See also this discussion on "The [erstwhile] Indianisation of China" by Hu Shih, a Chinese academic: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0009445514534119 h

See also this discussion on "The [erstwhile] Indianisation of China" by Hu Shih, a Chinese academic: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0009445514534119 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0009445514534119 > [Hu Shih] was among the first contributors for radical ideological change and modernity in China. His article on the 'Indianization of China' presented a scathing criticism of Indian influence on China that inhibited the blooming of 'indigenous modernity', progressivism and dynamism there. Hu’s views supported contemporary 'modernist' Chinese intellectuals' labelling of India under the British as a 'ruined' civilisation, 'failed' state or incapable role model for the agenda of modernity. Yet, he did not overlook affinities, mutual respect and admiration for those in India searching for 'indigenous roots' to modernity. His famous observation that 'India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border' is one of the most quoted sentences in any study of Sino-Indian encounters and connections. Iranians and later Turkic Mongols had a similar affect (Persianisation) on India itself before imperialism took hold, and westernisation came to the fore; for ex: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macaulayism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macaulayism Dominant cultures have always sought influence.