ABSTRACT
It is commonly acknowledged that the relationship between Indiaand China in recent times has not been free from ‘the problems left over from history’. This allusion to the problems arising from history usually refers, not to the period of antiquity, but to the more recent past, when both were under the domination of the major colonial and imperialist powers of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Relations between the great neighbouring civilizations of India and China date back to ancient times, but the nature of their relations was to be greatly transformed as both came under colonial and imperialist domination. Colonialism and imperialism were global forces that left their impact not only on the diverse societies that came under their domination, but also on the relations that came to exist thereafter between these societies. In the case of India and China, the nature of trade and economic relations changed, the routes and modes of transport of goods and people between the two countries were altered, sources of information about the other society were no longer the same, and the very images and perceptions of the other country and people underwent considerable transformation. Thus, under the impact of colonialism and imperialism, new patterns of interaction developed between the peoples of India and China. For instance, Indians began to go to China as traders in opium, a drug proscribed by the laws of the Chinese Empire, and as soldiers and policemen in the service of British expansion in the East. This development was a far cry from the patterns of old and from the days when Indians were welcomed in China as peaceful missionaries carrying the teachings of the Buddha.
