“India should’ve anticipated the Chinese appearance in Ladakh, even the timing of it, when the status of Jammu & Kashmir was changed”, notes Shekhar Gupta in his article for the Print.
“Why, when the Chinese PLA comes bullying its way along the borders in Ladakh, am I invoking an outrageous American political satirist, P.J. O’Rourke?
Among his finest pieces is his ‘A Brief History of Man’. You can find it in his collection Republican Party Reptile. In less than a thousand brilliant words, it spans the entire human history. He takes all the great civilisations and reigns that rose and fell or survived in that sweep.
What’s relevant to us today is one short sentence in which he dismissed China: “Meanwhile, in China, there were the Chinese.” You can interpret that any which way you wish. My guess is that he’s conveying that sense of resignation you find about the “inscrutable” Chinese. A familiar thought in the West.
But we don’t live in the West. We’ve lived next door to China for as long as first civilisations grew.”
Click here to read more about changing Indo-Chinese dynamics.
