ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that the line be renamed as Gautam Buddha Line rather than as the McMahon Line. The McMahon Line has no physical or legal sanctity but since it has by and large served its purpose it has become a de-facto boundary line and now it is an accomplished fact of history. The widespread conviction in India is that the Simla convention fixed a legal, binding, customary, water parting natural boundary along the crest line by a bilateral agreement between India and Tibet in 1914. Annexed to both were authoritative maps carrying the legend 'boundary undefined' for the entire Western sector and continued eastwards till it reached the trijunction of the borders of India, China and Nepal. In 1938, Deputy Secretary in Foreign Ministry, Sir Caroe raised a claim that, 'China had formally acquiesced to British annexations of the Tibetan territory in India's north- east along McMahon Line'.
