Page 110 - Education World November 2022

Books

China decoded by British India as a buffer
HIMALAYAN CHALLENGE:
INDIA, CHINA AND THE QUEST state between the two
giant landmass countries.
FOR PEACE
ITH THE just Despite (British) India
concluded 20th Subramanian Swamy being a signatory to a 1914
WNational Con- RUPA agreement recognising the
gress of the Communist Rs.595 Pages 240 autonomy of Tibet, prime
Party of China (CPC) mak- minister Nehru acquiesced
ing global headlines, this to Chinese annexation of
is a good time to review Tibet without any refer-
Subramanian Swamy’s ing extreme causes such After communists ence to India.
slim but informative book as abolition of income tax seized power in Moreover despite then
which suggests ways and and intemperate criticism China in 1949, it was Union home minister
means to mend Sino-India of politicians, including his unsurprising that they Sardar Patel’s protest over
ties, slowly but surely, own party leaders. Since wanted to forget 2,000 Chinese military occupa-
heading for the rocks. then, he has been put out years of "cultural tion of Tibet, and warning
A Harvard educated to pasture by the BJP lead- domination" by India against Chinese “perfidy”,
economist and brilliant ership. Nevertheless, it’s Nehru went out of his way
public intellectual, during undeniable that Swamy, to welcome communist
a decades-long career Sub- fluent in Mandarin, is a forget about 2,000 years China — regardless of the
ramanian Swamy ruined reputed scholar-analyst on of “cultural domination” US and Western nations
his chances of attaining China with deep knowl- by India. It’s important continuing to recognise the
high public office by being edge of our giant neigh- to remember that India Kuomintang regime under
too clever by half. A former bour country’s tumultuous attained its independence General Chiang Kai Shek
Harvard professor, Swamy history and galloping from foreign rule before which had fled to Taiwan
attained national fame economy. the communists overran as the legitimate govern-
when he publicly opposed In the very first chapter China. Therefore, indepen- ment of China — into the
the Emergency (1975-77) of this insightful volume, dent India’s leaders and United Nations and glori-
declared by prime minister Swamy highlights the prime minister Jawaharlal fied PRC at the Bandung
Indira Gandhi. friendly, mutually benefi- Nehru in particular, were Conference in 1955. Patel’s
After the Emergency cial China-India trade and globally acknowledged as prescient letter to Nehru
was lifted in 1977 and the cultural ties stretching over harbingers of a new rising is reproduced in full — an
Indira Gandhi-led Con- millennia. According to Asia, a status that was not invaluable appendix of this
gress party was routed in him, for over 2,000 years palatable to Mao who had book.
the historic General Elec- China was substantially little more than contempt Worse, although in
tion of early 1977, Swamy ‘Sanskritised’, interpreted for India’s unprecedented the early 1950s, the CPC
served as a member of as ‘cultural borrowing’ by saty agraha and ahimsa- leadership made it abun-
Parliament and later as way of Mahayana Bud- driven freedom movement dantly clear that the PRC
a Union cabinet minister dhism written in Sanskrit, led by Mahatma Gandhi. also wanted to solidify
(1990-1991) and president which went to China as An unrefined peasant the undemarcated border
of the opposition Janata early as 1800 BCE and not and brutal dictator, Mao between China and India
Party before he signed up 483 BCE as “Western writ- had little regard for human in Ladakh and didn’t ac-
with the incumbent BJP, ers claim, and the date that lives and suffering, and knowledge the McMahon
which nominated him to Indian historians are prone openly declared that “po- Line in India’s North-East
the Rajya Sabha in 2016, to recycle”. In support of litical power comes from Frontier Agency (NEFA)
but didn’t renew his term this contention, Swamy the barrel of a gun”. aka Arunachal Pradesh,
in 2021. cites Chinese scholars Fa Therefore one of the which separated ‘South
Although a sound econ- Hsien and Yuan Chiang. first initiatives of the CPC Tibet’ from India, Nehru
omist and strident critic However after the CPC, after it established the neglected to seriously dis-
of neta-babu socialism of led by atheist Chair- People’s Republic of China cuss this “petty issue” with
the Congress which ruined man Mao Zedong, seized (PRC) on October 1, 1949, Chinese leaders, secure in
the high-potential Indian power in China in 1949, was to formally declare the belief of eternal Hindi-
economy, Swamy blighted it was hardly surpris- Chinese suzerainty over Chini b hai b hai.
his promising career in ing that the communist Tibet which had been ac- This naivete was rudely
Indian politics by espous- leadership wanted to corded independent status exposed after the Dalai

110 EDUCATIONWORLD NOVEMBER 2022