Civilization-States of China and India: Reshaping the World Order

(Hardback)

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This book examines some of the pivotal episodes in the modern history of China and India to argue that their behaviors reflect the self-identity of a civilization-state. The book starts from the progression of China and India into putatively modern polities during the colonial period as the two indigenous societies imagined their national identities and nationalist aspirations primarily by contrasting their civilizational attributes with the Western colonial occupiers. As newly independent nation-states, both believed that their international status flowed from their civilizational glories. Therefore, despite their material and institutional fragility, China and India decided to pursue complete autonomy to manage their domestic and foreign affairs. Indian Prime Minister Nehrus policy of non-alignment, envisioning an alternate world order beyond the great power competition, was inspired by Indian civilizational ethos. The book explores some of the more recent developments such as the Indian nuclear test of 1998, China's ambitious infrastructure project the Belt and Road (BRI) aimed at reviving the ancient Silk Road, and India's campaign to regain its civilizational status of Vishwa Guru are but the manifestations of the two civilization-states endeavoring to regain their past glories in the contemporary world.

Author Bio

Ravi Dutt Bajpai has a PhD from Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia, and is a visiting researcher at the School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. He is an adjunct lecturer at St. Xaviers College, Ranchi. He is the co-author (with Harivansh) of Chandra Shekhar: The Last Icon of Ideological Politics (2019) and has published several journal articles, book chapters and popular media pieces in both Hindi and English. His research interests include civilizational perspectives in international relations, non-Western/postcolonial international relations, China and India in global politics, China-India relations, religion and cultural exchanges.