page_title: Demchok sector
section_title: Kashmir Survey (1847–1868)
hierarchical_section_title: Demchok sector / History / Kashmir Survey (1847–1868)
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of Kashmir in 1913 http://1886.u-bordeaux-montaigne.fr/items/show/70390
context_page_description: The Demchok sector is a disputed region centered on the villages of Demchok, Ladakh and Dêmqog, Ngari Prefecture, situated near the confluence of the Charding Nullah and Indus River. It is part of the greater Sino-Indian border dispute between China and India. Both India and China claim the disputed region, with a Line of Actual Control between the two nations situated along the Charding Nullah.
  The Charding Nullah was mentioned by the name "Lhari stream" in a treaty between the Kingdom of Ladakh and the Ganden Phodrang government of Tibet in 1684 and stated as the boundary between the two regions. British surveys placed the border in 1847 between the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir and Qing Tibet on the stream, while British maps from 1868 onwards placed the border downstream and west of Demchok. After independence in 1947, India claimed the southern watershed of the river as its boundary, which has been contested by the People's Republic of China whose claims coincide with the British maps. The two countries fought a brief war in 1962, after which the Demchok region has remained divided between the two nations across a Line of Actual Control.
context_section_description: Between 1847 and November 1864, the British Indian government conducted the Kashmir Survey (Survey of Kashmir, Ladak, and Baltistan or Little Tibet), which was reproduced in a reduced form in the Kashmir Atlas of 1868 by the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India. Even though this was not an official boundary commission, the survey made several adjustments to the boundary, including in the Demchok sector. Lamb states:
  Where Strachey had put the boundary actually at Demchok, the Kashmir Atlas (Sheet 17) put it about sixteen miles downstream on the Indus from Demchok, thus coming nearer to the [present] Chinese than the Indian claim line.
  Lamb interprets this as a "compromise". According to him, the British gave up territory in Demchok to include other territory near the Spanggur Lake.
  In reality, the British knowledge of Ladakh was quite limited at this early stage. Maharaja Gulab Singh was zealous of his independence and the British distrusted his "expansionist" tendencies. Indian commentators state that the revenue records from the period of the survey show that the Demchok area was administered by Ladakh. This information did not apparently filter down to the survey team.
caption: Map of Jammu and Kashmir, Geographic Service of the French Army, 1909
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