Brigadier Sanal Kumar (Retd) is a former Deputy Defence Attache in the Indian Embassy in Beijing, China. He has served in the Army HQ dealing with China and along the India–Pakistan Line of Control and the India–China Line of Actual Control during his command of a Battalion and Brigade.
Fernand Braudel, academic and historian of the early 20th Century, is widely credited with the statement that “The geography of a region plays a significant role in shaping its history.” The stark truth of Braudel’s saying gets clearer to the country by the day, as India strains to break free
Countries react to their environment and to their neighbours much like their people do; these reactions span the spectrum from sloth and passivity to hyper-individualism, and are influenced by the historical and cultural values latent in the respective societies. The changes in bilateral relations a