Why India is Renaming 30 Places in Tibet? Know Full Details

The Indian government has begun a matching attempt to rename approximately thirty areas within China's Tibet Autonomous Region in response to China's recent renaming of locations in Arunachal Pradesh, India, as reported by The Diplomat. This action can be interpreted as a strong protest against China's naming policies.

As per the article from The Diplomat, the Army's Information Warfare Division has finalized the list of locations that will be renamed. The list will be made public shortly by the official sources. The new names have been decided only after extensive research on the historical significance of those places. These names also have the support of the local population, who have already rejected the Chinese names. 

PM Narendra Modi in Action

It has not even been a week since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took his oath as the new Prime Minister of India, and the Modi-led NDA government has sprung into action. In a strong response to China’s habit of renaming Arunachal Pradesh regions and locations, the Indian government has approved the renaming of about 30 places in the Tibet region.

Based on historical relevance and connections to the Tibetan region, the government has selected new names for the regions of Tibet. The places that are to be renamed are selected by the Army's Information Warfare Division. The changed names will be included in revised maps along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and issued publicly by the Indian Army.

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China’s History of Renaming Arunachal Pradesh

China has been following this tactic of renaming locations of Arunachal Pradesh with the names comprising Chinese characters. The first list of changed names was released in the year 2017. China has already released this type of list three more times after 2017. 

Arunachal Pradesh has already been given standardized names by China on several occasions; the most recent list released in March contained almost as many new names as the previous three combined. In this list, 30 locations—11 residential settlements, 12 mountains, 4 rivers, 1 lake, 1 mountain pass, and a plot of land—along the state's Line of Actual Control (LAC) have been renamed by China.

This was the fourth instance of China renaming the places of Arunachal Pradesh on its own. In 2017, Beijing released the first list of six Arunachal Pradesh locations with "standardized names," followed by a second list of 15 locations in 2021 and a third list of 11 locations in 2023.

The latest controversy between India and China includes the visit of PM Narendra Modi to Arunachal Pradesh in March 2024. This visit aimed to dedicate the Sela Tunnel- built at a height of 13,000 feet to the state. Beijing lodged its diplomatic protest against this visit in international media.

With Narendra Modi coming into power for the third consecutive time, it is expected that the lists will be released soon.  "PM Modi sought to win these polls on the strength of his strongman image. It is natural he will authorize the renaming of Tibetan places to live up to that image," said Benu Ghosh, former Intelligence Bureau, while talking to The Diplomat. 

Many defense experts predict that China would respond sharply to India's announcement of the new names. The release of the list can be seen as New Delhi reviving the Tibetan dispute, which will not go down the throat of the Chinese government well. 

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