prad wrote:naren wrote:^^^ Civilizational-psyche wise, its in India's best interests to align with China. The problems we have today is political and temporal in nature. Once the CPC tones down or may be replaced, it will go away. The Abrahamic/European societies are far more ruthless in their "pursuit of happiness".
if Asia was the only continent on the planet, if the 'evil' west didn't exist, all this would be possible. if you start viewing the globe as merely Asia, this is the kind of conclusions you arrive at. but the world is greater than just Asia. and as such, the existence of large Muslim populations in SE-Asia, natural/historic rivalry between China, Japan, and Korea also prevent the East Asians from becoming an idealized chini-japani-korean bhai-bhai.
in the age of maritime powers, conflict in Asia, even independent of the West, is not hard to imagine. interests of nations are bound to collide as industrialism and naval power spread to Asia from the West. in the past, when Indian naval influence extended to SE Asia, China was not a naval power. China was a naval power periodically, but eventually it would withdraw due to its internal politics.
and when India was able to influence SE Asia, Japan was still in its feudal stage. the problem with many Indians thinking that if not for the West, India would be Super Power, is that the past is linearly extrapolated. but the past didn't have China as a dominant East Asian power; the past also didn't have an industrialized Japan; the past also didn't have a huge muslim population which views relgious and cultural homogeneity as a necessity in SE Asia.
Prad ji,
My point was more on the psychological nature of societies. Politics derives its impetus from the society. Society derives its impetus from religion/attitudes on life.
Abrahamic societies have no concept of Karma or Reincarnation. You have only one shot at life. After that, eternal hell or eternal heaven. So you gotta make the maximum out of this life. This belief drives people into desperation & unbridled enjoymentism. You can see that in the way these societies attempt to conquer others. They can easily pull off a genocide, enslave the people & write it gloriously in their history.
Then there's the new "secular" way of looking at life in the West - that life is just an accident. This view doesnt make matters any better either.
For Dharmic societies, there is a natural toning down of desires. You are responsible for the crimes you commit. There's no ever loving, ever merciful God who will forgive all your sins and give a free pass for eternity in Heaven. You have infinite shots at life. Without giving up your desires, there's no way of escaping. Its not in the Indian psyche to commit genocide, slavery, mass rape & write about it gloriously, the way Abrahamic societies do.
So there might be political disagreements, between India, China, Korea, Japan etc. but there should always be a way to arrive at mutually beneficial agreements. From a long term perspective, Dharmic countries will do better if they align with each other and keep the Abrahamic societies in check.
Abrahamic vs Dharmic:
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