Wasn't it china that aggressively annexed Tibet and expelled its leaders ? India has always maintained diplomatic ties with Tibet and many consider it a spiritual destination. Even then India showed immense restraint.
By 1957 , and much before the dalai lama even crossed the Mac-Mahon line India-Peking ( now Beijing ) relations were rather strained. When an Indian parliamentarian ( Kushak Bakula ) visited Tibet, he noticed evidence of intense road building towards sinkiang. Then in July 1958, a chinese magazine printed a map that showed large parts of NEFA and Ladakh as Chinese territory.
We didn't start anything. You claimed our land and we were forced to defend it. In the end we lost but managed to seize Tawang in exchange for the wasteland that is aksai chin.
Excellent Summarization. I would want to add something here.
There are two border disputes which was the main reason for the 1962 war.
1. Though China and India agreed on the Mcmahon line as the border between Tibet and India, the disagreement was around where the line passes.
2. There was also separate dispute in the Akshai Chin due to Johnson line vs Macartney line.
Here is the brief history -
1. Johnson line north of Karakoram Range presented to Kashmir Maharaja in 1865 as the China/Kashmir border.
2. Macartney line which passes along the Karakoram range and was convenient to British was presented as the China border in 1899.
3. British reestablished Johnson line as the border in 1941.
4. India adopted Johnson line as the border.
5. China had built a road between western Tibet and Xinjiang - part of the road passing south of the Johnson line in 1950s. The road itself was discovered by India in 1957 and was the start of the dispute.
So it was not Nehru's forward policy which was the start of the war but the item 5 which was the start of the dispute. Considering the excellent relations India had with China at that time, China should have discussed the Akshai Chin issue freely with India instead of keeping India in the dark and laying the road.
