India, Aug. 16 -- On a December afternoon in 1955, Soong Ching-ling - known better as the "Mother of Modern China" - stood beneath the high grand Victorian Edwardian-style arches of Chandni Chowk's Town Hall, bathed in the warmth of applause. "India, China. Two nations resurgent. Peking, New Delhi. The new Asia arising. Peace, Friendship. One Billion Pairs of hands. Your protectors! Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai. Hindi-Chini Bhai," she wrote in the Town Hall's visitors' book in Chinese, sealing the moment with the optimism of the short-lived Hindi-Chini friendship of the 1950s. Soong, an honorary president of the People's Republic of China and a revolutionary figure in her own right, had come to New Delhi in the dawn years of India's independence....