The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World by S. Jaishankar

Author:S. Jaishankar [Jaishankar, S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, General
ISBN: 9789390163878
Google: ElHxDwAAQBAJ
Amazon: 9353579791
Publisher: Harper Collins
Published: 2020-09-03T18:30:00+00:00

6

The Nimzo-Indian Defence

Managing China’s Rise

‘The wise win before the fight, while the ignorant fight to win’

– ZHUGE LIANG

The ability of India and China to work together could determine the Asian century. Equally, their difficulties in doing so may well undermine it. Given this combination of promise and challenges, their ties are without doubt one of the most consequential relationships of our times. The rest of the world may appreciate the remarkable rise of China; but India lives with it up close as an immediate neighbour. China has long been a big factor in its strategic calculations, more so today than ever before. These are two civilizational polities whose near-parallel journey to become modern states has not been without frictions. Getting China right is critical to India’s prospects. And that is precisely why the debate on the relationship must go beyond traditional assumptions and set arguments.

History and geography make India-China relations grapple with multiple sets of realities: those of the distant past and the nearer one, of modern history and contemporary politics, of their twin but differential rise, and of the emerging future. In aggregate, they shape a complex matrix in which the world is developing a growing interest. The balance between the many faces of the relationship will determine its overall character.

The first reality pertains to centuries of tradition of strong intellectual, religious and commercial contacts. This was the era of the real Silk Road, one that was inter-penetrative, pluralistic and mutually enriching. It covered diverse routes that connected the heartland of the two civilizations and its driving force was a powerful combination of ideas and trade. For much of this period, Buddhism was the vehicle which carried numerous passengers to the benefit of all the stops on the routes. Kuche and Khotan in today’s Xinjiang were the hubs of a flow from India that reached the very centre of China then. Rulers of these kingdoms along the road had Sanskrit names that testified to their connection with India. By the third century, there were even a large number of Indian families settled in Dunhuang and an equally impressive presence of monasteries en route. Kashmir was initially the focal point for shared knowledge and later paved the way for the great university of Nalanda. While this was the main artery between India and China, it was not the only one. The valleys of Brahmaputra, Chindwin and Irrawaddy were an eastern connect and the chronicles of the explorer Zhang Qian testify to a Southern Silk Road that led from Sichuan from India. There was also a sea route, first through Tonkin and then to Canton, that connected directly from peninsular India. The presence of Indian temples as far east as the Fujian coast opposite Taiwan underlines how pervasive our contacts were with China.

This deep cultural association is reflected vividly in key cultural sites of China such as the Dunhuang Caves or the White Horse Temple in Luoyang. The tradition of contacts naturally had human expressions – from those

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