Rejuvenate the lifeline 

Stilwell Road can play the pivotal role to bolster commercial and cultural ties between India and South East Asian countries.

North East News Agency

So has the Government of India shelved the plan to reopen the Stilwell Road? It is believed that an official of the MEA has denied in Bejing that efforts were on to reopen this historic route and the decision for the same is believed to be ‘economic compulsions’.

Before ruminating on this, let’s put the clock back a bit. Even before the Stilwell Road there was some path linking China’s Yunnan province and Assam, In the Comprehensive History of Assam, edited by Late H.K. Borpujari, it has been recorded as follows: “It appears that there had been an old route from south-west Yunnan to Assam. The Tais possessed knowledge of the topography through which the route ‘passed and also of the ‘Brahmaputra valley.’ In any case the Tais (Ahoms) came to Assam crossing the Patkai range of mountains from on the Burma-China boarder.

General Joseph Warren Stilwell was the Chief of Staff of the Allied forces for the India-China-Burma sector during World War II.  Gen. Stilwell was an American and was known to his compatriots as ‘Vinegar Joe.’  He was Deputy to Lord Louis Mountbatten, who was the Supreme Commander of the South East Asia Command of the Allied Army in World War II. But it is believed that Mountbatten was never in good terms with Stilwell and that they had totally different ideas and opinions yet they both regarded each other as great soldiers and Mountbatten even appreciated Stilwells contributions.

The Japanese occupation of Burma-China in 1942 compelled the Allied Forces to think of building a road from N.E. India to China through Burma to strengthen and furnish the Chinese forces led by Chang Kai Shek. It is believed that Stilwell’s Operations Officer, Frank Merrill was the one who first came up with the idea of a road link and it appealed to his superior instantly. The Allies decided to build road from Ledo in Upper Assam to Kunming in China. It was built at a huge expense (nearly 13 and half Million dollars at that time) and braving heavy odds because it was important for the Allied powers to win the war against Japan for which making direct supplies possible’ to China was necessary. Chang Kai Shek and his wife Sung Li also had their hands in convincing Stilwell to build the road so that the petrol pipeline could be layed and protected.

China needed the petrol for the Allied airborne forces operating against the Japanese from airfields in Assam, Burma and Yunnan. The Americans also believed that the main advantage of the Stilweil Road lay in the increased supplies of petrol (gasoline) which the pipeline running parallel with the road, would bring to the China based air forces.

It took two and a half years for the Stilwell Road to be completed. The building to the road was a battle in itself. The workers had to virtually fight with the heat, rain, slush, diseases like malaria and the attack of deadly leeches to construct the 1726 Km. road that is still considered a marvel of Engineering excellence. On January 1945 the first convoy of Allied forces rolled on this road to mark its opening. And as a tribute to the roan who first visioned this road and under whose able leadership the same was constructed, the historic road was aptly christened ‘The Stilwell Road.’

Post Chinese aggression of 1962, Sino-Indian ties were snapped. It was only in the last decade of the 20th Century that India has again started to look afresh at her relation with China and other Eastern neighbours and the ‘Look East’ policy has come in to force. Given the geographically strategic position of the Stilweil Road, the Govt. of India well knows that this historic roadway can bolster the trade, commercial as well as cultural ties between our country, Myanmar, China as well as rest of South East Asia. So a move was afoot recently to reopen this old route. Arunachal Pradesh has also come up with reconstruction planes to rebuild parts of the road that is in despair. The Arunacal Govt firmly believes that a fully operational Stilwell Road will contribute greatly towards trade and tourism boom in this region

But if today the Govt  of India is deciding/has decided to close the issue of opening the Stilweil Road forever then what is the rationale behind it? The N.E. and Eastern region of our country has been swamped by cheap Chinese goods that has adversely effected the local Industries/enterprise of this region. The West and South-West of China is taken to be relatively under-developed than the flourishing eastern and Southern parts. But the N.E. of our country is even notches below South West China as far as the development index is concerned. Opening of the Stilwell Road without proper development and upgradation of the N.E can mean a greater onslaught of Chinese goods in the markets of this region.

Myanmar is the country through which illegal narcotics and arms are constantly being smuggled to our country through the NE. Arms manufactured in China also make its way to the NE through Myanmar. Myanmar also has a number of rebel groups who support insurgent groups from the N.E. who are holed up inside that country in camps. Their movement through the boarder is also a continuing problem. The opening of the Stilwell Road can well give a boost to these evils to flourish more openly and strongly. If the Govt. of India is concerned on these lines, one can not deny the argument.

But  China  today  is  moving  on  a  high  speed  double  track development path. According to agreements arrived at, SE Asia and China will  become  a  single  Free  Trade  Zone  with  an  estimated population of 2 billion and a collective GDP of $3 trillion by 2010 with a “rising China” as the main engine of growth. Even talking of the Stilwell Road itself, the approx 1150 Km. of the road stretch that falls in China is now a Super Expressway while the many parts of the road in Myanmar and N.E. India lie in abject despair — clearly indicative of China’s latest ascendancy and quick development.

From our country’s point of    view it should be seem as a  wonderful opportunity to match our ‘Look East’ policy with the ‘Look West’ call given by the Chinese While identifying the factors that prevented development of NE,  those that come to the forefront includes lack of infrastructure, remoteness from mainland India, issues that instigate ethnic strife and insurgency, lack of economy of    scale and political and administrative interference breeding corruption. Formation of a Special Economic Zone can be a realistic solution in solving most of these problems.

Such a Zone can join neighbouring countries or regions for effective sub-regional co-operation. Close economic co-operation between NE and SW China, specially Yunnan and Tibet to begin with can have excellent results. Clusters of small and medium enterprises can be planned between Baoshan and Ledo in such a way so as to make it a corridor of prosperity with links to the Greater Mekong sub-region project that covers almost all other countries in proximity. Even if the portion between Houqiao in China and Ledo in India alone is used as the corridor, the economic educational and cultural benefits will be on an enormous scale. In the process this can become a truly tri-lateral sub-regional co-operation  project  that  will  benefit  all.

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