{"id":116743,"date":"2021-07-06T19:37:56","date_gmt":"2021-07-06T14:07:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=116743"},"modified":"2021-07-06T19:37:56","modified_gmt":"2021-07-06T14:07:56","slug":"how-india-and-china-are-shaped-by-the-idea-of-national-humiliation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/how-india-and-china-are-shaped-by-the-idea-of-national-humiliation\/","title":{"rendered":"How India and China are shaped by the idea of national humiliation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/opinion\/columns\/chinese-nationalism-national-humiliation-indias-post-colonial-trauma-7390623\/\"><strong>Indian express<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Relevance: China used its historic national humiliation for strengthening the country. However, India could not do that due to the prevalence of inequality.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong> China uses national humiliation to legitimise authoritarian rule. Whereas, India\u2019s lack of egalitarianism(Equality) makes it harder for national humiliation to be owned equally.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>How China used the idea of humiliation? <\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>Firstly, Chinese nationalism is the <strong>centrality of the idea of humiliation.<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>From the First Opium Wars to the Nanjing massacre, it is an organising principle of historiography in China.<\/li>\n<li>President Xi Jinping\u2019s address at the Party centenary begins with a reminder and resolve that China will never be humiliated again.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Secondly, national humiliation is central to education policy.\n<ul>\n<li>For instance, public monuments remind people of sites of national humiliation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Thirdly, the idea of humiliation has a <strong>legitimizing function. <\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The Communist Party makes a claim for its fitness to rule on its ability to position itself as the <strong>agent that overcomes China\u2019s humiliation<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Fourth, the theme of humiliation became an organising frame for foreign policy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><strong>How the concept of humiliation worked in Indian nationalism?<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>Firstly, In India\u2019s <strong>post-colonial trauma,<\/strong> the psychological sense of humiliation is present.\n<ul>\n<li>After the Rowlatt Bills, Gandhi declared April 6, 1919, as National Humiliation Day, but that was almost a one-off event.<\/li>\n<li>At an ideological level, the onset of colonialism was also welcomed by many constituencies.<\/li>\n<li>For some Hindus, it was an opportunity to come out from under the yoke of the Mughal Empire.<\/li>\n<li>For many Dalits, it was an opportunity for shaking up oppressive social structures.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Secondly, modern India\u2019s <strong>ruling class and identity was created as much by collaboration<\/strong> <strong>with colonialism,<\/strong> as resistance to it.\n<ul>\n<li>India\u2019s ruling structure comes out as being embedded in the colonial project.<\/li>\n<li>Families from the Tagores to the Tatas, the Indian Army, the Indian civil service, the legal profession, and pretty much any part of the ruling establishment <strong>displayed more continuity than discontinuity. <\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Even post-Independence, the persistence of English and new elites reinforced this.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Thirdly, <strong>Indian political ideologies and cultural practice<\/strong> is less politically authoritarian and are far less egalitarian. So it is difficult for national humiliation to be owned equally.\n<ul>\n<li>The real source of India\u2019s humiliation is still abiding and crushing poverty.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Fourth, the <strong>nature of traumas is different<\/strong>. India\u2019s traumas turned out to be more <strong>self-inflicted<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li>The Chinese construction of humiliation was directly structured around military defeats.<\/li>\n<li>No war defines Indian victimhood or trauma. But it is <strong>1962 that is marked as a national humiliation<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>However, its suffering and trauma cannot be deployed in the same way in which the Chinese deploy memories of WW II.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Fifth, as <strong>VS Naipaul<\/strong> wrote that due to humiliation by British rule, there will be <strong>ideas of country\u2019s pride and historical self-analysis.<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The presence of the Hindu-Muslim question in Indian politics meant that humiliation <strong>became a source of divisiveness.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Humiliation is more easily deployed against pre-British, Mughal and Sultanate rule, than as a unifying ideology.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Lastly, calling <strong>India a Vishwaguru and then adoption of new aggressive nationalism<\/strong> are signs of a repressed sense of humiliation that is unable to confront its true sources. It shows India\u2019s powerlessness and its inability to give most of its citizens a dignified life.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The practical and moral necessity of playing down national humiliation may not be a bad thing but how countries deal with their own constructs of humiliation will determine their future.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Terms to know:\u00a0<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Egalitarianism: <\/strong>Egalitarianism is a trend of thought in political philosophy. This thought believes that all people were created equal and should be treated equally\u00a0in fundamental worth or moral status.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: Indian express Relevance: China used its historic national humiliation for strengthening the country. However, India could not do that due to the prevalence of inequality. Synopsis: China uses national humiliation to legitimise authoritarian rule. Whereas, India\u2019s lack of egalitarianism(Equality) makes it harder for national humiliation to be owned equally. How China used the idea&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/how-india-and-china-are-shaped-by-the-idea-of-national-humiliation\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">How India and China are shaped by the idea of national humiliation<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10316,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1703721225},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10316"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116743\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}