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Seems to be an indian arguing that China is a challenge to india..
I just finished reading the article that Happymon Jacob (what an odd name for a self-avowed Indian nationalist) a professor on International relations penned on Hindustan Times.
The main arguments and thesis he mentioned are nothing new as it pertains to the perception and interpretation that China does not recognize India as an intellectual, civilizational, strategic equal. Not to mention that China's continued ascent in national comprehensive power has diminished India's standings within her "sphere" that has long been India's unquestioned status since it's independence. The author also argued that China's view of India as nothing more than a proxy/partner of U.S. strategic containment against China is "misguided" without providing any examples as to why China is wrong to view India in that context.
The meat and bones of the author's argument typifies the Indian narrative and fiction that India is just as important, just as accomplished in the geopolitical environment of the world then and now regardless of their actual real world output and capabilities. To them, potential means actuality.
Indians have no problem viewing the U.S. or any other western states, not to mention Ishmael as it's superior, but struggles to find, let alone accept China's current superiority over them despite the overwhelming data and evidence. Oddly, the more China ascends in comprehensive power, the more India and Indians become insecure by projecting and coming up with creative imagination of how India is still superior to the Chinese. After all, as the author himself claimed, it was Indian Buddhism that "culturally shaped" China and never the inverse.