G S Iyer - A China Primer: An Introduction to a Culture and a Neighbour

A China Primer:
An Introduction To A Culture And A Neighbour

G. S. Iyer

A China Primer: An Introduction To A Culture And A Neighbour

First Published in India in 2016

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Copyright 2016, Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA)

ISBN: 978-93-85563-24-9 (Hardback)

ISBN: 978-93-84464-25-6 (ebook)

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The views expressed in this book are of the author in his personal capacity and do not represent the views of the ICWA.

Contents

Introduction: Why Another Book on China?

Do we need another book on China when so much has been written about that country? Dont we know all that we have to about its economic achievements and its future greatness, which, we are assured, is so obvious and beyond debate? That could be the first question asked about this book. Yes, there are several reasons to write another book, a book that describes China from our, a really Indian, point of view.

What is attempted here is an essay that would tell the reader about Chinas history and culture; its habits of behaviour that emerge from that history and culture; how these characteristics impel the way that country works; and how it conducted itself and does so now. The attempt is to integrate the flow of Chinas history with current affairs. Such an attempt is necessary because most of China scholarship in its comprehensive best is developed in Western countries. Is that good or not from our perspective? The great historian and philosopher of history Arnold J. Toynbee opens his magnum opus, A Study of History, with the statement that historians generally illustrate rather than correct the ideas of the communities within which they live and work.exception; it is not based on universally accepted foundations, but reflects both the specific biases and the broader objectives of that society vis-a-vis China.

It also follows that, while we in India could use such scholarship as is available and it is abundant and rich in quality we have an obligation to develop our own point of view and draw our own conclusions. I also hope to demonstrate later that we have fallen woefully short of developing our own perspective on China, despite the high quality of research done in India on those specific areas that we have chosen to focus on. We need to be liberated from outside perspectives so that alien logic and alien agenda do not infiltrate our thinking and usurp our interests. I see the current effort as a modest contribution in that direction.

In India, we have a new generation of internationally minded youth growing up and working in environments that are inluenced by global events and trends. What happens in the world matters to them in a way that cannot be grasped by their elders because those developments affect the way they live and work in our country or wherever they may go to earn a living. It is an inescapable necessity for them to have access to and knowledge of international relations as part of their working environment also for them to make informed inputs in debates about our relations with other countries and choices that we make in the development of such relations. China has forever been a great country; it was, it is and it will be a major force that has to be understood well by the broadest public of our country. It is, therefore, natural for us to develop our own perspective on China well beyond the usual comments on Chinas GNP and our border with them and have a broader debate beyond the arcane concerns of official diplomacy and the almost opaque public presentations emanating from official quarters on diplomatic exchanges with China.

Recent times have seen a lot of pairing of India and China as well as clubbing of the two countries with two or three others, especially in the economic context. There was a short-lived Chindia (but not an Indna!), which sank rather rapidly without trace, but the BRICS, in some variations, lives on. All these are Western constructs and are obviously thought up with their parochial interests in mind. BRICS is an unprecedented beast because, unlike groupings of countries that are usually voluntary associations put together on their own volition on a perception of common interests and goals; it was thought up by a Western financial firm of controversial reputation and thrust into our consciousness without our consent or approval and without our being present at the creation. It is strange that the countries so designated have obligingly accepted the conjunction of interest as defined by someone else and spend time in summits. As the BRICS has assumed a life of its own, we will leave them aside and move on.

Let us rather look at some relevant and germane facts. 1) India and China are the two largest reservoirs of humanity in the entire world and have been so for all the time that civilisations had been created and nurtured in the world; 2) these two countries have longer histories, and more or less unbroken histories too, as unique cultures with distinctive characteristics; 3) for most of the history of civilisations, governments in these two countries, or at least in their largest portions, have ruled over larger number of people than any other ruling entity anywhere else at any time. In short, in the larger schemes of things, China and India have to measure themselves against the other and none else. There is a fourth, a more dynamic problematic fact, that the two countries began close involvement with each other on a constant basis for the first time in history only in the middle of the twentieth century.