Thank You!
That's quite a good explanation and perfectly logical as well.
Actually China has been very important for India and its consciousness from the very start. I know for a fact that normal Chinese don't think as much about India, and hold no specific feelings towards India, especially not that of hostility. I was very surprised that the feelings here towards India are very very hostile, much more hostile than even say the United States.
Let me tell you the evolution of the feelings of Indians regarding Chinese.
1. Indians consider themselves (at least the vast majority) to be the descendants of ancient culture and Civilization which has always existed. We are similar to China in this sense that we associate ourselves with our past history a lot, and in our heart of hearts, many Indians still consider India (I'm not commenting on the correctness of this belief) to be an ancient civilization which was very very huge and successful, in no way lesser than Chinese Civilization, even better than them, which emcompassed a lot of land.
Then the Muslim invaders came, and laid havoc on our land, changed our religion, and caused great damage. After that the British came, and finally left a divided country.
2. Pakistan was born for Muslims based on 2-nation theory. Most Indians have trouble understanding it, and still consider it illegitimate, the division of the country. This has a lot of emotions attached to it. Not only this after the division Pakistan started out "occupying" Kashmir, something that is definitely ours. On top of that they regularly support all kinds of terrorists, and separatist movements in India. So Pakistan is the ultimate villain, not least because the country itself is considered illegitimate by many people, but when they see any terrorist attack which the whole media is swift in denouncing Pakistan for, the emotions are flamed. Media, Movies and everything surrounding re-enforces this thing.
3. Many Indians have this tendency (completely ridiculous, I know) of proclaiming deep connections, even ownership of lands that have Buddhism. They somehow think that people who are Buddhist should either belong to them, in kind of hegemonic way, ( like Tibet ), or be grateful to them.
4. Indian consciousness starts with the memory that our first Prime Minster wanted India and China to be serious friends, who gave the slogan of "Hindi Chini Bhai Bhai" ( Believe me this narrative is so strong that every Indian knows this. This means India China Brothers Brothers, and it rhymes in Hindi). They are told to believe that we tried doing a lot to establish friendship, even "gave up" Tibet to them, yet in 1962 they suddenly attacked and took away our land including Aksai Chin.
5. They consider this a big betrayal. On top of it they think that China is constantly helping their biggest enemy Pakistan, funding terrorists almost literally, which is terrible.
6. They see and meet Tibetans (meeting tibetans in exile though a rarity still happens. I myself have 2 Tibetan friends in my place of study), hear stories in which Tibetans proclaim how they have nothing to do with Chinese and they are closer to Indians which reinforces point 3 above. They also hear stories of missing Lamas, self-immolations and all kinds of stories reinforcing 7.
7. Media and other groups keep talking about China's conflicts with other countries. The whole media erupts like anything if there are border intrusions, as perceived by India (which are mainly because there is no well-defined borders, and hence can't really be considered intrusions, but who will explain it to normal folks?) or China claims Arunachal, and start playing up that. People get furious. Already the freedom loving brigade hasn't given a good name to China, this further portrays China as an expansionist empire which is oppressive.
8. Indian envy China, because as stated in opening, they don't consider themselves less, and hence get furious as well as jealous about the difference. Yet, they secretly admire and respect China and its acheivements and it is often presented as an example. Yet, the common narrative of a back-biting betrayal in 1962 still remains. Our humiliating loss further ashames us. I have seen this as a counter-intuitive thing in politics and relations that often it is the humiliating loss that is hard to forget and forgive for, rather than the victory. On top of that we see you helping our nemesis Pakistan, who is made us bleed on many occasions.
So in short these are the biggest reasons:
1. Help to Pakistan
2. Border disputes, and intrusions
3. Narrative of betrayal, and expansionism
4. Our own envy at being left behind
I know the narrative is incorrect, but this is what it is. I will also discuss in future posts how this was made up by politicians and media, and how it is sustained. We need to work to get over this narrative.
