India’s External Relations
The India-China relations were as examined below :
(i) Friendly relations : (a) After the Chinese revolution in 1949, India was one of first countries to recognise the communist government.
(b) Prime Minister Nehru and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai adopted Panchsheel, the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence on 29 April, 1954.
(ii) The Chinese Invasion and strained relationship : (a)China annexed Tibet in 1950 and thus removed a historical buffer between the two countries.
(b) Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama had sought asylum in India in 1959. China alleged that India was allowing anti-China activities in India.
(c) Boundary disputes arose between the two countries over Aksai-chin area in the Ladakh region and NEFA in the eastern region.
(d) The boundary disputes led to massive Chinese invasion in October 1962. Finally, the China declared a unilateral ceasefire but relations between two countries remained strained.
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(a) India’s Nuclear policy
(b) Consensus in foreign policy matters.
“Broadly, non-alignment means not tying yourself off with military blocs... It means trying to view things, as far as possible, not from the military point of view, though that has to come in sometimes, but independently, and trying to maintain friendly relations with all countries. ” —Jawaharlal Nehru
(a) Why does Nehru want to keep off military blocs ?
(b) Do you think that the Indo-Soviet friendship treaty violated the principle of non-alignment ? Give reasons for your answer.
(c) If there were no military blocs, do you think non-alignment would have been unnecessary ?
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