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In both pre and post-Independent India's political history, Shimla, with its once pristine beauty and splendor, is often associated with the historic July 1972 Simla Agreement. The agreement was reached between New Delhi and Islamabad following the December 1971 Indo-Pak war. That war had resulted in a second partition in the subcontinent – that of Pakistan. It was made possible by the people of East Pakistan with the active assistance of the Indian Army that eventually resulted in, until then, the largest post-World War-II military surrender (by Pakistan) to India and the formation of Bangladesh as an independent sovereign country.
But the fact is that Shimla, then spelt as Simla, has been the venue of three major politically significant events. The other two events had occurred prior to India's Partition and Independence. The first of these events, which occurred 100 years ago, was the signing of the Simla Accord. Also known as the Simla Convention signed on July 3, 1914, the agreement was reached between British-ruled India, China and Tibet. The agreement, accord or convention as it is variously referred to, divided Tibet into Inner Tibet and Outer Tibet with the latter being recognised as a de facto sovereign country. China was to recognise the autonomy of Outer Tibet and abstain from annexing or interfering in the administration of Outer Tibet among other measures. It also marked the coming into being of the McMahon Line which has been the subject of much discord between India and China. Although the Chinese representative initialled the agreement in April 1914, he walked away from the conference without signing it in July 1914 thus placing a question mark on the legitimacy of the document. Not surprisingly, the conflict between India and China continues with the Sino-Indian border remaining largely un-demarcated and therefore in dispute.
The second event, the June 1945 Simla Conference, which occurred 31 years later, also continues to have a bearing on post-Independent India. Like the July 1914 Simla Accord, this roundtable convention attended by 21 invitees and chaired by the British Viceroy of India, Archibald Wavell, had also ended in controversy. The conference, held over June 25 and 26, 1945 and attended by 21 delegates – from the Congress, Muslim League and other groupings and personalities – had been convened with the intention of forming an interim administration or a provisional national government to work under the Government of India Act of 1935. It was to be a first step in the direction of India's Independence. Excepting the Viceroy and the Commander-in-Chief, all members of this executive council were supposed to entirely comprise Indians. But the conference ran into trouble on the first day itself with the Muslim League, headed by Mohammed Ali Jinnah, objecting to the Congress nominating Muslims to the executive council. Nominating Muslims, Jinnah believed, was the exclusive preserve of the Muslim League. The Congress had nominated two Hindus and a Muslim, Parsi and Christian each in its list of five nominees to the executive council. Attempts at resolving the deadlock between Jinnah and the Congress nominee, Govind Ballabh Pant, the following day failed and so did the conference. But this conference nevertheless paved the way for the Cabinet Mission Plan of 1946, which was the first British proposal that directly admitted the possibility of Independence, which incidentally fructified a year later in August 1947.
The third and, so far, last politically significant event to be held in Shimla is the relatively more recent and better-known signing of the July 1972 Simla Agreement between Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. It was a comprehensive blue print for good neighbourly relations between the two countries. Under the Simla Agreement, both countries undertook to abjure conflict and confrontation and to work towards establishing durable peace, friendship and cooperation. Most significantly, the two sides agreed to resolve all conflict bilaterally and undertook an exercise to demarcate the Line of Control (LoC) along Jammu and Kashmir. The sanctity of the Simla Agreement held for 27 years until May 1999 which is when Pakistan carried out surreptitious intrusions in the Kargil sector. Yet it was because of the legitimacy of the LoC recognised by the international community as per the Simla Agreement that helped India in diplomatically isolating Pakistan in much of the international community and assisted in restoring status quo ante. So much for Simla, now Shimla.
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legacy
