Sino-Indian War

Matthew Ooi Sino-Indian War HOIndia A4 |

Introduction

The period from 1947 (when India became independent) to 1964 when (Jawaharlal Nehru) died was marked in modern Indian history as the “Nehru Era”. The Nehru Era was a crucial and tense period in the history of Sino-Indian relations. In the early Nehru Era, China and India had a very intimate bi-lateral relation characterized by the Hindu saying, “Hindu Chin Bhai Bhai”, or “Hindus and Chinese are brothers”. This allowed for mutual support and cooperation in many decisive national, regional and international issues between the two emerging world powers. But in the late Nehru Era, the relation between China and India deteriorated, finally leading to the Sino-Indian Border War, and entered an era of cold war characterized by mutual distrust, suspicion and hostility, which lasted for almost 40 years.

In order to understand why the friendly relations between China and India degraded to the point of Brinksmanship, it is necessary to reflect the issues concerning Sino-Indian relations in the Nehru Era, such as: the deterioration of Sino-Indian relations in the Nehru Era, the causes of the dramatic ups and downs of the Sino-Indian War, and the resulting changes in Indian foreign policy which has led to over 40 years of tension. This paper aims at discussing these issues.

The Beginnings of Sino Indian Relations

The Sino-Indian relationship that existed from 1950 to 1959 was particularly warm due to a number of reasons. Arguably the most important was the hasty diplomatic recognition of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in December 1949 by India, making them the second nation in the world after Burma to do so. This confirmation of legitimacy was helpful in establishing a cooperative environment with China, as many nations chose instead to recognize the Republic of China (ROC) in Taiwan. Furthermore, India’s existence as a socialist and not a capitalist state, allowed for greater cooperation with the PRC since...