The Cultural China: Krishna Prakash Gupta and India’s China Studies
Date Issued
2010
Date
2010
Author(s)
Syu, Rong-jen
Abstract
From the early struggles to shake off the yoke of colonialism, to the transformation into modern nation states in the 20th century- India and China - the two regional superpowers of today, have stunned the world with their economic and political clout, exerting increasingly greater influence over regions in Asia and beyond. The 1962 Border war, which at one point plunged relations into a deep freeze, did little to dampen the prospects their bilateral ties. Following the normalization of the Sino-Indian relations in the 1980s, private exchanges and political dialogues have steadily been growing between the two. While some Indian scholars study the Sino-Indian relations in the context of historical factors, others study them by analyzing current events. Nonetheless, both examine the complexities of the bilateral relationship in civilizational terms.
This paper glances over the evolutions of China Studies in India, which is divided into two parts: the history-related research, and the political/strategic analysis. The first part describes scholarly activities that came along with the anti-colonialism sentiment: the focus and motives of the Indian scholars on China studies and the historical and cultural ties with India''s neighboring states, including Buddhism and other aspects. The second part describes Indian scholar''s focus, developed after the war in the 1960s, with their "know our enemy" mantra.
Against the backdrop of India''s need to groom more sinologists in the 1960s, Krishna Prakash Gupta became a member among the first batch of Ford Foundation Scholarship recipients to study in the United States. Upon his return to India, he had taught in Delhi University, joined the informal Chinese Study Group, and served as the editor of the Indian journal China Report. This study group and journal once were forming the core of China study in modern India. Gupta''s study on China affairs in the 60s and 70s rhymed with themes found in the writings of the China Report, examining issues based on contextual thinking and reflecting China''s political reality. However, issues written in the China Report shifted focus between in 80s and 90s - the period when priviate, cultural and governmental exchanges between India and China became increasingly frequent - to focus on the examination of the effects and policy surrounding China''s economic and political transformation. (both local and national area ) Despite this paradigm shift, Gupta remained steadfast in the areas of his political study, comparing the social-historical contexts among the Chinese, Indian and the Western societies.
He then asked whether "China''s image" in India reflected China’s political reality or just Indian’s perception of romantic imagination. After examining the theoretical frame and Indian perspectives on China, Gupta suggested to India''s sinologists a proper method: to be aware of the standpoint, and to prevent the prejudice bringing from their own cultures.
Reading between the lines the works of Gupta and his colleagues, we can see the China a civilization from the cultural perspective. And by comparing the Indian and Japanese works on China studies, we can gain even more depth about Indian''s “Cultural China." Indian scholars view China a vague, changeable but uninterrupted civilization, and the Japanese, by contrast, study China in a more concrete, detailed fashion. The main reason attributing to these differences in approach lies in how the identities of the Japanese and Indian people were formed. The Chinese culture and institution, more or less, served as the foundation of the Japanese culture. Therefore, the influence of the Chinese culture, as well those from the West, became an important element in the Nation building in Japan. Meanwhile, the historians found that "India" was a geographical nomenclature with complex cultures before the days of the British colonization, a historical event which helped turn the colonial land into a country. In modern India, the context of "other" in a sense of defining its identity refers to the British Empire or its colonialism. Similarly, the Indian intellectuals viewed China a civilization similar to that of India, with each of its complex cultures wrapped within its own nation frame. And the contemporary China studies in India, the perspective of "Cultural China" remains.
Subjects
China Studies in Indian
China Report, Cultutal China
Type
thesis
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