ABSTRACT
This chapter probes the temporal dimensions of South–South solidarity, understood as expressions of transnational togetherness asserted in opposition to a colonial hegemon. Conceptualizing South–South solidarity as a temporal construct exposes a central contradiction: participants of the Third World project harnessed narratives of shared temporality as a tool for decolonized nationhood, and yet, the teleological demands of modernity and nation-building bore striking resemblance to the linear, progressive notion of time that had bolstered colonial conquest. To what extent can narratives of shared temporality deliver liberation, and inversely, to what extent can South–South solidarity decolonize time itself? The chapter explores these questions through the case of China and India, tracking the rhetoric of “two thousand years of friendship” from its heyday in the 1950s to its dissolution following the 1962 China–India war. The chapter argues that, far exceeding its usage in state-led activities of cultural diplomacy, “two thousand years of friendship” opens a radical understanding of South–South solidarity as a form of transnational temporal relation capable of decolonizing not just political structures but also the textures of time. The chapter explores this rich spectrum of decolonial temporal possibilities through a reading of Bhisham Sahni's Hindi short story, “Wang Chu” (1978).
