One could see a lot of goodwill for India in Sichuan, where the influence of Buddhism and Indian culture is stronger than in coastal China. There is a greater interest in India in the local academic circles than in those of Shanghai.
Chengdu prides itself in being China's intellectual window on South Asia. The Sichuan University has an Institute For South Asian Studies, which is nearly 44 years old. It has a Centre for South Asia-West China Co-operation and Development Studies, which is four years old. Two other centres to promote research on South Asia and Tibet and on Pakistan are in the offing.
India's economic policies and the progress made by it in matters such as poverty eradication receive greater attention from local academics and students than in Shanghai or Beijing. On my return from Chengdu, I was told by a knowledgeable friend that there was a time when the faculty of Sichuan University, which is considered among the 10 best universities in China, had some Indian academics.
One can discern a tinge of disappointment that the great hopes raised by the visit of then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to China in June 2003, about an improvement in people-to-people contacts are still to be realised.
It is said that more visas are issued to Indians wanting to visit China than vice versa. Figures cited: 2,000 Indians in China with student visas as against about 20 Chinese in India; 50,000 Chinese tourist visas per annum to Indians as against 5,000 Indian tourist visas to Chinese; average time taken by the Chinese embassy in New Delhi to issue visas to Indians four working days as against a much longer time taken by the India missions in China; visa difficulties faced by academics, students. businessmen, investors, contractors etc. It is further said that Chinese -- whatever be their profession -- find it easier to get a visa to visit the US than to visit India.
Image: Then Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, second from left, with his daughter Namita Kaul left, granddaughter Niharika and son-in-law Shritanjan during a visit to the Longmen Grottoes, a series of Buddhist sculptures cut into stones and caves in Luoyang, Henan, central China, in June 2003. Luoyang is significant as it is the place where Indian monks first introduced Buddhism to China. Photograph: NG Han Guan/AFP/Getty Images
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