The title of this book is something of a misnomer. After India and China clashed in 1962 to establish their respective claims over their frontiers in the Himalayas interested scholars in their quest to find out the truth about the different claims started vigorous research to trace out the history of the Sino-Indian frontier in the Himalayan region at least since the Simla Conference of 1914 when the boundary between Tibet and North East India was settled. Professor Ram Rahul has neither mentioned anything about the origin of the McMahon Line nor the subsequent events that resulted in the 1962 war. How can a book on The Himalaya as a Frontier be deemed complete without any reference to the Sino-Indian border claims and conflicts? One would have expected the author to provide a comprehensive account of the vital and strategic roles played by the Himalayas as a zone of contact, barriers and tensions between two Asian powers in the region.
March-April 1979, volume 3, No 5