Kautilyan Approach Useful in Multi-Polar World: Shivshankar Menon

April 09, 2014

New Delhi: Drawing a parallel between modern day politics and Kautilya’s Arthashastra, National Security Adviser, Shri Shivshankar Menon on Wednesday said, “Kautilya offers distilled experiences of living and operating in a multi-state system, which long predates and is an alternative to Westphalian state system”. Shri Menon was delivering an inaugural address at the one day international seminar on Kautilya, organised by the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA), in collaboration with the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), on April 9, 2014.

Kautilya, in many ways, is much more relevant to what we face today, said Shri Menon. “The Westphalian system was based on an idealised sovereignty, which is immaculate. The Magadhan or the Indian State System that Kautilya worked in was not”, said Shri Menon, “very much like today where technology has broken the monopoly of balance which the Westphalian state used to claim.”

Describing Arthashastra as a product of “a coalition between 6th century BC enlightenment and the power politics of the Magadhan or Indian states at that time, the NSA said “the Arthashastra is a text on how to achieve noble goals in an innoble world, to achieve political and social progress in an unstable and unpredictable environment.”

Kautilya’s reminder of the higher purposes of the state is fascinating, “which constantly reminds us that the Dharma of the king is to benefit his subjects and not himself and the choice of policy instruments, sama, dana, danda and bheda, depending on which serves the purpose and not on the individual preference or the whims of the king”, he said.

Explaining the binary opposition between Dharma and Artha, norm and purpose, and aspiration and instrumentality, that the modern states is confronted with, the NSA said, “the dilemma of a modern state is how to reconcile its two faces – one face is the poetic or the political imagination of nationalism that inspires its people to believe in it and to actually die for it. The other face is the bureaucratic rationality from which people expect good governance for which nobody will lay down his life.”

Speaking further, Shri Menon said that in the present scenario where power is much more evenly distributed than it was even during the Cold War, it would be interesting to work on the intersection of political science and modern history to see the Kautilyan approach in coping with the multi-polar world.

Lauding the work of scholars of Kautilyan Arthashastra, he said that it is due to their efforts that we may be at another Kautilyan Moment. “The last was when the National movement needed the Arthashastra in order to find reassurance of Indian Statecraft to establish that we had an independent realist tradition of our own.”

Delving on the relevance of Kautilya’s Arthashastra, the speakers at the conference recognised the role of Ganikas in outwitting or suppressing the enemy as very important. The Mauryan king had special bureaucracy dedicated to look after or regulate the industry. However, contrary to general perception, the Arthashastra does not portray any role of Ganikas in foreign policy. The Speakers agreed that Arthashastra is rooted in realistic tradition.

It was pointed out that the Kautilyan era ethics may not stand out or be justifiable in modern times, if not viewed through a historical prism. They were as ethical as the ethics of present times, in the sense that they governed the behaviours of the rulers and the ruled.

The speakers largely agreed that that the relevance of the teachings of the Arthashastra in public policy is gradually being understood, particularly in the foreign policy domain. The work of renowned Kautilyan scholar, Shri RP Kangle, and others was also lauded.

Earlier, in his welcome address, Director General, IDSA, Dr Arvind Gupta said that “The Arthashastra is a veritable manual for intelligence operatives and soldiers. The art of spying mentioned in the Arthashastra is extremely interesting even today.”

He further added that “Kautilya’s Mandala theory stands out as a nuanced exposition of alliances”, in the field of foreign policy. “The six attributes of foreign policy – Shadgunya- provide a sound conceptual basis for a country’s foreign policy. The four upayas of sama, dama, danda and bheda remain relevant as instruments of state policy even today”, said Dr Gupta, imploring the researchers to also look at concepts such as mathsyanaya and saptaganga in the context of inter-state relations.

IDSA has been conducting research and organising national and international events initially on Kautilya’s Arthashastra as a part of ancient indigenous historical knowledge since October 2012. The effort has been motivated by the desire to educate and inform policy makers, scholars and the general public the traditions of strategic thought, defence and security. Reinterpretation of text and traditions relevant to contemporary issues is the vision of this exercise. Since then the institute has organised three planned events. Two monographs have been published and two edited books are under publication.