India & China: Gap analysis

Book review of India Versus China: Why They Are Not Friends

If you need a compact and readable book about the trajectory of India-China relations, Kanti Bajpai’s latest offering would be one of the best candidates. Dr Bajpai’s book does not provide any fresh documentary or archival material but what he has done rather skilfully is to provide a useful conceptual frame within which to analyse the structural drivers of an essentially adversarial relationship between the two Asian giants. This framework has four key components that Dr Bajpai puts forward: “Perceptions of each other; their territorial parameters, their strategic partnerships with the big powers, as well as the asymmetry of power