The Fractured Himalaya

A deep dive into understanding India-China relationsWhy did India and China go to war in 1962? What propelled Jawaharlal Nehrus vision of China? Why is it necessary to understand the trans-Himalayan power play of India and China in the formative periodof their nationhoods? The past shadows the present in this relationship and shapes current policy options strongly influencing public debate in India to this day.Nirupama Rao a former Foreign Secretary of India unknots this intensely complex saga of the early years of the India-China relationship. As a diplomat-practitioner Raos telling is based not only on archival material from India China Britain and the United States but also on a deep personal knowledge of China where she served as Indias Ambassador. In addition she brings a practitioners keen eye to the labyrinth of negotiations and official interactions that took place between the two countries from 1949 to 1962.The Fractured Himalaya looks at the inflection points when the trajectory of diplomacy between these two nations could have course-corrected but did not. Importantly it dwells on the strategic dilemma posed by Tibet in relations between India and China-a dilemma that is far from being resolved. The question of Tibet is closely interwoven into the fabric of this history. It also turns the searchlight on the key personalities involved-Jawaharlal Nehru Mao Zedong Zhou Enlai and the 14th Dalai Lama-and their interactions as the tournament of those years was played out moving step by closer step to the conflict of 1962. Review With elegance authority and a prodigious amount of research Menon Rao tells us how a mountainous wasteland in the Himalayas once viewed as just a blank place on the map became a field of combat between India and China in 1962. As the two nations find themselves again in conflict hers is a cautionary tale worth heeding. -- Orville Schell Arthur Ross Director Center on US-China Relations The Asia Society New YorkAmbassador Nirupama Rao has written a brilliant and fascinating narrative of Indias road to war with China in 1962. In this tragic decade-long saga of missed opportunities with each side misreading the other Ambassador Rao has mined the archives to disentangle the complicated story of how minor divisions and disagreements between these two countries that would have been easy to resolve early on were allowed to fester and grow until they culminated in an unnecessary and fruitless war which left both sides diminished. This is a book full of profound and revealing insights about the making of foreign policy constant reminders that even the wisest of statesmen can find themselves blinded by hope and fall prey to their own illusions. -- Liaquat Ahamed Award-winning Author Lords of Finance The Bankers Who Broke the World (Pulitzer Prize for History 2010)This is a study that is thoroughly researched scrupulously argued fair-minded and elegantly written. It combines the historians rigor with the practitioners insight as well as a sane appreciation of the benefits and limits of hindsight. The book deserves a wide readership especially in light of where we are with China today. -- Srinath Raghavan historian and authorFluent analytical and wise Nirupama Raos book is a tour de force. This is the most readable informed and documented account of India-China relations in the Nehru years. One of Indias most seasoned and scholarly diplomats Rao vividly lays bare the thinking and decision-making of Indian Tibetan and Chinese leaders leading up to the war of 1962. -- Kanti Bajpai Wilmar Professor of Asian Studies National University of SingaporeA rare gem of a book that combines deep scholarship with felicitous writing. Nirupama Menon Raos unique knowledge and experience brings to life and makes accessible the important triangular interplay between India Tibet and China which had such significant effects on