South Asian Responses to China’s Rise: Indian and Nepalese Handling of the Tibet Issue

The growing might of China and the responses to its rise has consumed considerable ink and paper. Foremost in this still-burgeoning literature is the consideration of what it means for America and the West and the countries of East Asia. Occasionally, there are examinations of the implication of China’s rise for the far-flunk regions of Africa and Latin America. Curiously, South Asia has missed the attention of the cottage industry that is the scholarship on the implications and responses to China’s rising pre-eminence. To be sure, there has been considerable writing on Sino-Indian relations, but that literature views the relationship through the lens of the traditional rivalry between the two civilizational states. The occasional inclusion of India in research projects on the rise of China does not fully capture the dynamics of South Asian engagement with China in the same way they for North East Asia and South East Asia. This paper aims to fill this gap to some extent by examining the continuities and changes in how India and Nepal has dealt with the Tibet issue, which has been framed as a ‘Core Issue’ by Beijing.