Prof. Rajesh Rajagopalan talks about the events leading up to the India-China war of 1962. What were the perceptions, misperceptions that led to the war? What is the current status of the relationship between India and China?

In this interview Rajesh talks about the background that led to the outbreak of the 1962 war. The 1950s and 1960s was a period of cold war when China and USSR were pitted against the USA and its allies. India under Prime Minister Nehru professed a policy of Non-Alignment.

According to Rajesh during the 1950s India was riding high at the international level, and the Chinese perceived India as a threat to its ambitions in Asia. And, after the war India he points out India had no voice at the international level. The war broke out right around the time when the US-USSR were in the midst of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Rajesh deconstructs the reasons leading to the 1962 war and the limited objective that the Chinese government had for the war. How has the war impacted India? What is the current status of the border issue between the two countries? Can the border issue, which is a political problem be solved? What will it take to solve the border issue?

Prof. Rajagopalan teaches at the School of International Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, India. His areas of research interest are international relations theory, military doctrines, and nuclear weapons and disarmament. His book, Second Strike: Arguments about Nuclear War in South Asia, was published by Penguin (India) in 2005. He is currently working on a manuscript on the Indian Army’s counterinsurgency doctrine.

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