India Plans to Rename Over 30 Tibetan Places in Retaliation to China’s Moves
India is set to counter China’s recent renaming of over 30 locations in the northeastern border state of Arunachal Pradesh by asserting its own claims and renaming places in Chinese-occupied Tibet, reported thediplomat.com on June 6.
The names have been carefully researched by Indian military sources, and the list of new placenames in Chinese-ruled Tibet is expected to be released shortly after a new government takes office in Delhi next week, the report said.
“Prime Minister Modi has campaigned on the strength of his strongman image. It is natural that he will authorize the renaming of Tibetan places to uphold that image,” former Intelligence Bureau officer Benu Ghosh, who has closely followed China and the India-China border issue for decades, was quoted as saying.
This list will be made public through the media as part of a global campaign to present a strong counter-narrative to Chinese claims on India’s Arunachal Pradesh state and other parts of the disputed border, according to sources.
Unnamed military officials have stated that the new names are backed by extensive historical research. “When the renaming campaign happens, it will be tantamount to India reopening the Tibetan question,” Ghosh said. “India has accepted Tibet as part of China since it was forcibly occupied by Beijing, but now the Modi government seems prepared to change course to counter Chinese cartographical and nomenclature aggression.”
To push its claim on the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, which it calls “Zangnan” (southern Tibet) based on its claim over Tibet, China in March 2024 renamed 30 places along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Released by the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs, which oversees the establishment and naming of administrative divisions, this was described as the fourth list of “standardized” geographical names in Zangnan.
The list included 11 residential areas, 12 mountains, four rivers, one lake, one mountain pass, and a piece of land. They were provided in Chinese characters, Tibetan, and pinyin, the Roman alphabet version of Mandarin Chinese.
Beijing released the first list of its so-called standardized names of six places in Arunachal Pradesh in 2017, followed by a second list of 15 places in 2021, and a third with names for 11 places in 2023. The fourth list contains almost as many new place names as the previous three combined, the report noted.
India has rejected China’s move on each occasion, calling Arunachal Pradesh an integral part of the country and making it clear that assigning “invented” names does not alter this reality.
“Prime Minister Modi’s government is expected to use this counter-naming strategy to assert India’s position and challenge China’s aggressive territorial claims,” Ghosh added. This move marks a significant shift in India’s approach to the longstanding border dispute with China and signals a new phase in Indo-China relations.
The forthcoming list of new names for places in Tibet will serve as a direct response to China’s renaming efforts and reinforce India’s stance on the border issue. It will be part of a broader effort to counteract China’s attempts to alter the status quo through nomenclature and cartographic changes.
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