The ancient Buddhist principle of Panch Shila has supposedly governed India's relations with Red China since the signing of a 1954 trade pact. Based on the five great moral principles guiding the lives of all Buddhist laity,* Panch Shila was expected to guarantee each country's territorial integrity, nonaggression, noninterference in each other's internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence. But last week events made sharply obvious what had been apparent for a long time: Panch Shila's use as the guiding force in India's China policy is, as the Indian Express put it, "dead as the dodo." Not dead...
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