A new beginning for China-India relations could transform Asia

Although the most inescapable news recently was the historic summit between North and South Korea on April 27, a less covered “informal summit” across the Yellow Sea, and one likely to be of equal consequence, is the meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This summit could reset the Sino-Indian relationship, one that goes back centuries. 

The two ancient civilisations intersected long before the Han dynasty (206BC-AD220) in China and the era of Emperor Ashoka the Great (273-232BC) in India. Through the trading networks of China’s maritime and silk routes, a wide range of goods, pilgrims and knowledge systems enriched each culture. Among them was the dissemination of Buddhism from India to China, which had a transformative effect on Confucian and Taoist culture. 

Buddhist sutras were translated into Chinese by famous scholar-monk Kumarajiva, the son of a Hindu father from Kashmir in India and a princess of the ancient kingdom of Kucha, which lies in present-day Xinjiang. Indeed, if China and India want to reset their relationship, the starting point could well be Kumarajiva, whose biological, intellectual and spiritual connection bridges the two nations.