“India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border.”

— Hu Shih

As quoted in Consolation of Mind (2004) by H. K. Suhas, p. 111

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Hu Shih 3

Chinese philosopher, essayist and diplomat 1891–1962

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“I have travelled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in the country, such high moral values, people of such caliber, that I do not think we would conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self esteem, their native culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation.”

Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay (1800–1859) British historian and Whig politician

This quotation is commonly said to have been spoken by Macaulay during a speech to the British Parliament in 1835. Since Macaulay was in India at the time, it is more likely to have come from his Minute on Indian Education http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00generallinks/macaulay/txt_minute_education_1835.html. However, these words do not appear in that text. According to Koenraad Elst http://koenraadelst.bharatvani.org/articles/hinduism/macaulay.html, these words were printed in The Awakening Ray, Vol. 4, No. 5, published by the Gnostic Center, preceded by: "His words were to the effect." Burjor Avari cites this misattribution as an example of "tampering with historical evidence" in India: The Ancient Past ISBN 9780415356169, pp. 19–20), writes: "No proof of this statement has been found in any of the volumes containing the writings and speeches of Macaulay. In a journal in which the extract appeared, the writer did not reproduce the exact wording of the Minutes, but merely paraphrased them, using the qualifying phrase: ‘His words were to the effect.:’ This is extremely mischievous, as numerous interpretations can be drawn from the Minutes." For a full discussion, see Koenraad Elst, The Argumentative Hindu (2012) Chapter 3
Misattributed

“China has lunged into the 21st century, while India is still lurching toward it.”

Steve Rattner (1952) American private equity and venture capital investor

Steve Rattner https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/19/india-is-losing-the-race/, The New York Times, op-ed, 19 January 2013.

“An unusual manifestation of it is when the whole dominant culture takes up the ways of the conquered.”

Peter Farb (1929–1980) American academic and writer

Man's Rise to Civilization (1968)
Context: Voluntary assimilation, known as Indianization in the Americas, is one response that has occurred at other places and in other times when two cultures collided. An unusual manifestation of it is when the whole dominant culture takes up the ways of the conquered. That does not happen very often, but it did occur when the Hyksos conquered Egypt about 1700 B. C. and when the Romans conquered the Greeks in the second century B. C.

“Inevitably in this century we will have open borders. We are seeing it in Europe already. The movement of peoples across the globe will mean that borders are almost going to become irrelevant by the end of this century so we should be preparing for that and explaining why people move.”

John McDonnell (1951) British politician (born 1951)

Source: Borderless world inevitable, says Labour's John McDonnell https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-35455023 BBC News (31 January 2016)

“That is the wishful thinking by some interested parties. India and China are going to be the powers that will shape the 21st century. China knows it. India is conscious of it. Together, we can make a distinctive contribution toward global development and shaping of global disputes.”

S. M. Krishna (1932) Indian politician

Describing China and India, October 29, 2009. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4001697.stm

“It was time to put a stop to the growing idea that England ought to pay tribute to India as a kind of apology for having conquered her: & you have done it effectively.”

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (1830–1903) British politician

Source: Letter to Benjamin Disraeli (16 July 1875), quoted in Marvin Swartz, Politics of British Foreign Policy in the Era of Disraeli and Gladstone (1985), p. 17

“…. and Rosie, having baptized me with her cidrous kisses, married a soldier and I lost her for ever.”

Laurie Lee book Cider with Rosie

Source: Cider with Rosie (1959), p. 261.

“One book calls to another unexpectedly, creating alliances across different cultures and centuries.”

Alberto Manguel (1948) writer

Source: The Library at Night

“The people who control culture in China have no culture.”

Ai Weiwei (1957) Chinese concept artist

2010-, China’s ‘Mozart’ Drops Off State Hit Parade, 2010

“The issue before us is whether the 21st century belongs to China. And I would say that China will be preoccupied with enormous problems internally, domestically with its immediate environment, and that I have enormous difficulty imagining it will be dominated by China, and indeed, as I will conclude, I believe that the concept that some country will dominate the world, is in itself a misunderstanding of the world in which we now live… In the geopolitical situation, China historically has been surrounded by a group of smaller countries, which themselves were not individually able to threathen China, but which united, could cause a threat to China, and therefore historically, Chinese foreign policy can be described as "barbarian management". So China had never had to deal in a world of countries of approximately equal strength, and so to adjust to such a world, is in itself a profound challenge to China, which now has 14 countries on its borders, some of which are small, but can project their nationality into China, some of which are large, and historically significant, so that any attempt by Chinese to dominate the world, would evoke a counter-reaction that would be disastrous for the peace of the world.”

Henry Kissinger (1923–2023) United States Secretary of State

Munk debates – “21st Century will belong to China” – Kissinger, Zakaria, Ferguson, Li http://www.livestream.com/munkdebates/video?clipId=pla_937b4cf4-e0ea-4ed5-a458-6a3ba43769b8
2000s

“India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border.”

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Hu Shih 3

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