paiseh, but in 1962 wasn't it was Republic of China in United Nations instead of People Republic of China?
maybe more likely India recognized PRC as the legit country instead of ROC in 1949 yet still kenna whacked in 1962 so felt betrayed?
there are many versions of this ,quite debatable but my understanding is this ...it all has to with Nehru and Mao as a personalities, nothing to do with the people at large ...but that 1962 move by Mao created a permanent scar ,especially with the Indian burecracy who never forgotten it till today
Nehru is said to be a brilliant man ,Oxford educated who came from higher aristocratic society upbringing thus having all the qualities ...but a socialist with a typically Indian psyche of an emotional fool ..rumoured to had Lord Mounbatten's wife as his mistress ..Mao is exactly the opposite ,a hard core communist whose lessons in life was wrought on the roads so as to speak ..hence they saw the border issues with different lenses
another main factor is the quality of their armies as of at that time ...Mao's PLA is battle hardened and was very willing to fight ..The Indian army had split into two ,one Indian and another Pakistan but had within the ranks had highly professional lot ,since 2 millions who had fought the world war 11 ....but Nehru had openly said ,"why do we need an army when we have the police ".hence the Indian army poorly equipped
so ,you can imagine the differences...but Nehru was also playing tough despite Cho En Lai ,the PM of PRC ,peace move who came personally to India for negotiation ...Nehru than initiated what was called the forward move ,meaning their soldiers to move to border areas previously claimed but with no soldiers presence ...the PRC read that as an aggressive signal to fight
what Nehru thought he had all figured out since he was globally respected ...incidentally LKY had expressed his admiration fir him too
suddenly the Chinese troops stormed from the most unexpected terrains ..waves after waves...india rushed reinforcements only to be slaughtered since most Indian troops were not even equipped with the very basic needs such as boots for the snowy terrain ...the chinese covered huge tracks in days quite swift .the Indian commanding general was a political appointee and he did not even use the Indian Air force ,and that would have effectively cut of the Chinese troops from all logistics ...India now woke up to the reality...couple of thing happened
they had a most celeberated and decorated general who fought in both world wars replacing the one in charge ...his first order to his officers were ,there shall be no retreat, be prepared to fight to your last breath
the second scenario was ,there were ethnicities like the Tamils who were fighting for separation from india....all than closed up as 1 United people and ordinary men and women lined up and start donating their jewllaries and blood
so,the Sino indo war had actually united India more than dividing it ...in some respect India should thank china for that
the issue was border..but India and China never shared a common border previously ...but since china walked into Tibet in 1950 ,it now became a matter between china and India..the matter was not a serious one since the border was drawn by a British guy McMahon ...and there was no need to go to a full fledged battle ...but when Dalai Lama fled Tibet India gave refuge and China saw it as future plan to unstabilise china