Tedim Road—The Strategic Road on a Frontier: A Historical Analysis

The article is an attempt to study the history of the Tedim Road, a 265 km transborder road connecting Imphal (the capital of Manipur in India) with Tedim in the Chin Hills (Chin State) in western Burma (Myanmar). It was constructed by the British solely for the purpose of facilitating military movements along the India–Burma frontier during the Second World War. Although it is yet to receive adequate scholarly attention, the historical significance of the Tedim Road as part of the larger Allied plan for the reconquest of Burma after it was lost to the Japanese in the early 1940s cannot be overlooked. The article attempts to analyse encounters between the Allied and the Japanese on this road. It argues that the historical events that occurred on the Tedim Road and the participation of the indigenous tribes of the India–Burma frontier in the war made a significant contribution to ensuring the withdrawal of the Japanese from the Indian frontier.