India Must Come to Terms with China

News headlines can be confusing. When talking about China, for example, they can alternate between wake-up-and-smell-the-Mandarin because at 60, the People's Republic of China is everywhere and alarmist reports which suggest that this seemingly unstoppable juggernaut has us squarely in their sights. What are we to make of all this? More important, how can we retain equanimity in the face of this media assault?

Whether Indians talk about an accommodating or aggressive stance towards China, it's clear that China manages to push our buttons. The West had its China moment during the Korean war of 1950-53, when the Chinese intervened on the side of North Korea and fought US and UN forces aiding South Korea to a standstill. On that occasion, it was all too easy to revive images of the ''yellow peril'' initially used to describe the supposed threat posed by 19th century Chinese immigrants to the US and the West to indicate the nature of the challenge from China.

In 1911 G G Rupert, an influential religious figure in America, published a book named `The Yellow Peril; or, Orient Vs Occident', which claimed that China, India, Japan and Korea were attacking Britain and the US, but Jesus Christ would stop them. Influenced by pan-Asian philosophies which also set up an artificial divide between Oriental and Occidental cultures (famously criticised by Edward Said), India stood with China in the first flush of independence and nationhood. But the shock of the 1962 war made Indians internalise 'yellow peril' images as well, which exaggerated both the malignity and the potency of the Chinese challenge.