IN AUGUST 2008, THE BRITISH HISTORIAN Patrick French interviewed a Ladakhi man, a Buddhist by the name of Tashi Norbu. The elderly man recalled how, in 1948, Buddhist monks had built an improvised airstrip near their monastery where a Dakota airplane carrying Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru landed afterwards. In a touching moment that French later describes in his book, India: A Portrait, Norbu affirms Ladakh’s integration with India. His people, he says, would have never got along with Pakistan or China. “In India, you can speak your mind, so I’m happy to be with them,” he tells French.