Wednesday 19 November 2014

The seeds of distrust :India and China

Recently just 5 days back, as the birthday anniversary of one of the most dynamic political leaders ever born in the nation Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru passed away, this time topic of discussion was, “Who does Nehru belongs to?” Whether the contemporary Prime Minister of the nation Narendra Modi’s efforts to snatch away Indian National Congress’(INC’s) idols from it justified or not. But rather than focusing on that aspect of the 125th birth anniversary of the first prime minister of India, let’s focus on one of the main dilemma the engulfed him throughout his life and at last most probably also become the most fateful cause of his demise.


One of the most astonishing and intriguing facet of Nehru’s life deals with the People’s Republic of China. Though Nehru was enamored by the Chinese culture and civilizations but he was mainly torn apart between the option of trusting China or snubbing China,
Nehru’s first significant encounter with China took place at the World Congress of Oppressed People held in Brussels in the year 1927. The representatives and diplomats from Chinese side included wife of one of the founding fathers of China and also the first Chinese President Sun Yat-sen, Soong Ching-ling, who greatly impressed Mr. Nehru and attracted his attention towards one of Indian neighbours, China.


Nehru started forming many views in his mind about China and always felt delights in improving the proximity of relations between India and China.  He frequently supported the Chinese combating the Japanese invaders and even started many assistance camps for the Chinese soldiers and even went on to initiate a complete medical mission to China which included famous Indian physician Dwarkanath Shantaram Kotnis.


But in 1947, the relationship which Nehru wanted to see as robust was shattered into pieces and never recovered. During the Asian-Relation conference in Delhi, the differences between the two nations became apparent on matters related to the sovereignty of Tibet. China launched a strong protest of this act of India and Chiang Kai-shek, former President of PRC, only agreed to send his delegation if there would be no discussion of Tibet’s status. Nehru assured the Chinese government that the same would be done but when Chinese delegation found a map depicting Tibet as a separate nation and a Tibetan flag installed with flags of other nations, the Chinese never trusted Nehru again. In 1949 also, when Kuomintang ambassador to New Delhi  told Chiang Kai-shek that Nehru might recognize the communist regime in China if China promulgates the prescription of Simla Agreement, but the Chinese President outrightly denied doing any such thing because of the lack of trust that had matured between the two nations till now.

The “Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai” was in itself based on inauthenticity, lack of trust and falsehood and that’s why could never soar up that the war of 1962 is still a clear proof of the prevalent distress between the two nations at that time. Though time is the greatest healer but still distrust is abundant between the two nations, hope that one day we could say, “Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai”.


JAI HIND, JAI BHARAT

JAI MA BHARTI

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