The wisdom of the road
| DOI | 10.1177/2057891118791781 |
| Author | Payal Banerjee |
| Date | 01 September 2018 |
| Published date | 01 September 2018 |
| Subject Matter | Research articles |
Research article
The wisdom of the road:
Research and pedagogy
on India-China and the Silk
Roads Ethos (SRE)
Payal Banerjee
Department of Sociology, Smith College, USA
Abstract
The Silk Roads Ethos (SRE; Ling, 2014) animates the idea that India and China must draw from the
legacy of historical exchanges for future cooperation. Mainstream scholarship on the subject
employs and relies predominantly on a state-centric rivalry-oriented framework to study the issue,
in which a standard focus on demographic comparisons, growth rates, GDP, FDI, energy-security
complex, and cognate connotations of “hypermasculine war games” demarcate India-China rela-
tions in mutually distinct and discrete “boxed” categories (Banerjee and Ling, 2010). It also does
not engage with the growing body of historically attuned, critical scholarship that focuses on the
nuances of exchange, collaboration, and conflict between India and China. If scholars working on
China-India are serious about offer ing a counter-hegemonic alternativ e to the current work-
manuals, then our research approaches in understanding one another must also employ a
counter-hegemonic epistemology. Drawing on insights from two recent collaborative projects,
one on hydro-power projects in India and China, and a second, larger project on India-China
relations, this article outlines the specific ways in which the wisdom of the SRE carries with it
unequivocal empirical and pedagogical possibilities.
Keywords
China, India, India China relations, river dams, Silk Roads
Introduction: A race within a chase
A review of mainstream academic publications and popular press titles in English on India and
China in general, or India-China relations in particular, from the late-1990s onwards reveals that
Corresponding author:
Payal Banerjee, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Smith College, 209 Wright Hall, 10 Elm Street,
Northampton MA 01063, USA.
Email: pbanerje@smith.edu
Asian Journal of Comparative Politics
2018, Vol. 3(3) 269–282
ªThe Author(s) 2018
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DOI: 10.1177/2057891118791781
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