India-China Relations from Social Constructivist Perspective

Aditya Satpute

Affiliations:

Assistant Professor of Political Science, MNLU Nagpur and PhD Scholar, RTMNU, Nagpur, Maharashtra, INDIA

The India-China rivalry in recent years is attributed to structural reasons like border disputes, overlapping spheres of influence in South Asia, India’s alliance with Western countries, etc. However, these structural reasons or realism are inadequate, as they can’t explain a shift from cooperation to confrontation and vice versa in the last 75 years. Realism fails to incorporate values, norms, and discourse in analysis. This paper argues that India-China relations can be explained from a social constructivist perspective. Self-identities, identification of others, construction of anarchy, norms, value preferences, their strategic culture, and discursive power shape their relationship. India and China’s civilizational values and their colonial history and experiences create their world view. India’s identity as a Vishwa guru, or moral leader, and the Chinese identity as a middle kingdom shape its conception of a China-led Asian order. This paper concludes that mutual attempts to reshape the discourse and trust-building activities can help rebuild their relationship.

Keywords:
Social Constructivism, Structural realism, Discourse, Identities

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