Avtar Singh Bhasin's book explains how the past shaped Sino-Indian ties

Bhasin's five volumes add up to 5,318 pages, providing value for the Rs 15,000 you will shell out for them

Discussions of Sino-Indian relations, especially of the territorial dispute, usually resemble an echo chamber, with well-worn arguments repeated in interminable rounds of mutual agreement. The development of new perspectives runs into the difficulty of accessing primary documents, particularly for scholars far from Delhi. China documents are particularly elusive, with the National Archives and Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) denying access to records relating to the Simla Conference of 1913-14 and the key policy documents that followed. Continuing sensitivity to the 1962 defeat by China keeps the official correspondence and official history of that war under wraps and the Henderson Brooks