ABSTRACT

India and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) remember the border war of late 1962 in fundamentally different ways. For India, the defeat has left a trauma that seemingly refuses to heal. It not only revealed a history of diplomatic miscalculations and inadequacies in defence preparedness but also had a major impact on the political system itself. In its wake, the constitution was partially suspended during a multi-year state of emergency, thousands of citizens were interned or jailed without trial on the basis of their political views or ethnic background, and the government embarked on a massive armament campaign. For over half a century, Indian officials from the time as well as scholars in retrospect have controversially discussed the reasons, responsibilities and consequences of the war. Still, the border war of 1962 remains a sensitive issue in India. In comparison, the PRC hardly remembers its quick and overwhelming victory. Most Chinese people do not even know about the short ‘Self-defence-Counterattack War’ that pales in comparison to the three-year-long ‘Support-Korea-Resist-America War’ and the eight-year-long ‘Support-Vietnam-Resist-America War’. Similarly, the Chinese-language memoir and secondary literature is comparatively small and focuses mostly on event history. The Sino-Indian divergence in memory is likely related to the difference of how the two countries perceived each other from the 1940s to the 1960s. For Delhi, Beijing was a major potential partner and rival; for China, India was but one of many neighbours.