Improved China-India ties would help both nations

There are few examples as of India and China of neighbouring countries that stand to benefit from good relations, yet being unable to do so.

- BHARAT DOGRA

While any long-term hostility invariably involves misunderstandings and mistakes on both sides –and this must be true about this hostility too - any unbiased evaluation is likely to reveal that excessive aggressiveness and betrayal of strong initial trust on the part of China has been more responsible for the hostility that has characterised IndiaChina relations for the greater part of the last seven decades. This has unfortunately washed over the previous record of several centuries of peaceful co-existence as well as learning from each other.

While this aggressiveness of China has harmed India, it has also been harmful for China in the much wider context of giving it a reputation of pursuing its territorial quests in aggressive ways, making opportunistic use of difficult times to inflict aggression on neighbours and of preferring dictatorships over democracies for pursuing its aggressive agenda.

The cause of India-China friendship could not have asked for better leadership than the one provided by Jawaharlal Nehru as the first Prime Minister of India. This is because Nehru believed strongly in the historic coming together of two civilizations for realization of various peace and welfare objectives. This was evident also in the efforts Nehru made for promoting India-China friendship even in the course of the freedom movement.

Nehru was initially even willing to face domestic criticism for making generous gestures for obtaining Chinese goodwill for the bigger cause of long-term friendship of two neighbours.