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Similarities to 1962?

20 Apr 2008,TNN

In 1960, Chinese prime minister Zhou en-lai was in Delhi meeting Indian leaders and waving to huge crowds enthusiastically shouting "Hindi-Chini, bhai bhai". Heavily garlanded and with his arm around Jawaharlal Nehru, the Chinese leader travelled through India, giving no indication that the ties between the two countries were worsening by the day. It was Zhou's third visit to India in nine years.

Zhou first came to India in 1954 to begin the Panchsheel phase of Sino-Indian friendship. His second tour happened in 1956, when he dropped by to see Nehru in Delhi on his way to Europe. The Dalai Lama was in Delhi too at that time. He was considering seeking asylum in India.

After Zhou's visit, Nehru persuaded the Tibetan leader to go back home. The Dalai Lama finally fled Tibet in 1959. The same year the Indian and Chinese armies exchanged fire for the first time. Then it became a regular feature. By 1962, things had become worse. With the Chinese claiming large parts of Indian territory in both eastern (Aksai Chin) and western sector (NEFA, now Arunachal Pradesh) and making inroads into these areas, Nehru lost his patience.

Feeling deceived by the Chinese, Nehru hardened his stand. For him, the border dispute was no longer a piffling issue over a lump of land "where even not a blade of grass grows". Let's throw them out, Nehru said and the Chinese launched the war that they had been waiting to wage since 1959.

The one-month-long war of 1962 changed many things. It changed the entire balance of power in Asia, damaged Nehru's image, wrecked India's economy and humiliated a nascent democracy which was trying to stand on its own feet.

In 2008, things are a little different. China and India are two of the fastest growing economies in the world. China is now India's biggest trading partner and the two countries have recently been talking of a new partnership. As trade and business ties grow between the two countries, it seems that the ghosts of the past have at last been laid to rest.

But, there are still some eerie similarities with 1962. Since January the Chinese army has intruded a dozen times into Indian territory. In 2007, the Chinese is reported to have crossed the Line of Actual Control some 140 times. Once again China has upped its claim on Arunachal Pradesh. Once again, Beijing is lashing out at Tibetans and asking India to contain their political activities. And once again, China is blaming India for creating tensions on the border.

Even at the height of their socialist bonhomie in the 1950s, India and China had many conflicts: Border dispute, the Dalai Lama's government in exile, fight for influence in Asia and Africa, and a clash between the world's biggest democracy and the world's biggest autocratic regime. These factors exist today as well, even though the rhetoric has changed from socialism to the free market.