The Struggle for Modernity and Sovereignty in Cold-War Asia

The Struggle for Modernity and Sovereignty in Cold-War Asia is a history of Sino–Indian relations, from the negotiation of diplomatic recognition in 1949–50 to the border war of October–November 1962. The book argues that a shared postcolonial imperative to pursue modernity and sovereignty made China and India central to one another's political imagination. Despite this common ground, divergent interpretations of sovereignty and modernity caused by different emphases on the logic of class and nation generated considerable friction. The book examines how these dynamics gave rise to an array of 'diplomacies', encompassing cooperation and conflict across three interrelated levels: the global, the Himalayan periphery, and the local–transnational. Drawing extensively on no longer accessible Chinese Foreign Ministry archival materials and diverse Indian sources, Harder offers a detailed account of Beijing and New Delhi's attitudes towards one another, integrating international diplomacy, state-building projects, economic development, religion, public opinion, and transnational actors into a single analytical framework. By broadening the scope of the history of Sino–Indian relations in this period beyond Tibet, territorial disputes, and disrupted diplomatic ties, this book offers a new understanding of how the Cold War and decolonization reshaped Asia.