Line of Actual Control

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The western portion of the Line of Actual Control, which lies between Chinese-held and Indian-held territory in the Himalayan region. The line was the focus of a brief war in 1962, when Indian and Chinese forces struggled to control land where, "not even a blade of grass grows," as Indian Prime Minister Nehru put it.

The Line of Actual Control (LAC) is the effective border between India and China. Chinese Prime Minister Zhou Enlai used the phrase in a letter addressed to Indian Prime Minister Nehru dated October 24, 1959. In a letter dated November 7, Zhou told Nehru that the LAC consisted of "the so-called McMahon Line in the east and the line up to which each side exercises actual control in the west". During the Sino-Indian War (1962), Nehru claimed not to know where the line was: "There is no sense or meaning in the Chinese offer to withdraw twenty kilometers from what they call 'line of actual control'. What is this 'line of control'? Is this the line they have created by aggression since the beginning of September? Advancing forty or sixty kilometers by blatant military aggression and offering to withdraw twenty kilometers provided both sides do this is a deceptive device which can fool nobody."