Why is Asia locked in a competition to be ‘most humiliated nation’?
Devesh Kapur says the India-China border dispute reflects how, amid the rise of nationalism in the region, each country is crafting a version of history that plays up its own suffering while ignoring the pain it inflicted on others
The current Chinese leadership sees in the 1962 conflict the price an uppity neighbour had to pay for not acceding to its territorial demands. But, for India, that conflict was a humiliation that has rankled the country for more than a half-century. The reminder of it is therefore likely to have the opposite effect than Wu anticipated.
China, India border dispute bubbles over once more, but no one is quite sure why
In international relations, to be humiliated means more than to be embarrassed. It amounts to a denial of a bid for status and the establishment of a clear hierarchy. Wars provide the opportunity for humiliation in very stark ways, because defeat on the battlefield tends to bring not just ridicule and derision, but also clear losses, particularly of territory.