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Modern Day India Research Paper

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Although neither region experienced tremendous stability, the early states of China and modern-day India consistently followed their own styles of state-building practices. These powerful states in East and South Asia, respectively, used quite different methods of state-building, with their techniques greatly mirroring their different levels of desired interaction with outsiders. While the Chinese focused on state-building from within, the empires of modern-day India were more open to outsiders and their potential contributions to Indian society.
Still present in its attitude towards outsiders today, China has always frowned upon immense interaction with other societies. Even though China wouldn’t become fully isolated until Europe’s Age of …show more content…

This may be due to its position, as India was located directly between China and Europe and was situated on the Indian Ocean monsoon cycle. Especially under the Kushan Empire, trade helped India flourish and expand its influence. Although China certainly benefitted from its trade along the Silk Roads, external trade in China was never supported and used by the state to the degree that it was in India. In fact, the Kushan Empire acted as the middleman between Han China and Rome, and had a mutually beneficial relationship with the Silk Road. Similar to China, the states of India did not employ a substantial army. This trend arguably was caused under Ashoka of the Mauryan Dynasty, who was remorseful due to the violence he oversaw. Ashoka soon promoted Buddhism, which owns ideals that having a dominant army doesn’t fit with. It is interesting that neither the states of China nor India decided to grow their power through the use of an army. Unlike other successful empires, for example, the Spanish or the Ottomans, those of China and India felt that state building did not necessarily require the use of force, and thus were not known to conquer others. Even today, despite having the two most populous countries in the world, China and India do not have the same military culture that so many western countries have

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