The Sino-Indian enigma

This book tracks the course the two neighbours have traversed over the past 60 years

China and India are widely seen as the rising powers set to steer the U.S.-dominated international arena towards Asian ascendancy in this century. Indians, however, concede that China has forged far ahead of India on a whole gamut of indices — economic, social, military, space, science and technology. Comparisons may be odious, but they must spur the trailing competitor on. The two countries were, more or less, on a par when they set out on their different courses six decades ago. India is not aiming to catch up with China as a global heavy-weight, but rather to consolidate itself as a benign regional power with global influence.

A collection of 34 essays, this book tracks the course the two neighbours have traversed over the past 60 years. Apart from reminiscences, it offers scholarly appraisals — historical, sociological, and economic. China's youth and women and Chinese settlers in Kolkata are in focus in separate papers. The essay on university students by Ravni Rai Thakur is revealing for the light it throws on middle-class aspirations to status and freedoms. Chinese nationalism figures prominently, but so do corruption, inequality, urbanisation, and class privilege. Some of the articles grapple with the troubled relationship between the two countries (tellingly conveyed by the books' subtitle, “Neighbours Strangers”) and speculate on their linked future.

Among the contributors are some well-known names like K.P.S. Menon, K. Subrahmanyam, Subramanian Swamy, and Vikram Seth. Menon's Epilogue to his Twilight on China (1972) and Seth's account of desert-baked Turfan, Xinjiang — from his delightful travel book, From Heaven's Lake (1984) — are republished. The rest are special to this issue of India International Centre's Quarterly.

Full report here Hindu