When the need arose Krishna told Arjuna, pick up your arms, and fight. When there is a need, you have to do this duty without thinking about the results. Krishna said you have the right to perform your duty, also you do not have control over the results. Peace comes first when we are trying to reach a peaceful solution or consensus. If the peace fails, relegate peace to second. Perform your duty by taking arms. This is what happened in Mahabharata.
India and her culture and China from a religious perspective
For time immemorial, India has been a harbinger of peace. India’s message to the world has been of spirituality, science, and peace. Every single message from India has been for the progressive world as a one-world family “Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam”. The examples are the first surgery or mathematical genius of Aryabhatta or the message of the Buddha. The best thing, Indian culture has never asked for recognition for any of the achievements. The world knows basic mathematics from the middle eastern name – Algebra. India developed the concepts of algebra, the message of meditation, astronomy, or peace all are open for adoption.
Hinduism has a lot of branches. Every branch is exploration of different aspects of spirituality. Hinduism accepts every approach. Buddhism lays immense importance to meditation as a religion. Meditation is yet another path (Dhyan yog) within Hinduism. A book – Vigyan Bhairava Tantra – contemplates more than 100 meditations. You can read/listen to Osho’s commentary on the same. A better suggestion is to experience the meditations described in the book. The art of living foundation has a special course on Vigyan Bhairav. Buddhism was spread to Egypt in the west and Japan in the east. The western side of India has curbed Buddhism by force – bursting of the Bamiyan Buddha statues is a contemporary example.
India has been a kind country for many centuries. She has to rise to the occasion and not only be a guide for a peaceful world order but also communicate clearly about its national interests too. There are multiple conflicts here such as Chinese and Pakistani occupation on its territories. Possibly, as stated, peace may have to be related to the second spot for that.
Buddhism in China
In the recent past, Tibet was forcefully taken over by China. There are close to 20% Buddhists in China. Buddhist and Communist approach of life is diagonally opposite. Buddhism has a concept of Sangha a community. However, it lays a lot more emphasis on an individual’s personal growth – because enlightenment is achieved by an individual. Whereas the communist approach is – an individual has no value as such. China has been trying to use Buddhism to influence South East Asia, in fact using Buddhism with forums. This is another meddling in the personal life and beliefs of individuals – a very common practice of China.
The way China crushed Tibet (watch 7 years in Tibet), it is going to pay back. China has crushed one such uprising at Tiananmen square. China has been able to control these descents to a great extent – Google and Zoom. It is no secret more you suppress something, more powerfully it will come back. Sooner or later, this is going to happen to China.
Chinese aggression
Recently China has tried to push Indian boundaries on North East Doklam in 2017 and Jammu and Kashmir in 2020. This attack comes with the audacity of pushing the world into a lockdown due to Covid-19 (actually the Chinese Virus). It is a natural response for a country that feels threatened by a potential competitor. Many companies are likely to shift from China to other countries – including India. The other reason for considering India a potential competitor because India is a major economy if everything falls in place, India can grow faster. Though there is at least 5 times gap between the GDP of both the countries, however if mass exodus happens it may adversely affect China in short span.
There are various internal and external factors affecting China. Some of the Internal factors are the aging population of China, shortcomings of the one-child policy. The external factors are abused rules of free trade, debt trap for smaller nations, etc. The world now sees a new way of colonialism from China. This has woken up the world. This aggression if taken forward, is likely to cost a lot not just to the two nations but also to the world at large.
The economy trap of China
If you look at the trade balance of major economies vis a vis China, you would see trade balance is 1:3. Almost every country has trade-deficit with China, in effect China sucks funds from every country! In many ways, China either flouts World Trade Organization (WTO) norms or takes unfair advantages of the same to trap countries. The worst form of trap is – debt trap – giving loans to countries at better rates (naturally these countries cannot service these debts) and later gain control over assets of these countries, Sri Lankan port is an example. Nepal will soon get into this trouble. China is trying to control the sea too. In the east, they are contesting with Phillipense.
In a nutshell, every country, business, and economy dependent on China has a problem with China and yet it is very difficult to look at short term alternatives. This is the kind of overconfidence that anyone should be cherry about. This overconfidence has to be and will be tamed sooner or later. Probably the fear of this taming is forcing China to take aggressive steps against India. Further, in the coming time, China will face the heat of Covid spread worldwide. The whole world has suffered. Recently Geeta Gopinath of IMF wrote, that the negative growth rate is expected to be worse than previously estimated. More likely, the countries worldwide must get compensation from China for this massive loss.
Peace second
There are multiple problems the whole world is facing currently. Starting from the Chinese Virus challenge, economic downturn, and major control of China over many smaller countries to Chinese aggression on Indian territory. The China-India standoff is probably a warning to companies considering moving from China to India, giving a signal that India is not safe. This exposes China to many of its internal problems, suppression of its citizen, forceful control on Tibet to name a few, and external right from the debt trap, surreptitiously controlling land to the aggressiveness across sea routes too.
At the time of Mahabharat the equation was more driven by the military power and the kingdoms aligned to a side. Now, more than military power, it is economic power that drives alignments and overall control on world affairs. In Mahabharat, Pandavas were forced to ask for their fair share of the land they had to fight for it. In the present day world when a country faces such an adversary that is powerful, manipulative, and extremely aggressive sooner or later it has to be relegated peace to the second spot.
