Talking Past Each Other: Pallavi Aiyar on India, China, and the Case for Cognitive Empathy

The India-China relationship suffers from a profound lack of cognitive empathy, driven by a mutual reliance on Western-mediated narratives and historical baggage. India views China through the lens of the 1962 border conflict, while China perceives India through a colonial-era framework of subordination. This asymmetry is further complicated by the "aporia" of explaining complex, contradictory nations to outsiders. Despite shared cultural traits like familial devotion and intense meritocratic pressure, both countries struggle with nationalistic jingoism that hinders genuine engagement. Journalist Pallavi Aiyar argues that the deepest problem is not trade or borders, but the distorting lenses through which each side reads the other. Ultimately, the path toward a more stable global order requires transcending these entrenched, often inaccurate perceptions to foster direct, human-to-human understanding rather than relying on state-sanctioned rhetoric or historical grievances.