INTRODUCTION:differences in the nature of the political systems of the two countries, (one being democratic and the other being a predominantly authoritarian state) the state policies directed towards these peripheral regions and the nature of these conflicts have been strikingly similar.Methodologically, the paper follows a bottom-up approach and emphasises on the voices of the ordinary people. The arguments put forward by the people are often not in keeping with the stories, and arguments put forward by the political elite. In depth interviews were carried out to further the arguments in the paper. The bottom-up approach was carried out by doing semistructured or non-directive interviews with people from these conflict zones. 'The least structured form of interviewing is the non-structured or non-directive interview. Here no pre-specified set of questions is employed, nor are the questions asked in a specified order' [1]. There is no schedule. 'With little or no direction from the interviewer, respondents are encouraged to relate their experiences, to describe whatever events seem significant to them, to provide their own definitions of their situations, and to reveal their opinions and attitudes as they see fit. The interviewer has a great deal of freedom to probe various areas and to raise specific queries during the course of the interview'[1]. This flexibility and the spontaneity with which the interviewees respond are most certainly some of the strengths of this method. Now let us first start with India, and then in the second half of the paper we will be looking at China.