china's plan for india: disintegration

aug 10th, 2009

no doubt this will be greeted with a frisson of glee, if not sexual arousal, by the usual suspects -- the garland-bearing ones, the swiss-account types, et al.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Rajiv Malhotra
Date: Sun, Aug 9, 2009 at 10:08 PM
Subject: China to faciliate breaking up India? Pls pass this article along to those who found my thesis on fragmentation too far out.
To:


http://www.c3sindia.org/india/719

CHENNAI CENTRE FOR CHINA STUDIES

China Should break up the Indian Union, suggests a Chinese Strategist

D.S.Rajan, C3S Paper No.325 dated August 9, 2009

Almost coinciding with the 13th round of Sino-Indian border talks (New
Delhi, August 7-8, 2009), an article (in Chinese language) has
appeared in China captioned "If China takes a little action, the
so-called Great Indian Federation can be broken up" ( Zhong Guo Zhan
Lue Gang, www.iiss.cn , Chinese,8 August 2009). Interestingly, it has
been reproduced in several other strategic and military websites of
the country and by all means, targets the domestic audience. The
authoritative host site is located in Beijing and is the new edition
of one, which so far represented the China International Institute for
Strategic Studies (www.chinaiiss.org).

Claiming that Beijing's 'China-Centric' Asian strategy, provides for
splitting India, the writer of the article, Zhan Lue (strategy), has
found that New Delhi's corresponding 'India-Centric' policy in Asia,
is in reality a 'Hindustan centric' one. Stating that on the other
hand 'local centres' exist in several of the country's provinces
(excepting for the U.P and certain Northern regions), Zhan Lue has
felt that in the face of such local characteristics, the 'so-called'
Indian nation cannot be considered as one having existed in history.

According to the article, if India today relies on any thing for
unity, it is the Hindu religion. The partition of the country was
based on religion. Stating that today nation states are the main
current in the world, it has said that India could only be termed now
as a "Hindu Religious state'. Adding that Hinduism is a decadent
religion as it allows caste exploitation and is unhelpful to the
country's modernization, it described the Indian government as one in
a dilemma with regard to eradication of the caste system as it
realizes that the process to do away with castes may shake the
foundation of the consciousness of the Indian nation.

The writer has argued that in view of the above, China in its own
interest and the progress of whole Asia, should join forces with
different nationalities like Assamese, Tamils, and Kashmiris and
support the latter in establishing independent nation-states of their
own, out of India. In particular, the ULFA in Assam, a territory
neighboring China, can be helped by China so that Assam realizes its
national independence.

The article has also felt that for Bangladesh, the biggest threat is
from India, which wants to develop a great Indian Federation extending
from Afghanistan to Myanmar. India is also targeting China with
support to Vietnam's efforts to occupy Nansha (Spratly) group of
islands in South China Sea. Hence the need for China's consolidation
of its alliance with Bangladesh, a country with which the US and Japan
are also improving their relations to counter China. It has pointed
out that China can give political support to Bangladesh enabling the
latter to encourage ethnic Bengalis in India to get rid of Indian
control and unite with Bangladesh as one Bengali nation; if the same
is not possible, creation of at least another free Bengali nation
state as a friendly neighbour of Bangladesh, would be desirable, for
the purpose of weakening India's expansion and threat aimed at forming
a 'unified South Asia'.

The punch line in the article has been that to split India, China can
bring into its fold countries like Pakistan, Nepal and Bhutan, support
ULFA in attaining its goal for Assam's independence, back aspirations
of Indian nationalities like Tamils and Nagas, encourage Bangladesh to
give a push to the independence of West Bengal and lastly recover the
90,000 sq km. territory in Southern Tibet.

Wishing for India's break-up into 20-30 nation-states like in Europe,
the article has concluded by saying that if the consciousness of
nationalities in India could be aroused, social reforms in South Asia
can be achieved, the caste system can be eradicated and the region can
march along the road of prosperity.

The Chinese article in question will certainly outrage readers in
India. Its suggestion that China can follow a strategy to dismember
India, a country always with a tradition of unity in diversity, is
atrocious, to say the least. The write-up could not have been
published without the permission of the Chinese authorities, but it is
sure that Beijing will wash its hands out of this if the matter is
taken up with it by New Delhi. It has generally been seen that China
is speaking in two voices – its diplomatic interlocutors have always
shown understanding during their dealings with their Indian
counterparts, but its selected media is pouring venom on India in
their reporting. Which one to believe is a question confronting the
public opinion and even policy makers in India. In any case, an
approach of panic towards such outbursts will be a mistake, but also
ignoring them will prove to be costly for India.

(The writer, D.S.Rajan, is Director of Chennai Centre for China
Studies, Chennai, India, email: dsrajan@gmail.com).