What exactly is the entity known as India? The country's land and maritime boundaries remain unresolved 50 years after independence, with the government continually tied up in disputes and plagued by wars over jurisdiction.
Territorial rows have led to three wars with Pakistan and one with China while lesser boundary issues with Bangladesh and Sri Lanka surface periodically, souring bilateral relations.
India's most serious territorial dispute is with Pakistan over the 554mile long border in the northern state of Jammu, and Kashmir along which the two daily exchange artillery and small arms fire.
Sixty-one miles of this contentious border stretches across the formidable Siachen glacier, the world's highest battlefield, where the two armies frequently trade artillery fire at over 20,000 feet.
Two of the three wars between the neighbours were fought over Kashmir, a third of which was forcibly occupied by Pakistan in 1948 and which it still holds.
Pakistan lays claim to the rest of Kashmir, a Muslim majority state, demanding that India vindicate its promise and hold a UN-sponsored plebiscite to decide its future. India claims Kashmir is "not negotiable".
The ongoing territorial dispute with China, the cause of war between the two countries in 1962, centres around 31,250 sq miles of territory at three places along the border with Tibet and Xinjiang.
Beijing does not acknowledge the McMohan line between the two countries, demarcated by the colonial administration, and has built a military road across the disputed area linking Tibet with Sinkiang province.
In the 10 Sino-Indian joint working group meetings held so far, officials have concentrated on bolstering confidence-building measures and withdrawing troops from the border with the aim of ultimately demarcating it. But diplomats and surveyors from both sides say the dispute will take time, patience and commitment to resolve.
The dispute with Bangladesh is over 78 miles of territory on India's eastern and north-eastern borders. There are also many Indian enclaves in Bangladesh and vice-versa due to the inconclusive division of territory in 1947 which is unresolved.
Tension with Sri Lanka erupts occasionally over the tiny Kacchativu island 12 miles from India's coastline. India relinquished its claim over the island in 1974 but officials claim Indians visiting here were often harassed by the Sri Lankan navy.
Meanwhile, attempts by India to demarcate its maritime boundaries with Pakistan and Bangladesh remain deadlocked over the yardstick of measurement to be adopted along the jagged coastline.
India has also to resolve with Pakistan the ownership of Sir Creek, a marshy, oil rich region, and with Bangladesh, the dispute over New Moore/South Talpatty island and the nearby oil-rich area along the Bay of Bengal.
