By Raju Mansukhani
“In dealing with China, or any other country for that matter, we have to follow the middle path,” said General Dr MM Naravane (Retd.), former Chief of Army Staff, adding, “there will always be hawks and doves at either end of the spectrum. Let us not be caught in the trap of binaries.”
The much-decorated General was addressing an august gathering at India International Centre in New Delhi on 27 January 2024. The occasion was the release of ‘Beyond Binaries – The World of India China (2008-2022)’, a collection of Shastri Ramachandaran’s writings, published by the New Delhi-based Institute of Objective Studies, an NGO in consultative status (Roster) with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the UN.
“The publication,” said General Naravane, “is focusing our attention on going beyond the binaries of friends or enemies, on or off, my way or the highway. It is urging us to seek points of convergence in our relations with China, our largest neighbour.” To a hall-full of diplomats, journalists, China experts and academicians, he admitted this neighbour was not always a friendly one, and “we have not been able to understand the country properly because of which we make wrong assumptions, which in turn lead to wrong decisions being made.”
Ramachandaran, a veteran media person having worked extensively in mainstream media in India and China, is an expert on global affairs with special focus on China, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. General Naravane felt India’s understanding of China has been largely dependent on Western literature, whether it was emanating from the US, UK, Europe, or Australia. As a result, Western perceptions became part of the understanding of India’s policy makers, military, media, and academia.
“Beyond Binaries is a welcome addition for it is our home-grown study, enabling us to have our own thoughts on the subject of India-China relations,” the General said, acknowledging that Ramachandaran’s reportage was based on professional experiences of living and working in China through 2008 to 2022 with several Chinese media houses. Though the General revealed that he had never visited China during his serving years, and, in a lighter vein, said he doubted if he would get an invitation anytime soon!
“What Ramachandaran has achieved through this collection of writings is to offer a uniquely Indian perspective on China in its different dimensions and relating these to his own deep familiarity with the no less impressive changes that have taken place in India during the same period,” wrote former Foreign Secretary of India, Shyam Saran in the Foreword, his thoughts resonating with those of the General.
Saran used the phrase ‘China challenge’ rather than ‘China threat’ because, he said, “there is much that India may learn from the Chinese experience in charting its own development trajectory, avoiding its mistakes but benefitting from its notable successes. Despite the current tensions in India-China relationship, the author keeps his focus on the opportunities which exist for the two countries to collaborate in a number of mutually beneficial ways. Chinese capital and its construction technologies and management methods could turbo-charge India’s own quest for world-class infrastructure. The scale of the market India offers, and a scale that is rapidly expanding, could be a significant opportunity for Chinese companies. The author has done well to draw attention to this brighter side of India-China story.”
General Naravane described India-China relations as a “roller coaster ride. From the heyday of Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai of the 1950s to 1962 and thereafter a long period of studied indifference, more so from the Chinese side. Then began some rapprochement, leading up to the summit-level meetings between Prime Minister Modi and Chairman Xi, along with a slew of agreements and confidence building measures which suggested an upward trajectory in our relations.”
In particular, he referred to the Agreement on Political Parameters and Guiding Principles for the Settlement of the India-China Boundary Question signed on 11 April 2005. It raised high expectations that the border question could perhaps be resolved sooner than later. “But then it was not to be. We had Galwan, and it was back to square one,” he said, adding optimistically that “our relations do not have to always be at the bottom of the ladder.”
On 15 June 2020 Ladakh’s Galwan Valley witnessed a violent clash between the armies of India and China. The clash, in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed, was one of the worst in 45 years, and led to a military standoff with China and at least 11 rounds of military talks for the disengagement process.
“As developments played out along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Galwan Valley, it was hard to say whether China was being given the run-around by India or vice versa,” wrote Shastri Ramachandaran in the chapter titled ‘India-China: Cooperation and conflict’ in ‘Beyond Boundaries’. “It was clear though that the Government of India had been giving the run-around to the media, interested sections and the public at home,” he added, “There was no one single authoritative official account of the India-China border clashes on 15 June, 2020 or the events leading up to it.”
“India had given a befitting response to those who dared eye her territory in Ladakh, is all that Prime Minister Modi said – including in his radio talk of 28 June – on the clash with the Chinese troops in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed. With calculated ambivalence, Modi had desisted from stating whether Chinese troops had entered Indian territory. His non-committal posture and pronouncements on this count had led to the default conclusion that there were Chinese incursions,” Ramachandaran stated.
Taking readers back to 2014 in the chapter ‘Asian giants at play’ Shastri narrated, “The South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is not a shining model of regional cooperation. It is seen as a talking shop – of a region that accounts for the largest population of the poor – with lofty goals, high sounding resolutions, ringing declarations and little by way of achievement…One country, raring to become a full member, is China. And predictably, a powerful section of ‘official’ India is opposed to it. It was in this context that External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid’s call in Male on 21 February 2014, for ‘institutional reform within SAARC’ needs to be viewed. ‘SAARC needs to clarify its thinking on the nature and direction of its relationship with partner States who have Observer Status’.”
China was one among the Observer States and Ramachandaran highlighted that “Barring India, all others especially Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka wanted China in – as a countervailing force to India. SAARC may be neither India-centric nor India-driven, but was and still is, in the view of these members, India dominated.” SAARC, China’s membership, and Sino-Indian rivalry continued to rankle regional cooperation even though Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh had said, “SAARC observers are civilizational neighbours and economic partners.”
Ramachandaran describes himself as a workaday journalist who happened to be in the right place and got the right breaks. “My first glimpse of China was when The Tribune assigned me to cover Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh’s summit meeting with Premier Wen Jiabao in 2008. Working as a journalist in China, I learned a lot, especially the need to de-condition myself and unlearn a lot of what I had learned from the very media I served in India,” in the fascinating chapter dedicated to ‘Indian media and China’.
“My short visits to and longer stints in China with leading English-language publications helped me to interact with a range of authoritative and knowledgeable people – in India, China and other countries too – who enriched my understanding of China and its relations with India and other countries with insights that may not have been gained otherwise,” acknowledged Ramachandaran.
“India is obsessed with China, and not in a good way. China, the world’s most populous nation until it was recently overtaken by India and fastest growing economy is a rising power. Only the US economy is larger than China’s. India’s relations with China are marked by periodic problem on the boundary, tensions, military stand-offs, irritants, and disputes as well as differences. The Indian media is openly hostile to China,” he declared.
The perennial question is: Whither India-China relations? Shastri Ramachandaran feels that though “mutual trust has plunged to a historic low in June 2020…new realities have transformed the situation in fundamental ways. Much of the basis that was built and progress made over the decades towards India and China emerging as two tigers on one mountain and becoming the twin drivers of ‘the Asian century’ have broken down altogether…China has no option, in the prevalent international climate, but to come to terms with India and create conditions for the two countries to pursue reconciliation in their mutual interest. India, for its part, should deal with China in ways that are more effective,” he said.
In his address, General Naravane referred to the ‘flag and the trade’, which should come first. Shastri Ramachandaran wrote, “Bilateral relations between countries, especially neighbours, having been reduced to the transactional, perhaps the best way forward may be for trade to lead the way and the flag to follow.” Undoubtedly, it would be going beyond the binaries, adding to our multi-dimensional and multilayered civilizational legacies.
Writer is a researcher-author on history and heritage issues; former deputy curator of Pradhanmantri Sangrahalaya.
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