AHC: Communist India, Capitalist China

The challenge is to come up with a scenario where roles are somewhat reversed: India becomes a communist state and a Soviet ally after WW2, while China becomes capitalist and a US ally. As you probably guessed, the aim is to bring the Cold War to Asia in earnest :)

The rules:
- POD can be as early as you like, but keep it in the 20th century
- WW2 should be as per OTL, even if your POD is before that (no big butterflies and such)
- India and Pakistan can stay together in one big communist state
- China can be an authoritarian state, but no outright dictatorship if possible
- It doesn’t have to be an even competition: if you think a capitalist China can become a third superpower while India remains in poverty, or if you think a planned economy could help India get their problems sorted out (even with considerable loss of life, like an Indian Great Leap Forward) and capitalism causes China to remain agrarian, go for it J
- Various other Asian states are up for grabs, I would imagine both states wanting to get influence in Indichina and other places anyways

PS: I tried looking for a scenario like this but only found an old DBWI thread
 
Sounds like the 1980s OTL.

India was a pro-Soviet planned economy, while China started its market reforms ahead of India, and was a de-facto US ally against the Russians.
 
for China:
Deng or Liu Shaoqi takes over sometime in the 60's, if not then after Mao goes. Then slowly throughout the 70's, 80's and 90's reform is brought in.
Otherwise Nationalists win the civil war (U.S. decides to help) and over time they soften their stance and eventually become a republic due to protesting over time (similar to South Korea, with Tienanmen type incident acting as a Gwangju uprising equivalent).

For India:
Wouldn't be all that hard for communism, Nehru himself sympathised with communism to an extent (even if he cracked down on the communist parties), maybe influential members of the independence movement like Ghandi and Nehru form their own brand of communism that is different to Stalinism and Marxism, something along the lines of peaceful revolution instead of a militant one or even some other cult of personality arising around a few leaders that happen to be communist. Also it would mean no Churchill in India and Mountbatten getting to India early (since Mountbatten actually respected India and well, he wasn't Churchill) as any communist uprising in India under Churchill will be stomped out hard. The hard part will be the united India, maybe their are some key Muslim figures in this figurative communist movement as the #3.
Either way It will probably lead to a situation were India is more state capitalist like China is now as I just cannot see communism lasting into the 80's and 90's with a country that will be looking increasingly to trade, not a country that wants to survive and thrive at least.

As for State's up for grabs. Taiwan will probably end up being with a capitalist China, maybe even Mongolia and India most likely doesn't let go of Burma and obviously Pakistan and Bangladesh.
 
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