The article is devoted to civilizational factors of the largest Asian states, which attract much academic attention around the world, India and China, and the infl uence of these factors and their peculiarities on social, political and economic development. The article is prepared as a discussion of two books prepared by the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences: “Indian Civilization in the Globalizing World” and “Chinese Civilization in the Globalizing World”. The authors rely on comparative method to analyze civilizational codes of India and China, to define key peculiarities of cultural and political development of the both states, to speculate on their historical paths, political systems, religious and ideological factors in the context of civilizational codes. Moreover, the article discusses international environment and the level and trends of economic development. The authors draw a number of conclusion about similarities and differences in two ancient civilizations, as well as their modernization patterns.