Before the onset of the industrial revolution, China and India were the two biggest powers in
Eurasia. Their total population comprised almost half of the world’s population. And the GNP
of premodern China was half of the combined GNP of the world. Before circa 1600 CE, most
of the textiles and iron in the world were manufactured in these two countries. China and
India suffered a temporary eclipse during the age of colonialism. However, with the rise of the
economic and military power of China and India from the late 20th century, it seems that these
two countries are bound to reclaim their traditional positions as big powers in the international
system. However, there is a caveat. In the premodern era, the Himalayas prevented any intimate
contact between the ‘dragon’ and the ‘elephant’. But, from the mid-20th century, advances in
technology, economic competition and the annexation of Tibet by the People’s Republic of China
(PRC) among other factors resulted in China and India coming into direct contact with each
other. The result has been cooperation–competition–conflict. And this has had consequences not
only for these two countries but for the whole world. The present article attempts to trace the
troubled trajectory of India’s China policy from the late 1940s (when these two countries became
independent) up to the present day.