India has fired back at China’s years-long naming games. India has identified 27  Arunachal Pradesh locations along the Line of Actual Control) LAC. India has fired back at China’s years-long naming games. On 7th August 2026, the Union Home Minister formally gave standard names to 27 places in Arunachal Pradesh along the LAC.

 Longju, the long-controversial border village, is included in the list. Officials openly refer to this naming of 27 Arunachal Pradesh sites as a “direct rebuttal” to Beijing’s “repeated attempts” to rename places within the Indian territory..

What Exactly Did India Announce?

A total of 21 land areas, four mountain passes, one lake and one war memorial have been included in the list, which was finalized with the Arunachal Pradesh government. Official Survey of India (SoI) maps have now been put up for all 27 locations in Arunachal Pradesh.

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According to the officials, it is a drill to reinforce India’s legal claim over the area. It also helps to eliminate any uncertainty caused by China’s alternative names list. One of the most symbolic of the 27 Arunachal Pradesh locations on the new list is the village of Longju, which has been under Chinese control since 1959 but is inside India’s claim line.

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The other 20 land locations include 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 four newly named mountain passes include Dzo La, Riza La, Pukur La, Thag La, as well as Sambho Sarovar lake and Sher-e-Thapa Memorial honouring war hero Trilok Singh Thapa of 1962. The martyr’s memorial of Jaswant Garh is located on the Tawang road, inside Jaswant Garh.

Why Is This Move Significant?

The Home Ministry’s official statement says that this official recognition of these 27 areas on the Survey of India map is intended for better recognition and to raise awareness among the public. Speaking on the record, anonymous officials said there was a clear strategic rationale.

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Ambiguity has long provided China with space to designate “fictitious names,” as New Delhi calls them, to land which is part of the legal territory of India, they said. These 27 places in Arunachal Pradesh have been put on record to give India its claim status. The locations that are mapped also have administrative significance. They are easier to refer to in land, tax and census documents, infrastructure planning, and building border roads.

How Has China Been Renaming Places In Arunachal?

This new list of 27 places in Arunachal Pradesh comes in the wake of a much longer list of tit-for-tat naming skirmishes. The Ministry of Civil Affairs, which is responsible for the renaming of people in so-called “Zangnan” (southern Tibet), has released four batches of renamings in 2017, 2021, 2023, and April 2026. The batches are usually scheduled when there is increased bilateral tension in Beijing.

The April 2026 batch only included 23 places, such as towns, mountains, and rivers. When asked, external affairs ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal reacted angrily, stating that China’s efforts to create a “baseless narrative” would not change the realities. India has been rejecting such renaming exercises as “vain and preposterous” over the years.

What Else Has Fuelled This India-China Dispute?

It’s not just a symbolic issue either. The diplomatic protest was issued by India in November 2025 when a woman from Arunachal Pradesh was detained by the Chinese authorities at the airport in Shanghai for not having an Indian passport.

However, stapled visas have been issued to residents of Arunachal Pradesh from time to time by China. This has been a long-standing concern of New Delhi, which has viewed it as a challenge to its sovereignty over the region. The move by India at this juncture is interesting in the context of bilateral relations. India and China are slowly making relations normal after the military stand-off in the LAC in 2020, which lasted over four years.

This recognition of these 27 places in Arunachal Pradesh for the time being is the most tangible institutional answer India has yet given to China’s renaming program. It literally puts India right on the maps, records, and administration that will govern the region over the years to come.