Chinese perspectives of india
India's place in Changing Chinese worldview
Talking of india china relations first thing that comes to our mind is border clashes and a rogue enemy state. Indian influence on china is not just of Buddha.
It is so ancient that word china itself comes from sanskrit word cīna. Indian uttarkuru settled in Xinjiang's tarim basin during Vedic period. indian influence is not just limited to thought and philosophy but it goes to the extent of identity itself, unfortunately this is a goldmine not digged by anyone and hence not counted in chinese worldview.
Proto chinese language was heavily influenced by proto Indo-European language.
"I have traced about 1500 cognate words,roughly two-thirds of the basic vocabulary in Old Chinese....found in all spheres of life including kinship, animals, plants, hydrography, landscape, parts of the body, politics and religion and even pronouns & prepositions"
-Tsung Chang
Not taking such a large period of history in account while dealing with dragon is a serious mistake on indian side.
India and China enjoyed more than a thousand years of uninterrupted trade and cultural exchanges during 1st millennium AD. At that particular time Buddhism played an important role in chinese view of india.It was sacred land of Buddha and alternative centre of universe in chinese worldview.
Foreign conquest of india
This respect that india enjoyed in eyes of China started to change around 2nd millennium AD due to political termoils in both sides, engagement now shifts to periferies from centre of both countries.
With opium wars of 1839-42 and 1856-60 China was threatened by british colonial empire in the east which drew it's resources from colonial empire in india.
Indian sepoys who fought at the side of British during humiliating wars led chinese intellectuals to explore role of india in assaults on china. There emerged an deeply popular perception of an indian from their role as street side enforcers of British rule.
Accounts of chinese reformers
Chinese reformers whether conservative or radical saw india as a negative example while japan was seen as model to be imitated which become successful in modernisation.
India was regarded as a "failed and fallen country which has been enslaved and subjugated virtually without resistance of its people".
A chinese reformer who visited India during his exile in 1901 he wrote
My four million compatriots if you want to become fallen nation of slaves than quickly support the fight for independence in all provinces like the indian people have done but if my compatriots you do not want to become a fallen nation or an exterminated race then you should deem useless India's fight for independence in all it's provinces".
Another chinese intellectual blamed plight of indian people on themselves and argued that indian people were highly susceptible to british raj after experience with Mongols and the Mughals.
He wrote
"By the time Mughals unified the land, indian people had already pledged their allegiance to the foreign people earlier by the Mughals and then by british, what difference did it make to them."
During this phase even Buddhism was interpreted negatively and a quote which is misquoted by many in india to glorify their past that is
"india conquered and dominated China culturally for twenty centuries without having to send a single soldier across the border."
was used by chinese intellectual in negative sense as a painful influence which led to their loose in front of japanese imperial army.
Rabindranath Tagore's visit to China are described as milestone in indo-china relations. I would say it to be an exaggerated claim, left wing intellectuals of China were very critical of his ideas and discarded his views as that of past and irrelevant.
Chinese people as an individuals always acknowledged India's place as a sophisticated old civilization but during british raj much of the chinese readings of india were translation of colonial literature which were rascist towards indians. It is this mediated perception which have remained entrenched in chinese psyche.
An excerpt from a chinese novel where Indians were working as sepoys for Britishers in China:
"Indians are people of lost country,
they are no more than slaves"
After independence
India was considered as an instrument of western imperialism before the 'hindi-chini bhai bhai' decade of 1950s.
In 1984 a senior chinese deligation to india was surprised to see that how india functioned being so chaotic.
Global Times role of cooking notorious stories and rascist jargons on india should also be studied in parallel.
In contemporary times Buddhism was also
regarded as something against true chinese spirit.
Today, China's assessment of india is affected by it's worsening relations with United States where india is seen as not having any independent agency.
A more detailed analysis of prejudices and colonial perceptions of people across borders needs to be done and better mutual understanding should be developed.
Indo-china relations which today are and surely will get more important in future should be formed on strong grounds of shared heritage keeping in mind hostilities at the border and short term enmity.
References and further reading:
Islamisation of southeast Asia a chinese project.
https/youtu.be/K3wvhVBRrrA
how China perceived india during British rule
Mongolian culture and india
http://mongolianculture.com/ProfBira-Lect.html
Uttara kuru and jats https://subhashkak.medium.com/uttara-kuru-and-the-jats-c2d3130e4cb7
The Rāma Story and Sanskrit in Ancient Xinjiang https://subhashkak.medium.com/the-r%C4%81ma-story-and-sanskrit-in-ancient-xinjiang-4ce8636285ae
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