With the inauguration of the Kartarpur Corridor a new sense of hope within the people of especially the border areas of India has come up and now many regions in the country would hope to adopt such a model and one such region which may initiate a similar demand in the future could be Himachal Pradesh’s Kinnaur district which shares its borders with the Ngari prefecture of the Tibet Autonomous Region.

Why a Corridor

Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh on the Indo-China border, is one of those places where, in this 21st century, people are still struggling to get minimal health care, linkage to roads, primary education facilities and employment for its mostly tribal youth. Meanwhile, the provincial government is on a high after the success of its recently concluded Rising Himachal Global Investors Meet but may believe that the event had nothing in it for districts like Kinnaur.

As investment in sectors like Agri-Business, Health Care and Education have been opened but none include opportunities for Kinnaur or for that matter Lahaul Spiti. Say in case of the investible projects in Health Care where out of a list of 50 identified sub-centres not even one such centre of Kinnaur and Lahaul Spiti district has been included. In the education and skill development sector also the story is the same. Out of all the investible projects listed not even one is for the far-flung districts.

Which puts forth a perception in the minds of many that a new policy alternative needs to be put in place to tackle the issues of these isolated districts and establishment of a Visa-free Kinnaur-Ngari Corridor seems to be a step in this direction which will link India’s Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh to the bordering Ngari Prefecture of the Tibet Autonomous Region (China).

Western Himalayan Silk Route

India was the ﬁrst non-communist country to recognize China but relations between the two countries have undergone dramatic changes over the past seven decades, ranging from a great period in the 1950s to a period of enormous downs in the 1960s and 1970s, to a fresh start from the mid-1980s. The neoliberal era from the 1990s has offered enormous opportunities to New Delhi and Beijing to move in the direction of an efficient and effective relationship in the long-term interest of peace and stability in Asia. Establishment of this corridor could be the next step in this direction and would also lead to reviving of the centuries-old Western Himalayan Silk Route which got linked by the Hindustan – Tibet road in 1850 by the orders of Lord Dalhousie.

During that time traders from the erstwhile Bushahr state used to cross the Shipki La pass and trade with people of Western Tibet mostly belonging to the Ngari prefecture. Also, regular fairs were held during summertime in Kinnaur and Ngari areas which attracted thousands of traders from both sides to barter trade with each other. Though after the 1962 Sino-Indian War this route was closed but with the passage of time the two countries with huge human and material resources realized that they were facing common challenges of eradicating poverty and thus they began the process of reconnecting with each other with the signing of a protocol on economic cooperation, they granted each other MFN status and finally India–China relations entered a new phase which thus paved the way for the 1993 official opening of trade through the Shipki La pass but only border trade got the nod and mostly the adjoining packs of villages on both sides are allowed to trade since then.

In 2015, however, the cross border trade through that route touched a new record with a turnover of close to Rs 9.72 Crore, the highest ever since it resumed in 1993 but after the 2017 Dokhlam standoff in Sikkim it considerably declined. In 2018, it slowly revived by registering a turnover of 2.82 Crores. The main exports from India which are included in the tax-free list are agriculture implements, blankets, copper products, clothes, cycles, coffee, barley, rice, flour, dry and fresh vegetables, tobacco, spices, stationery, liquor, cigarettes, local herbal medicines, religious products like prayer wheels etc. On the flip side, imports from China include goat skin, sheep skin, wool, yak hair, goats, sheep’s, horses, shoes, carpets etc.

Need of a Corridor

If trade between nearby villages, that too through a rigid permit system which only accommodates limited people, could generate such a turnover, a proper Visa Free corridor can do far better.

The lifestyles, culture and languages of the two regions on both sides are also very similar linked to the historic movement of nomadic Kinnauri, Lahuli and Tibetian tribes in the region most people of those tribes living in the border belt also have relatives across the border. Particularly Tibetan speaking societies of Upper Kinnaur shares a lot of common ground concerning historical, geographical and cultural terms with Purang in the Western Tibetan region and they will gain a lot from this move both economically and socially.

These revived ties would promote bilateral tourism as the sector has huge scope in the region. Also, this corridor would hold a lot of religious importance as the Mount Kailash and Lake Man Sarovar are part of Ngari and thus many devotees especially belonging to the Himachali Shaivism sect would support this move. Also, many Buddhists from TAR and China would be interested in visiting the Key Monastery of Spiti and numerous monasteries of Kinnaur.

Such access also facilitates the interaction of academicians and students generating and developing ideas that benefit both sides, besides regional cooperation on key infrastructural and farming related issues. Also, in the long run, the two regions can have common schools were children from nearby border villages can study together. Common airports, hospitals, agriculture centres and sports complexes can also be established in those areas with the collaboration of both governments. Possibly in the future, the corridor could be stretched towards other parts of Himachal and Ladakh on the Indian side as well as parts of the Tibetan Autonomous Region.

Local communities in especially Upper Kinnaur have many a time raised this issue to open borders and similar voices were also been heard from the Ngari side but the governments on both sides have kept silent.

Decision Makers

Keeping in view, the legal and political aspects of international affairs, it will be mutually beneﬁcial for both India and China to strengthen the relationship through a constructivist approach. The two must balance national interest and the global economic concerns The 21st meeting of the Special Representatives of China and India on the boundary question in 2018 which was held in Chengdu, was a step in this direction. It had in-depth discussions on border trust-building and cooperation, and the proposed corridor can be a step in that direction which could bring prosperity back in the Western Himalayas and can be the beginning of a new chapter in India – China ties.

But the key not only rests in the hands of Beijing and New Delhi but also in the hands of Dharamshala where Himachal’s Investor Summit took place as another player in the whole scenario. The Tibetan government in exile has its headquarters situated in the town. The Tibet issue has been one of the major reasons for such Indian–Chinese relations. Although India has already reconciled itself to the fact that Tibet can never be a separate entity from China, but the Indian government has also not pushed hard to strike a peace deal between Tibet and China. While on the flip side, China has too been vary of the economic growth of India and has tried to sideline it on many counts.

Coming to the bottom line the attitude of these policy makers on both sides plus a concrete stand of the Tibetan government in exile is what will decide the future course of regions like Kinnaur and Nagari which are currently trapped in Western Himalayan border games.

Author: Vishal Sharma





Vishal is currently pursuing LL.M. in Legal & Political Aspects in International Affairs from Cardiff University, Wales (UK). He founded the Limbic Movement centered around a social organizational sphere aiming to advance the Limbic ideological dimension in the fields of Law, Public Policy and Social Work.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Himachal Watcher or its members.