Billions of Entrepreneurs: How China and India Are Reshaping Their Futures—and Yours

Chapter Thirteen

Buddha and Software

Old Links and New

And now the wheel of fate has turned full circle and again, India and China look towards each other and past memories crowd in their minds; again pilgrims of a new kind cross or fly over the mountains that separate them, bringing their messages of cheer and goodwill and creating bonds of friendship that will endure.

—Jawaharlal Nehru¹

Nehru posited the idea of a natural camaraderie between China and India and referred to them as “two great countries and two great civilizations.”² In his book Discovery of India Nehru diligently presented evidence of ancient religious and scholarly exchanges—centered in large part around Buddhism traveling from India to China—and suggested that these millennium-old ...