Retrospectively China has always been a challenge. This oversized neighbour remains to be one of the most daunting assignments for the South Block.
Recently our two nations celebrated the establishment of 60 years of diplomatic ties. History stands in testament to this relationship which has been anything but of trust.
The modern history of the two neighbours dates back to approximately the same time.
The initial chapter of Sino-Indian relations was a goody-goody affair. Thanks to the Nehruvian Foreign Policy. It was naïve and lacked pragmatism. The Mao-led communists in China soon realised this weakness in Indian foreign policy. The benevolence of Nehru’s foreign policy was based on his so-called principles of Panchsheel or the five pillars, lacked in pragmatism. Nehru’s vision was global but he never realised the fact that a nation’s foreign policy should always be guided by its self interest.
On the contrary, the communist regime in the People’s Republic placed its national interest to the fore front while shaping its foreign policies. They appreciated the fact that in order to sustain and grow the roots of communism, it was sine-qua-non to insulate the chinese society from western influences. Mao’s foreign policies were shaped accordingly. The regime had a vision on China’s geo-strategic role in Asia. They believed in China’s emergence as the dominant power in Asia and were aware of Nehru’s own aspirations too. The hallmark of Mao’s foreign policy was that it was successful in keeping India day-dreaming about the now infamous “Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai” as China prepared itself to challenge Nehru at a later date.
Recently our two nations celebrated the establishment of 60 years of diplomatic ties. History stands in testament to this relationship which has been anything but of trust.
The modern history of the two neighbours dates back to approximately the same time.
The initial chapter of Sino-Indian relations was a goody-goody affair. Thanks to the Nehruvian Foreign Policy. It was naïve and lacked pragmatism. The Mao-led communists in China soon realised this weakness in Indian foreign policy. The benevolence of Nehru’s foreign policy was based on his so-called principles of Panchsheel or the five pillars, lacked in pragmatism. Nehru’s vision was global but he never realised the fact that a nation’s foreign policy should always be guided by its self interest.
On the contrary, the communist regime in the People’s Republic placed its national interest to the fore front while shaping its foreign policies. They appreciated the fact that in order to sustain and grow the roots of communism, it was sine-qua-non to insulate the chinese society from western influences. Mao’s foreign policies were shaped accordingly. The regime had a vision on China’s geo-strategic role in Asia. They believed in China’s emergence as the dominant power in Asia and were aware of Nehru’s own aspirations too. The hallmark of Mao’s foreign policy was that it was successful in keeping India day-dreaming about the now infamous “Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai” as China prepared itself to challenge Nehru at a later date.
The first ‘betrayal’ came at the Bhandung Conference. The Chinese premier Zhou Enlai openly challenged India’s leadership in Asia. China caught Nehru unprepared and as a matter of fact thrashed all the Nehruvian myths on “Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai”
One of the priorities of Maoist China was to consolidate its territory. Its invasion and occupancy of Tibet is significant so far as the Sino-Indian history is concerned. India could do nothing but grant some refuge to the fleeing Tibetan buddhists. The so called Tibetan Government in Exile at Dharmasala in Himachal Pradesh came into being. Nehru failed to leverage China’s vulnerability in Tibet as an instrument in India’s foreign policy viz-a-viz his dealings with the communist regime.
The real blow came in 1962 with Nehru failing to take cognizance of China’s expansionist ambitions. Several reports on aggressive posturing and incursions in the Arunachal border were ignored and brushed aside. Nehru was too reluctant to believe the reality at ground. The Indian military presence at the border were far less than what the situation would demand. With no proper infrastructure for a speedy mobilization of troops, the border remained highly vulnerable. India was grossly under preapared! And the inevitable happened! The scanty, ill-equipped Indian presence was overwhelmed and over-run by a pre-planned invasion by the People’s Liberation Army. By the time China halted the hostilities, a significant part of Arunachal have been grabbed by the Chinese. Their objective was met. Nehru was shattered. He couldn’t recover from the shock and passed away two years later.
The present era is altogether a new game so far as Sino-Indian relations are concerned. The entire geo-strategic scenario has evolved since the Nehruvian era. Today’s world in unipolar and asymmetric. Globalization has brought in irreversible changes too. Both China and India have evolved. The former opened its doors to the outside world in the early eighties. Thanks to the pragmatism and contingencies exercised by the communists, China underwent a controlled evolution to a market economy. Over the last two decades, the Chinese economy has burgeoned. With an enviable 10% annual growth in GDP, the Dragon has already announced its eventual arrival in the global geo-political scene. With trade surpluses with most of the other nations, including the US, 1.4 trillion $ in foreign reserves, China has been successfully leveraging its economic might in redefining its foreign policies in the new millennium.
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