ABSTRACT
The Sino-Indian War in 1962 not only marked the definite watershed in the bilateral relationship between the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and India but also represented the defining moment in shaping the future of global non-alignment during the Cold War years. Unlike any other previous crisis where leading non-aligned nations faced direct or indirect encroachment by the great powers (e.g. like Egypt in 1956), this was the first crisis where the very notions of Afro-Asian solidarity and the viability of non-alignment were questioned. This was not a conflict between a traditional great power and a Third World nation, which would have made the choice between the antagonists for many Afro-Asian nations easy, but a direct clash between two major Asian nations that sought recognition as the leader of Third World politics. Furthermore, it was the competition between two alternative approaches to Third World politics – the regionalist approach within the Afro-Asian framework against the more globalist approach of non-alignment vis-à-vis the superpower blocs. In this manner, the whole Third World ultimately found itself torn between the revolutionary, radical and regionalist ideas of Afro-Asianism, which were directly represented by the Chinese ideological experience and backed by Indonesia and some radical African countries, and somewhat more pragmatic and flexible, universalist and non-aligned principles advocated by countries such as Yugoslavia, India and the United Arab Republic (UAR). In addition, due to their specific relationships with either of the conflicting parties, many non-aligned nations found it difficult to take sides, which compelled them to seek a diplomatic solution in order to avoid an open rift between key Afro-Asian nations. Finally, the war in 1962 also marked a moment when India’s non-alignment was under grave threat, which forced countries like Yugoslavia and the UAR, which had formed with India the core of global non-alignment, to engage in serious diplomatic activities in order to preserve India’s place among non-aligned nations as intact as possible.
