From the Readers

China and India - two of a whole

(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-05-20 11:45

Comment on "Bridging the China-India gap" (China Daily, May 19)

China has a history as old as India's-or thereabouts, anyway. For thousands of years we have shared a long common boundary and perfected the art of peaceful co-existence.

On a philosophical level, Hinduism and Taoism are quite similar. Like Hinduism, Taoism believes in the essential oneness of all creation and focuses on meditation as the way to achieve that realization. Confucianism, a later religion, however, is orientated more toward the material reality and teaches how to best conduct oneself in society. Buddhism was taken from India by the Chinese who came and studied the religion and then carried with them important scriptures, books and literature on the religion. India or its rulers did not need to send missionaries and crusaders into China to spread Buddhism.

The Chinese were probably the most inventive among the ancient cultures, and a huge number of inventions like paper, printing, compass, gunpowder, the wheelbarrow, clock and so on are believed to have been Chinese in origin.

Interestingly, there was one dissimilarity that struck me time and again. I found the Chinese very practical and earthy. Indians, on the other hand, tend to be more spiritual and cerebral, if you like, grappling with abstract notions and ideas, e.g., calculating the distance from the earth to the sun and so on. This, of course, is a very general observation and does not imply that every Indian or Chinese fits into the mold.

Perhaps China is like the left hemisphere of the brain and India, the right! Together, they are complete and effective. Today, China is becoming the factory of the world, and India, its so-called back-office. I believe it's a matter of time before India becomes the ideas factory or the laboratory of the world.

China and India will then become the center of the world and, in a manner of speaking, the middle countries! The world will then, again, need Asia and look to it, as it did some centuries ago!

Rajesh Kanoi, on China Daily Website