In view of the fact that both India and China are emerging as important global
political and economic powers within the contemporary landscape of Asia and the
world at large, all China watchers are at present meticulously engaged in mapping
out the possible nature of India-China future bilateral engagements, deliberating
upon whether it would be one of contestation or cooperation or both, and suggesting
ways by which a balanced power structure could eventually evolve in Asia. While
fully acknowledging the ongoing need for such academic endeavour, the study here
draws the attention of the academic fraternity to the fact that it is equally imperative
to re-evaluate and revisit the research tools, approaches, and methods that have so
far, and even now, being employed in comprehending and predicting the nature of
India-China bilateral relations in the near future, especially given the complexity
it entails. With the objective of the study thus defined, the paper here interrogates the efficacy of the existing Westphalian theoretical model, which is currently in use
for the study of international relations in general, and in the academic treatment of
non-western polities like India and China in particular. The study here identifies
the existing approach as myopic, given the fact that India and China have been
several millennia-old geo-civilisational spaces, more than mere geo-political units or
nation-states of contemporary times, and have been sharing a long-standing complex
interaction with each other, and also intricate relations with the neighbouring regions,
as much as with their own respective socio-culturally, economically and ethnically
diverse sub-regional spaces. The paper here emphasises the need to employ the
historical depth of analysis to any given subject or issue, pertaining to India-China
relations, not just in the context of mapping the nature of ancient or pre-modern
period of their bilateral interactions, but also for the academic treatment of the same
in recent and for future times, a perspective, which, at the moment, is found missing
in most of the India-China discourses. The research paper here attempts to draw
adequate attention to the significance of the research methods associated with the
domain of history and historiography and to their application in the study of IndiaChina relations in its present mould, given the discernible witnessing role that history
has played in defining the course of their mutual association from the past till the
present. The study finally proposes few emerging alternative research methods which
could be adopted to be able to carry out a more holistic, comprehensive and nuanced
study of the multi-layered and multi-faceted episodes of interconnectivity between
India and China for the past, present and future.