Debating the Past: Nehru, China and Lessons from 1962 War

Abstract

T he year 2022 marks the 60th anniversary of the 1962 Sino-Indian war. Fought over a period of one month, the war is seen as one of the watersheds in the history of India–China relations. Besides creating a considerable dent in bilateral ties, it also led New Delhi to revamp its defence and military infrastructure. Incidentally, in terms of research on China studies in India, the war proved to be a defining moment of transition. The subject of religious, cultural and philosophical issues in India–China relations lost popularity and studies about the origins and the consequences of the 1962 war and the boundary dispute gained currency. Subsequently, a significant amount of literature emerged, dealing with the history of border demarcation, basis of India’s and China’s territorial claims, causes of the 1962 war and analysis of the factors that led to India’s military setback. The three books reviewed in this Essay – Nehru, Tibet and China by Avtar Singh Bhasin, a former Director of the Historical Division in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), The Fractured Himalaya: India, Tibet and China 1949–1962 by Nirupama Rao, former Foreign Secretary of India, and 1962 Border War: SinoIndian Territorial Disputes and Beyond by Ismail Vengasseri, a faculty member in the Department of History, Lady Shri Ram College for Women—are all published in 2021, and add to the list of extant literature on the border dispute and the 1962 war. While issues relating to Tibet, the border dispute and the 1962 war have already been addressed at length in many previous studies, these selected works add value in terms of their re-evaluation of three crucial aspects based on extensive archival research. First, Jawaharlal Nehru’s perception of China and its impact on his approach towards Tibet. Second, the role of the Tibet issue in perpetrating distrust and tension in bilateral ties and third, the factors which set the stage for confrontation after the failure of Nehru-Zhou talks in 1960. Strategic Analysis, 2022 Vol. 46, No. 6, 631–637, https://doi.org/10.1080/09700161.2022.2149987