Tales from Mao's China and Indira's India

The first impression leaves the reader skeptical of the dissimilarities between the People's Republic of China and the the Republic of India.

China and India, arch rivals, in 1962, threw things into each other's face on the mountain ranges of India's northern frontier, though different in many ways, are astonishingly similar in some aspects as well.

The totalitarian communist China is equalled by the biggest democracy of the world, India. In V S Naipaul's perception, this democracy, with "Indian characters",  has undergone changes during and since its independence, thus giving the tri-dimensional, multifaceted features, characterising the country.

China is still governed by the strong Communist Party, offering only a little leeway to its citizens, in spite of the present economic progress. India has taken yet another slower path. The two, basically agrarian giants in terms of area and population, have individual ambitions to be recognised as equals to the superpoers of the world.