India and China both became "free" from Western influence in the middle of the last century. To be exact the British left India in 1947 after a orderly exit spearheaded by the Indian Independence act, passed by the British House of Commons and ratified by the House of Lords. On the other hand China had a massive civil war between the American backed Generalissimo Chiang Kai Shek and the communist party of China led by Mao Tse Tung. The communists won and Chiang fled to Formosa, where he died years later. In 1949, when Mao seized power in China, not even a bicycle was manufactured in China. In contrast India had a thriving industrial base with a steel plant as well.
India inherited the British Indian army, which was rechristened as the Indian army. All the laws, acts and weaponry as well as the doctrines of the British army were given a lease of life in India with minor modifications. The articles of War 1892 were changed to the Indian Army Act 1950. Similarly the Air force Act 1950 and the Naval act 1950 were also passed by parliament. The weaponry remained exclusively British and the army handled the 0303 rifle of World War I vintage for the infantry. Old Sherman and AMX tanks were retained by the army and only British aircraft formed part of the IAF. Among the aircraft were the Hawker Hunter, Canberra MK 111, Folland Gnat and DC-3 as part of the IAF fleet. The navy had some ageing warships with two cruisers, which were also of First World War vintage. The two cruisers were rechristened as the INS Delhi and Mysore respectively. At the same time an old British aircraft carrier was renamed as the Vikrant and made part of the naval fleet.
Unfortunately the Indians think tank, despite setting up Hindustan Aeronautics , an aircraft manufacturing hub never gave it the funds and impetus to set up manufacture of any worthwhile front line aircraft. One famous German designer Dr Kurt Tank of Germany( of Focke Wulf Fame) came to India and was made part of the design team at HAL, but lack of funds and misplaced priorities resulted in practically zero development of any plane at HAL.
This was the time when the Congress leadership headed by Nehru was averse to militarization of India and neglected all matters connected with defence. One can recollect that the then president Dr Rajendra Prasad in 1955 grandly also recommended that the Indian army be disbanded and the border be manned by the police.
The 1965 war brought some home truths to the Indian leadership. The war with Pakistan exhausted India and request for ammunition and weaponry were studiously ignored by the USA and the UK. In fact when India asked for bombs for the Hunter, it was told that the items would be supplied after 3 months. The war only lasted 3 weeks and a war weary India agreed for a cease fire. In contrast Pakistan had the latest weaponry gifted by the USA including the fabled Patton Tanks with IR vision devices. The fact that the 1965 war ended in a draw, was entirely due to the dare devil spirit of Indian soldiers who fought with obsolete weapons.
One must sadly conclude that the lessons of the 1962 war were not learnt and the poor performance of the Indian army was glossed over. The political leadership had shown that it lacked vision and no attempt was made to set up indigenous aircraft design and manufacturing facilities. There was also no research to manufacture tanks or radar guided field guns and after 1965, the government had no choice but to import these items at a exorbitant cost.
While all this was going on in India, China had forged ahead. Chinese engineers did 'reverse engineering' and duplicated Russian fighters which had been given to China. They also reverse engineered American captured field guns during the Korean war and started their own manufacturing facilities. The Chinese had a one track mind to make China a world power, a dream that was lacking in the Indian leadership.
After the rebuff from the UK and USA, India turned to the Soviet Union for defence equipment. The Russians eager to displace the West readily consented and also transferred some limited technology to India to manufacture the MIG-21 Supersonic interceptor. A fact not known to 99% of the Indians was, that though technology was transferred, some vital parts of the aircraft technology which was just 5% of the aircraft by volume were NEVER told to Indian engineers. In fact in case that 5% parts were not given the MIG could not fly. These were critical parts for flight. The same thing was done by the French when they allowed HAL to assemble the Mirage and the Jaguar. Vital components essential for operation were never told to Indian engineers. Thus in case required the countries, be it Russia or France could get the Indian fleet grounded at any time.
The story was the same in the army and the much vaunted T55 tanks were in any case not allowed to be made in India by the Russians. The Indian did make an attempt and produced the Vijayanta, but in test trials it was found wanting. India is also far away from manufacturing submarines and the entire submarine fleet is imported. The Russians have leased a nuclear power submarine , but it has come with severe restrictions. In any case India is years away from manufacturing a nuclear submarine. China in contrast is building at least half a dozen of them.
The point that must be appreciated that to be a world power, a nation must be able to stand on its own feet. It should have the capability of manufacturing weapons and aircraft on its own like China, USA and Russia, not forgetting France and England. India is nowhere near that stage and its so sad that people who talk of India being a great power are unaware of the reality. The blame for this lies on the political leadership, which has led India to becoming a third rate power, unable to even sort out Pakistan which is 1/5th the size of India. All nationalists will be perturbed, but this is the reality.