What prompted India to issue standard names for 27 locations in Arunachal Pradesh?

India issued standard names for 27 locations in Arunachal Pradesh in response to China's renaming moves, reinforcing India's claim over these territories along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

How does India's naming of places contribute to its claim over Arunachal Pradesh?

By formally identifying these locations on the Survey of India map, India aims to clarify its territorial claims and strengthen official documentation against China's fictitious renaming efforts.

What has been China's response to India's actions regarding Arunachal Pradesh?

China has attempted to assert its claims on Arunachal Pradesh by renaming locations and issuing stapled visas to residents, which India has strongly rejected as baseless narratives.

India issues names for 27 Arunachal locations in response to China’s renaming moves

India on Friday issued standard names for 27 places and geographical features in Arunachal Pradesh located along the Line of Actual Control (LAC)

Updated on: Aug 8, 2026, 07:48:31 IST

By Neeraj Chauhan, Rezaul H Laskar, New Delhi

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India on Friday issued standard names for 27 places and geographical features in Arunachal Pradesh located along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), a move officials described as a riposte to China’s efforts to rename dozens of locations in the state in recent years.

The move is aimed at reinforcing India’s absolute sovereign and legal jurisdiction over these territories.

Among the places included in the list is the border village of Longju, which has been controlled by China since 1959 but falls within the Indian claim line, officials said on condition of anonymity. The move is aimed at reinforcing India’s absolute sovereign and legal jurisdiction over these territories.

An official statement from the Union home ministry said the Indian government, in consultation with the government of Arunachal Pradesh, “identified a total of 27 places or features in Arunachal Pradesh, by standard place and feature names on the official maps of Survey of India (SoI)”.

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“Identifying them formally on the Survey of India map of Arunachal Pradesh is aimed at facilitating their accurate recognition and better awareness among the public at large,” the statement said.

The home ministry said the locations identified on the Survey of India map include 21 land areas, four passes, a lake, and a monument. The land locations are Longju, Maja, Bisa, Bara Kundun, Chhota Kundun, Dhan Bari, Pritnagar, Buddhamandir, Jairampur, Teritnagar, Ramnagar, Jaswant Garh, Sagar, Padma, Jyotinagar, Baisakhi, Chhota Ropuk, Bara Ropuk, Shivaji Nagar, Sunpura, and Kamlang Nagar.

The passes are Dzo La, Riza La, Pukur La, and Thag La, and the list included Sambho Sarovar lake and Sher-e-Thapa Memorial.

An official familiar with the development said: “There has been a lot of ambiguity regarding the maps. China uses this to give fictitious names to Arunachal Pradesh’s territories, which are part of sovereign India.

“Putting these 27 locations on the Survey of India map provides clarity, makes our claim status strong and strengthens the official documentation of geographical features.”

Over the past few years, China has repeatedly announced its own “standardised names” for dozens of places in Arunachal Pradesh as part of its claims on Indian territory. China refers to Arunachal Pradesh as “south Tibet”, and there have been instances of Chinese authorities issuing stapled visas to residents of Arunachal Pradesh.

In November 2025, India registered a strong protest after a woman from Arunachal Pradesh was detained by Chinese authorities at Shanghai airport on the grounds that her Indian passport was invalid.

The officials said identifying a place on the Survey of India map gives administrative and governance value to it, as mapped places are easier to reference in land, revenue, and census records, infrastructure planning, and border road construction.

They also said the move is aimed at discrediting China’s efforts to assign “fictitious names” to places in Arunachal Pradesh.

In April this year, after China assigned names to 23 locations in Arunachal Pradesh, the external affairs ministry said such attempts to manufacture “baseless narratives” would not alter the reality and could even hit efforts to normalise bilateral relations.

External affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said at the time that India categorically rejected “any mischievous attempts by the Chinese side to assign fictitious names to places which form part of the territory of India”. He added, “China should refrain from actions which inject negativity into relations and undermine efforts to create better understanding.”

Jaiswal said such moves by China, aimed at introducing false claims, cannot alter the “undeniable reality that these places and territories, including Arunachal Pradesh, were, are, and will always remain an integral and inalienable part of India”.

China’s ministry of civil affairs — which is responsible for standardising the names of geographical features in “south Tibet” — had issued a notification renaming the 23 locations, including rivers, mountains, and towns.

In the past too, India has rejected China’s moves to rename dozens of locations in Arunachal Pradesh, including towns, rivers, and geographic features, arguing that such actions will not change the reality. China has resorted to such renaming exercises in 2017, 2021, 2023, and 2024, usually during periods of strained relations.

India and China are currently normalising their relations, which plummeted to an all-time low due to a military standoff on the LAC that began in 2020 and lasted more than four years. As part of this process of normalisation, the two countries have held talks aimed at resolving their long-standing border dispute.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Neeraj Chauhan
Neeraj Chauhan is a senior journalist with Hindustan Times and an investigative reporter specialising in national security, terrorism, organised crime, narcotics, corruption, financial crime and complex investigations. With over 21 years of experience across Hindustan Times, The Times of India, The Indian Express and The Pioneer, he has built deep expertise in India’s internal security and law-enforcement landscape. Neeraj has extensively covered India’s principal investigative, intelligence and security agencies, including the NIA, CBI, ED, IB, R&AW, MHA and other central security forces. His work has included deeply reported investigations into terrorism, terror financing, cross-border crime, narcotics trafficking, cybercrime, financial fraud and political and corporate corruption. He has reported on some of the most significant terror attacks and security developments in India over the past two decades, including the Delhi serial blasts, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, the 2019 Pulwama terror attack and the recent Pahalgam attack. His reporting has also chronicled the rise and decline of the Indian Mujahideen, the activities and subsequent crackdown on the Popular Front of India (PFI), Islamist extremist networks, the conflict in Jammu and Kashmir, insurgencies in the Northeast and Maoist violence. Some of Neeraj’s major breaking stories are in Aryan Khan drug case, Sushant Singh Rajput suicide, interception of a 3,000-kg Afghan heroin consignment worth about ₹21,000 crore at Mundra port, Sri Lanka easter bombings, Aarushi-Hemraj murders in Noida, 2G scam, coal block allocation scam, AgustWestland VVIP chopper deal and major bank frauds and extradition cases involving Mehul Choksi, Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya. His reporting is marked by an ability to cultivate sources, analyse confidential and complex documents, and follow investigations over several years—from the initial breakthrough to chargesheets, trials and international legal proceedings. He specialises in making complicated security and investigative developments accessible while examining their wider implications for governance and public policy. A Chevening South Asia Journalism Programme Fellow at the University of Westminster, Neeraj also spent time at the Financial Times as part of the fellowship. He was also a Robert Bosch Media Ambassadors India-Germany Fellow, studying at the University of Tübingen and working with Der Tagesspiegel in Berlin. He has previously taught investigative journalism and crime reporting as a guest faculty member at the Times School of Journalism. Over more than two decades, Neeraj has established himself as an authoritative voice on India’s national security and investigative landscape, with his reporting closely followed by officials, investigators, lawyers, policymakers and readers seeking insight into some of the country’s most complex and consequential developments.Read More
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rezaul H Laskar
Rezaul Hasan Laskar is Foreign Editor with the Hindustan Times, which he joined in 2015. He began as a journalist in his hometown of Shillong in northeast India and has worked in newspapers and wire services over the years. He moved to New Delhi in 1997 and initially focused on defence, national security, Jammu and Kashmir and the northeast, while also working of foreign policy and international relations. He has been part of the media delegation accompanying PMs on foreign visits and has reported from destinations ranging from Tibet to Ukraine. Between 2007 and 2013, he was the Press Trust of India correspondent in Pakistan, one of only two Indian journalists allowed to report from the country. He extensively covered Pakistan’s domestic politics and the life of the common people, as well as the fallout of the 2008 Mumbai attacks on India-Pakistan relations and the subsequent trial in Pakistan of the suspects involved in the attack. As part of his reportage in Pakistan, he travelled the breadth of the country, from the Swat Valley to Balochistan. Reza’s first gig in journalism was writing a weekly music column, and music – especially classic rock – remains a keen interest. He is also a movie buff and a keen photographer.Read More

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