Book Review [67] : Where China Meets India

First of all let me make one statement, we Indians are still an insular nationality and in all these past centuries we have learned nothing even from our own mistakes, Al Beruni was spot on when he made that particular accusation on Indians in 11th century AD.

In last decade or so, many business leaders, writers, journalists etc have written a large number of books about the "economic development" of China and India, some writers have exaggerated it while some rare breeds have even crossed the wildest limit of exaggeration, declaring that China and India will dominate the world in next 3-4 decades and hegemony of US and West will end decisively by next 40 years. Truth as always lives very far from the home of exaggeration, both countries are damn poor although China is far ahead of India but there are structural fissures in the economic growth of India and in the political and economic growth of China. It will take atleast half a century for China to reach upto the level of the prosperity of an average American and for India even a century looks too short. The population of these countries gurantees that one day these countries will rule the world (if they remain as two countries) but that day is yet too far. 

 

'Where China Meets India' by M. Thant is a very pragmatic survey of the history, culture, ethnicity and future significance of three major regions of South East Asia - North East India, Yunan and Myanmar. These three regions contain perhaps the greatest diversity of language, ethnicity, religion and wild life, and is the heart of the four great river systems of Asia - Brahmaputra, Mekong, Irrawaddy, and Yangtze, perhaps nature is playing a great game out here and telling India, China and Myanmar in her own way to learn the ways of peaceful co-operation and development.

Myint-U Thant starts his journey from Myanmar, he covers Rangoon, Mandelay and then reaches the trouble spots of Myanmar, the hilly region dominated by the Shan, Kachin tribes. He then moves to Yunan and covers various aspects of its history, culture and development. In the end he travels to NE India and covers the insurgency and military rule prone Manipur. According to him and i wholeheartedly agree, that development of North East India can only happen by co-operation with neighbouring regions of Myanmar, Yunan and also Bangladesh. In 1947 North East India was connected to China, Bangladesh and Myanmar, and its per capita income was higher that of Indian average; After 15th August 1947 this region lost connectivity to Bangladesh and later to Myanmar and China, this region also got engulfed in worse kind of violent insurgencies and this tragic process resulted in its becoming poorer than the rest of India. Yunan was worse than NE India in 1947 now its miles ahead of NE India and Myanmar played a key role in the development of Yunan through its natural resources and trade (and ofcourse the focus of China) . We should take a page from the Chinese book, no harm in learning even from the enemies. Look east is a good start but miles to go before we reach there. 

We need to start reading and learning about this region in a def-con 1 mode.
I have not read a better book on this region.

 

Highly recommended (8/10)