The Great Wall and the Taj Mahal

The Indian PM’s tour of PRC (People Republic of China) was a great achievement in itself. For long Indian establishment has feared the rise and rise of red army across the Himalayan Divide.

The debacle of 1962 war – which by far remains the most humiliating defeat in the minds of Indian planners, has refused to give way for a fresh thinking. Though Atal Government claimed that a stronger nation (in terms of Military) will enable India to engage all its neighbours in a friendly matter, his defense minister, Fernandez made no qualms about achieving a strategic balance with China ( His famous “China is potential enemy number one”).

May be this old lot was right, lately Indian strength and influence has grown in leaps and bounds. Now comes the second stage of engagement.
Now this engagement is necessary for three very different yet very important reasons; all interwoven.
1. The economies – let’s admit the two economies complement each other. The China being a production hub and India specializing in the services sector. To develop assembly lines all over again for Indian manufactures is like reinventing the wheel – similarly Indians can contribute Chinese by supporting their services
2. If the two economies integrate to a fair measure it would mean reduction of chances of any conflict between the two nations. Chinese can’t attack Indians if they have sizable amount of business to lose. The same is true for Indians. This in turn would mean an imminent expansion of Chinese influence into Far east and Oceania. Indians on their part would find Indo China ( this would be overlap with Chinese) and Africa as their new play ground
3. The Pakistan – a threat to every civilized way of life can then be brought to books. Pakistanis have been – perhaps the only nation to forge a close relationship with a communist nation while getting free US aid. Kudos to their diplomacy, but that was more because of Chinese isolation in wake of its tensions with USSR and later with India. In case Chinese no longer see a merit in engaging India to its western frontiers, reasons to support Pakistan establishment also evaporates. This may pave a new way for Indians to start influencing their policies inside Pakistan
I know most of this sounds farfetched but this is the way things work. Chinese have recently grabbed attention of world, and they have realized power of trade. They have also realized importance of their partnership with Indians. The Indian approach to Chinese remains cautious… but that has always been the case.
May be its time tell Indian History students that the war with Chinese that we lost so awfully was in fact started by us, it was a retaliation to the unprovoked Indian acts of encroachments and skirmishes