India and China in the Colonial World brings together thirteen essays by eminent Indian and Chinese scholars as well as young researchers who look at the multidimensional interaction between the two countries. This interaction was of many kinds and took place at various levels. This volume casts new light on some of the problems that have confronted the relations between India and China as new states and, in doing so, challenges stereotyped images of this relationship.

The major areas of India-China relationships covered in this book include some aspects of the situation during and after World War II.  Some papers, such as those on the importance of Shanghai in Sino-Indian trade, the presence of the Chinese community in India and  Indians in China; Indian fighters in the Taiping Rebellion; Gandhi and the Chinese in South Africa; and ties between south-west China and north-east India during World War II; present the findings of new research.  Others such as those pertaining to India-China relations in the period, such as the opium trade; the controversial visit of Rabindranath Tagore to China; and the complexity of  Subhash Chandra Bose’s position with relation to both China and Japan have been put in a new light.

The essays in this book are particularly relevant as they help to understand the relationship between India and China in the context of a historical perspective.

Madhavi Thampi teaches Chinese History in the Department of East Asian Studies of Delhi University.  She is the author of Indians in China, 1800-1949 (Delhi, 2005) and co-author of China and the Making of Bombay (Mumbai, 2009).  She is an Honorary Fellow at the Institute of Chinese Studies, Delhi, and Associate Editor of China Report.

TRADE AND ECONOMIC INTERACTIONS

Pathways of the Poppy: India’s Opium Trade in the Nineteenth Century - Asiya Siddiqi

Shanghai: A Window for Studying Sino-Indian Relations in the Era of Colonialism and Imperialism
- Chen Zhilong  

CHINESE IN INDIA, INDIANS IN CHINA

The Chinese Community of Calcutta: Their EarlySettlement and Migration - Ramakrishna Chatterjee

The Indian Community in China and Sino-Indian Relations - Madhavi Thampi 

CULTURAL INTERACTION

The Controversial Guest: Tagore in China - Sisir Kumar Das

Turning Point of India-China Relations in the Twentieth Century: The Linkage Role of Tan Yun-shan
- Huang Chih-lien

 NATIONAL AND REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS IN INDIA AND CHINA

The 1857 Rebellion and Indian Involvement in the Taiping Uprising in China -  B.R. Deepak

Gandhi and the Chinese Community in South Africa -  Mira Sinha Bhattacharjea

Nehru, Chiang Kai-shek, and the Second World War- Avinash Mohan Saklani

Subhash Chandra Bose’s Perspective on China - Girish Chandra Maiti

EMERGENCE OF A NEW RELATIONSHIP

Links between Yunnan and India during the Second World War- Ge Yikun and Li Wei

Indian Perceptions of the Emergence of the People’s Republic of China - Shalini Saksena

Perceptions and India–China Relations at the End of the Colonial Era - Surjit Mansingh

Appendix

Index