Understanding the Chinese mind

Dear Brig Harwant,
The article "understanding the Chinese mind" (click me) is an apt analyses of the Chinese mind and reflects continuity in Chinese civilisation's perspective and their continued sense for history. We lack this foundation totally because our perspectives are based on legacies handed over by outsiders. There is no Indian perspective on a continuum but rather 'safe keeping' of legacies handed over by the British which tend to lead to situational conflicts. Safe keepers do not always make the best perceivers. What we perceive as potential threat could thus have a cause elsewhere obscure to our perspective. Remember had Nehru not behaved as a British sergeant major, the Bandung Conference could have turned out to be differently. The fact is that the Chinese Revolution introduced muscle into the Chinese to re look at their geo strategic nuances just as the British did for theirs at the signing of the Shimla Agreement with their muscle behind them then Nehru however behaved simply as safe keeper for the once British Perspective without either the muscle to back this up or any will to engage in new situations. In fact why Chinese may appear as a potential threat in our thinking is simply because we have not reconciled to the idea that we cannot run a modern nation state on colonial precepts as we learn from second hand thinking, simply through bad book keeping at the foreign office, expect others to be doing the same. Have we ever wondered what our neighbours are thinking about the threat we pose? Say Sri Lanka?, Myanmar, even PAKISTAN? there is a need to be more open in our strategic assessments. We do not have one single friend around in our neighbourhood which is not a good image for a big country like ours! Are we pushing others creating a vacuum and China is filling it ! After all were we not to have sought JK ceasefire in 1948 may be we could have averted the 1962 War and border discomfort that may grow into a conflagration.

As for threat we do not have to point to China alone- our home front is getting better cultivated! Go to any remote village of a Uttarakhand (UK) and you will find nothing but disgust for those in Delhi who are now addressed as 'Indians' a word now coming into usage even in Yamuna Ravines and by ex soldier's! Villages are being vacated as farmers become bankrupt due to failing crops and diminishing returns, no irrigation, no schooling no facilities. Khanduri's roads in UK serve only the tourists and most money is pocketed by Non Garhwalis who operate businesses from Delhi etc. I have travelled across these villages where Sainiksangh is implementing various schemes and not surprised at the state of disaffection and despair- corruption is so rampant and open in Uttarakhand. Speaking to a professor of Srinagar University (UK) and listening to his concerns when I pointed out that farmers are abandoning their land in the North the Chinese will have no trouble in extending a claim line- the professor was blunt that Chinese would at least clear up corruption and bring some order and revive the dead farmer! It time we start examining our own failings seriously.
thank you,
Vice President
Maj Gen APS Chauhan (Retd)
Sainiksangh