China dominates the Indian discourse in ways seen and unseen. We are in awe of the speed and scale of its reforms. We wonder about the efficacy of its dictatorship and compare notes with the limitations of our democracy. But how does the aam admi there view us?
Pallavi Aiyar has been The Hindu‘s Beijing correspondent for four years now, and is out with a book Smoke and Mirrors (HarperCollins India). In an interview with Krishnakumar P. of rediff.com and India Abroad, she answers the all-important question, showing how little they know of us as we of them.
“How does the comman man in China see India?
“There is far more interest here in India about China than the other way round. For the common man there, there are two very strong sources when it comes to India: religion and movies.
“They see India as this very spiritual place, just like the westerners, but in a different way. Since Buddhism originated here in india, they still see India as a predominantly Buddhist country. Most people were surprised to learn that I am a Hindu. They think the whole of India practises Buddhism.
“They also know a lot abot Indian movies, especially of the 1950s and then the late 1970s, after the Cultural Revolution…. The younger crowd has a lot of awareness about India, mostly due to the information and technology boom. Then, there are the policy circles where India is seen as a country with potential, but not a threat to China.”
Read The Hindu review here: China through a smoky lens
T.J.S. GEORGE: Why we can’t do a 40-km trip in 8 minutes
churumuri 
I has a chance to vist Shanghai 2 years back..the sense i got was : Chinese knew (and liked) Pakistan lot more than India and Indians..There was always an element of suspicion about India and they dint have much idea or info about the progress India was making..
LikeLike
The countdown has begun for this piece to be labelled as “yet another” attempt by churumuri to run down Hinduism. Meanwhile, those interested might also like to begin a simultaneous countdown for the correspondent and her newspaper to be labelled as handmaidens of “commie” China.
LikeLike
The Hindu review itself is a good read and actually a very fair one
LikeLike
i get it. china is the greatest. ok. because chinaman’s bride looks fairer and prettier than my darker and fuller bride with wide hips, i will put my woman through a regimen of strict diet, excercise and chinese fairness lotion. i shall endeavour to muster the necessary courage to command my oDathi thus: yene, keLdiya namm intellectuals heLLidu, naaLe inda ninge ooTa tinDi bundh, arshina gandha bundh. naaLeinda enidru, haNNu hampala and chinese fairness cream.
but meanwhile, two theory demolishing, model breaking, events tore the ‘secular fabric of the nation’. tooTik piTik illa.
it is not as if theory is not discussed here. how many theories have not we been subject to here: sanskritization, ‘is this the only type of hinduism?’, god men, rationality, ‘muslim kid gets 100 in sanskrit’ …. so many stories off the top of my head i can recall. complete with evocative punch lines. it is obvious the editorial mind pines for a-centric multi-polar society with diversity of views and practices. ella ok. but selective silence yaake? convenient-aadaga blindness yaake?
what about what has hapenned to the ahemadiyas in hyderabad? when they could hold their conference in cheddi-land of KA why not in the secular AP? here is a native religion that is being persecuted for its beliefs by the larger majority and nobody to support them?
is this really a trend, where the gospel of secularism is used as a matter of rhetorical convenience but when it comes to actual practice there are hardly any takers? is that why bogeymen like sanskritization are foisted just to keep the theory relevant atleast in the minds/cliques of the intelligencia? (nobody on ground really cares about a dubious theory like that. it is only important to external observors or to the few highly invested groups of people)
LikeLike
oh! i forgot the ‘tease’ kural speaking veena playing … in the land of bhasheer and wasifuddin dagar and bismillah khan, somebody reciting kural and playing veena is a big deal?
churumuri why did you take out mysore post from your blog roll?
LikeLike
Do they have Indian restaurants in China?
Do Chinese people like to eat Indian food when they eat out?
LikeLike
http://nishurs.blogspot.com/2008/07/what-we-think-about-china.html
LikeLike
Pallavi Aiyar writes: ” Most people were surprised to learn that I am a Hindu. “.
Me too. She is still a Hindu?? Whatever do her commie bosses say?
LikeLike
@AG: They do have Indian restaurants in China…. not very good…Do Chinese people eat Indian food? The restaurants we went to were empty (maybe because they were bad)…
@nish: Saw your link.. had the same assumption as well (that all Chinese were Buddhists)… havent met a Buddhist Chinese yet…
LikeLike
The chinese do not know the major religion of India due to poor general knowledge of the populace resulting out of state control of information. We should be pooh-pooing the chinese masses for the limited level of awareness and knowledge they have regarding the world outside their country. Notwithstanding the good roads and trains in Shanghai and Beijing, china is a nation of brainwashed slaves. Slaves who have been trained to be effficient, greedy and malicious in Industry and Business. And here we are in India with a relatively free media admiring these brainwashed slaves. Way to go.
LikeLike
anything foreign is good and great!!!!!
Were there any relations? between India and China?
China has been supplying arms and other materials as well as techonlogy(?) assistance to Pakistan. So they know the people under their “arms” (control) well enough.
Please remember their media and internet is higly controlled.
We get all kinds of access in India. Blessed we are with a ‘free’ media.
@annonymous guy
There are few Indian resturants but food is not good.
Sicheuan? food is very similar to Indian food in terms of spices. Indians who like spicy food will enjoy eating it. Some Chinese like Indian food but not all. They dont have much information about India and publications in Chinese have termed Indian civilization as lost one, dead and claim themselves to be the lone surviving and continuous civilization on earth!!
There are at least 50 Chinese scholars who know Indian politics/history/economy very well and we hardly have 10 Indian experts on China. (they get information on us from many/all sources)
There are 2 or 3 good Indian scholars on China. Remaining ones belong to commie party and they support Chinese cause than Indian cause!!Secular and Intellectual Indians they are!
chappale thatti chappale
LikeLike
I would like to update my list of churmuri postings that I had posted in a different thread.
1. Post a article by Ashis Nandy bashing India/Indians/Hindus/Modi
2. Post a article by Anantha Murthy bashing India/Indians/Hindus/Modi
3. Post a article by T J George bashing India/Indians/Hindus/Modi
4. Post a article by Ashok Mitra bashing India/Indians/Hindus/Modi
5. Post a poll bashing India/Indians/Hindus/Modi
6. Post articles praising China/Chinese and their achievement atleast twice a week.
Rinse,Lather, repeat
LikeLike
Gaby,
Why is the review a fair one? Witness this gem, “Even though Aiyar recognises the real denial of democracy to millions in India because of such factors as caste oppression, she is completely oblivious to the denial of democracy that the neoliberal regime in India represents, despite its democratic trappings.” Nice eh? :)
LikeLike
So much of what we say about Pakistan is coloured by religion. What we think of China is coloured by ignorance.
Let’s adopt the Chinese population policy before India sinks into the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal, and the Indian ocean under the crushing weight of people and industrial junk that cannot be disposed of.
LikeLike
you should know before you write. Even China is not successful in curbing its popualtion growth. Though figures claim to have reached a stability level and all those figures are manufactured. I have some Chinese friends who have more than 2 or 3 children in the family.
LikeLike
Doc Reddy–
Maybe not, but it is still a good idea to curb the unrestrained breeding that goes on in India.
LikeLike
The the editor of the Hindu : Why is Pallavi Aiyar, a self confessed Hindu working at your newspaper? She should be fired forthwith.
And what does she mean by, Buddhism in China” ? I thought all Chinese were good atheist comrades like you and I. If there are indeed Buddhists and, gasp, Christians in China, who will we look up to next? Vietnam? Or maybe, Iran?
Please let me know N.Ram.
Yours forever,
Red Kashmiri Soul
LikeLike
Can you imagine a Bihari villager requiring a permit to live and work in Bombay, Delhi or Calcutta? Never, right? Well, this happens in Pallavi’s and the Hindu newspaper’s favorite country, China.
By the way, how many people know that nearly One Billion…..1, 000, 000, 000 people in China survive on less than 2 dollars a day.
Yet, you will only hear such [less than so and so many dollars a day] statistics bandied about in the Indian context.
Proportionately, the Chinese are close to Indian poverty levels, but is just so happens that, the Chinese are very adept at hiding their poverty from the media, which they accomplish by brute force.
Pallavi also neglected to mention that China does not have a free press or that she is not allowed to travel to most of the country, or that China has locked up hundreds of journalists, or that Pallavi can not access thousands of web sites fron China, web sites deemed anti – China by the CCP.
LikeLike
There is one Chinese Law which I wouldn’t mind seeing replicated in India – death sentence for anybody caught accepting bribes in access of 14 thousand dollars.
Imagine that. We would have to hire thousands of executioers.
We would lose our entire Govt. in one day. Such great fun.
LikeLike
Pulikeshi the last avare
>Unrestrained breeeding <
That’s bcoz lack of education and awareness. (We had very long history of colonialism)
I just wanted to say there is nothing great about China. If you really know the inside story of China, you will think India is far better in many ways. Unfortunately many Indian scholars on China are commie sympathisers. That Pallavi Aiyar looks after her father’s business interests in Beijing. She lives in a traditional Chinese house with courtyard that costs nearly 5000 dollars!! (nothing wrong) She has to say positive things about China; all praises. Otherwise she wont be able to live there.
LikeLike
India is a land of corruption and it’s way behind China in military, technology or industry. Indians and Indian goverment are not at all aggressive on all matters concerning them. You can do any gundaism (Like Thackerey in Mumbai) if you have political power and money, prime minister will “write a letter” on this to state gvt and keep mum. Even matters which affect national unity is not taken seriously. Minorities are killed all across India by hindu fanatics (Orrisa, Gujarat). If India cannot tolerate minorities, why did it chose to become secular on independence? It is a fact that India has press freedom but this fact alone doesn’t make the country great. Nameste!!!
LikeLike