India. The border is in the extreme north and is depicted as a dotted line with the caption Alignment Official Pakistan Map 1962.]]

In 1959, the Pakistani government became concerned over Chinese maps that showed areas the Pakistanis considered their own as part of China. In 1961, Ayub Khan sent a formal note to China; there was no reply. It is thought that the Chinese might not have been motivated to negotiate with Pakistan because of Pakistan's relations with India.

In 1962 the Government of Pakistan published an official map depicting the alignment of the northern border of Kashmir, which depicted much of the Cis-Kuen Lun Tract as part of Kashmir. The alignment published by the Government of Pakistan was mostly similar to the portrayal of the northern Border of Kashmir depicted in the 1954 Times Atlas, though in places, the Government of Pakistan's position deviated from the 1954 Times Atlas, and included areas as part of Kashmir which were to the north of the border of Kashmir shown in the Times Atlas. For an idea of the extent of the Trans-Karakoram Tract or the Cis-Kuen Lun Tract, a view the map (C) from the Joe Schwartzberg's Historical Atlas of South Asia at DSAL in Chicago with the caption, "The boundary of Kashmir with China as portrayed and proposed by Britain prior to 1947" would show that the geographical and territorial extent of the Trans-Karakoram Tract or the Cis-Kuen Lun Tract is more or less the territory enclosed between the northernmost line and the innermost lines.

After Pakistan voted to grant China a seat in the United Nations, the Chinese withdrew the disputed maps in January 1962, agreeing to enter border talks in March. Negotiations between the nations officially began on October 13, 1962, and resulted in the Sino-Pakistan Agreement signed on 2 March 1963 by foreign ministers Chen Yi of China and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan. However, the Indian political analyst and historian A. G. Noorani claims that Shaksgam Valley never formed part of Kashmir, and that the northern and eastern boundaries of Kashmir remained undefined. The historian Alastair Lamb, noting the Indian stance in his analysis of the agreement, states that the Indian government has repeatedly used the agreement as to claim "existence of a Pakistan-China “axis” directed towards the humiliation of India". He further adds that the western frontiers along Karakoram had been clearly established by British note to China in 1899 and its subsequent modification in 1905 had been admitted by Chinese authorities in Xinjiang during 1930s, the same border which was more or less followed during the 1963 demarcation. Sumit Ganguly states that Pakistan gained in Shimshal Valley in return of ceding its claim over in Shaksgam. According to Neville Maxwell, Pakistan gave up only map claims while China had to withdraw from the territory it administered.

Trans-Karakoram Tract

History

Sino-Pakistan Frontier Agreement

See also

Notes

References

Bibliography

External links