India and China are showing tentative signs of a thaw this year, from Defence Ministers meeting in January to the resumption of the Kailash Manasarovar Yatra and Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s recent Delhi visit. But the relationship remains trapped in mistrust.

In a joint commentary, scholars Rajeev Ranjan Chaturvedy and Anushka Padmanabh Antrolikar invoke Nalanda University’s legacy to argue for a different path. Nalanda once connected Indian and Chinese thinkers such as Xuanzang and Śīlabhadra, creating a space for dialogue, curiosity, and respect beyond state boundaries. Today, by contrast, academic exchanges are blocked by bureaucracy, people-to-people ties are thin, and politics overshadows learning.

The authors suggest India could study China’s grassroots infrastructure and food security efforts, while China might learn from India’s democratic decentralisation and digital governance. These aren’t comparisons, they note, but pathways of collaborative learning.

Instead of reactive diplomacy and strategic ambiguity, the writers urge India to invest in stronger China studies, allow freer academic exchanges, and build long-term cultural linkages. “Curiosity without fear, dialogue without suspicion, and clarity without aggression,” they argue, could help dismantle the metaphorical “Chinese wall” limiting bilateral possibilities.