Why did China not attack India after 1962 but Pakistan did it many times?
Although China and Pakistan are both rival nations for India, China has been far more strategic in her approach towards India. After the 1962 war and the conflict in 1967, China have avoided direct face offs with India. But before we go into that let’s discuss why China attacked India at the first place.
Chinese Aggression of 1962:
This is one of the place, where although being an Indian, I find India at fault. As per the record, China wanted to establish status quo with India. China wanted India to stay away from Aksai Chin and in return they would not cross the McMahon Line. However, when our the then PM Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru came to know about Chinese building roads along Aksai Chin, he thought of replying back the Chinese. He came up with the poorly conceived and ill fated “Forward Base Policy” which failed terribly. With this policy not only Indian soldiers lost their lives but Nehru also successfully provoked the dragon which later caused the war of 1962.
Why did China retreat?
Although there has been no official statement from China, but China declaring unilateral ceasefire shows that they did not attack to capture territory. It was merely a reply to Nehru’s forward base policy. If China wanted they could have kept the territory but they did not want Arunachal Pradesh and the adjoining territory. Aksai Chin was far more critical to China and they got it. Capturing Arunachal was not a part of the plan. With the attack, China established her military might in the region and at the same time humiliated Nehru and Inida.
Why China never attacked again?
The aggression of 1962 took India by surprise. Nehru and his defence minister and close ally V.K Menon ignored the warnings from the likes of Army Chief K.S Thimayya. India was not prepared for a full scale war at the Eastern front, the war which ended with India’s defeat. However, China now knows that gone are the days of 1962. India’s military is now a force to be reckoned and a full scale war with India means a major blow to the Chinese economy. China aims to be the global superpower and a war with India would be a major setback to that ambition. Hence, there has been no more attacks from the Chinese.
Why Pakistan attacked India?
I guess I don’t need to tell why Pakistan has repeatedly attacked India. The Kashmir issue. It started way back in 1947 and has been a reason of conflict ever since. There has been 4 full scale wars between the two nations and each time India emerged victorious.
Why Pakistan continues to attack?
Pakistan is run by its military and intelligence agency, ISI. They project India as the devil to the Pakistanis. The cause of their grief. The reason for their sorrow. They project as whatever problem Pakistan faces is because of India and not their internal policy. They project as if Kashmir is the answer to their problem . Why so? Because Pakistani military gets the major chunk of the budget. If there is no conflict the budget would significantly reduce and they would have no one to blame but themselves. So they continue to spread hatred against India. However, after the Kargil war and India’s comprehensive victory, Pakistan did not dare to attack India again. They have rather decided to continue with the policy of proxy war started by Zia ul Haq.
My Opinion:
Keeping the current political scenario in mind, I don’t think we are gonna find any solution to either of the problem anytime soon. I feel India could have handled the Chinese episode better and avoided a bloody, nasty war. The status quo did establish but it took Nehru a war and lives of thousand of soldiers to understand that. As for Pakistan, I guess they would have learned by now that they can never humiliate India. It would be better for Pakistan and its people that it’s think tank devise a Pakistan-centric policy rather than an India-centric policy. As far as India is concerned, she must continue to be vigilant as both China and Pakistan are dubious!
This article is Written by Subhayan Purkayastha on Quora
