Sino-India Relationship in Present Times with a Historical Context

 

China and India, the world's most populous nations and civilisational states are locked in a fierce battle & mutual cooperation depending upon the arena you choose. 

In most avenues it is a battle where each side is vying for supremacy whereas when it comes to dunking on Western Countries' selfish & ulterior motives the giants of the Global South join forces attempting a takedown. Cases in point are the multiple instances at WTO such as floating a Food Security Proposal jointly or China openly backing India over the latter's Wheat Export Ban against the ire of other nations. 

However, it is surprising to a lot of Westerners and to any individual really regarding the animosity that exists in the Sino Indian relationship. Especially because the two civilisational states have never had a history of war in their thousands of years of existence until China under premiership of Mao attacked India in 1962, in complete defiance of Panchsheel Principles which Mr. Nehru greatly espoused. 

There was always a very open cultural exchange between the sister civilisations, mostly from India where heavy elements of Dharmik Faiths including Hinduism & Buddhism spread along the breadth of Chinese Society morphing into various forms with the native thought processes. This was also coupled with Vedic Brahmins frequently making the trip to China and Chinese Travellers venturing to India and detailing their experiences (Fa- Hein & Hieun Tsang are very notable names with the latter's accounts during reign of Indian Emperor Harshvardhana of paramount historical importance). 

This continued for a major period of history, up until the British Raj. The British were apprehensive of Russians/Soviets increasing their influence and sought to allay any such Rus plans. This was further agitated by the Soviet influence reaching Turkestan and establishing a province with the same name (in present day it is Turkestan which has split into the nations of Turkmenistan & Uzbekistan after the fall of Soviet Union) because it was much easier for the Rus to reach Tibetan regions from Lhasa while coming downhill that it was for Imperial India under the British Control to move upwards. 

The British then decided to press within the Tibetan Regions with the intention of keeping relations cordial and peaceful with the Himalayan Tribes. This was seen rather suspiciously however by the Chinese, then under the rule of Qing Dynasty. The Qings in response sent their emissary Zhao Erfeng who led a brutal "sinofication" of the Kham region of Tibet leading to subjugation of Tibetan peoples. It is worth nothing that Kham was quite close to the British sphere of control. This alarmed the Raj which sought to declare that its geographical control existed only along the Himalayas within the Indian Territory and its Tibetan outreach was merely an administrative act. Further, in 1914, a meeting was planned in Shimla to discuss the border issues and framing of a properly demarcated border between British, Tibetan & Qing Chinese officials. 

A major policy error that progenited the issue was the British assertion that Tibet and surrounding regions were to be under the political control of the Dalai Lama with the presiding "suzerainty" of Qing China. Of course, the distinction between suzerainty and sovereignty was never made clear and the flip flopping of British policy coupled with abject failure of Independent India's political masters led to the reality that India and China now stood as neighbouring countries when they never had been throughout their entire histories with an ill defined boundary line serving as the major cause of distrust & irritant in all bilateral ties. 

It would not be unfair to say that the fault lay more on the foolishness of the Indian Side than the hawkishness of Communist China's premiership, but the end result was that anything in the Sino Indian Partnership was predicated and dictated by the varying interpretations of the McMahon Line also known as the Line of Actual Control. 

(This article is part of a series on the Sino Indian Relationship as well as the Indian Policy Paralysis that has persisted and aided the Chinese side to domineer. Based on historical texts & excerpts from historian Wang Gungwu)