Reflecting on Col.PK.Gautam’s One Hundred Years of Kautilya's Arthasastra

Reflecting on Col.PK.Gautam’s One Hundred Years of Kautilya's Arthasastra

This is the first time I am reading a Monograph on Kautilya’s Arthasastra. I am really grateful to author for showing a direction to younger generation to look in to wisdom given to us by our forefathers.

Few years ago I have been habitually doing an unguided reading which took me to Shama Sastry’s translation of Arthasastra for the first time and as a first time reader with no stated goals and specific object in reading it apart from satisfying the adrenaline started reading few pages, I already got a sense that this is highly advanced treatise on governmental and state affairs. One of the topics that did attract me was “Ascertaining by temptations Purity or Impurity in the character of Ministers” and this must essentially be followed in the appointment of ministers in modern day governments. But sadly on all such appointments loyalties take precedence than honesty. Especially in a coalition era choices of ministers are being imposed. Then due to vagaries of time I could not keep up the reading, but looking to revive my interest.

And this is the first time I get a clear explanation of the term sama, dana, beda, danda (conciliation, gifts, rupture and force), that was simply enlightening, a method which is still alive in the practice of Foreign policy and diplomacy. The leftist rhetoric has done a considerable damage by showing the indigenous knowledge in low light. Because all the ancient literature is apparently the work of Hindus and their vague worry is that speaking truth about a treatise like Arthasastra would revive the Hindu glory which will become a detriment to their propaganda industry and will impact their communist support base, whose cadres are drawn mainly from Hindus.

We would do well by reading a Supreme Court judgment on what Hinduism is, if we ever have to gauge its secular credentials.

 I am quoting an excerpt from the judgment of Justice J S Verma on this question.

The development of Hindu religion and philosophy shows that from time to time saints and religious reformers attempted to remove from the Hindu thought and practices elements of corruption and superstition and that led to the formation of different sects. Buddha started Buddhism; Mahavir founded Jainism: Basava became the founder of Lingayat religion; Jnaneshwar and Tukaram initiated the Varakari cult: Guru Nanak inspired Sikhism: Dayananda founded Arya Samaj: and Chaitanya began Bhakti cult; and as a result of the teachings of Ramakrishna and Vivekananda, Hindu religion flowered into its most attractive, progressive and dynamic form. If we study the teachings of these saints and religious reformers, we would notice an amount of divergence in their respective views. but underneath that divergence, there is a kind of subtle indescribable unity which keeps them within the sweep of the broad and progressive Hindu religion.

There is no dearth of great men in Hindu religion and it will not be an exaggeration to call it a religion of 1000 prophets.

The Judge goes on and says that:

The Constitution-makers were fully conscious of this broad and comprehensive character of Hindu religion: and so, while guaranteeing the fundamental right to freedom of religion, explanation II to Art. 25 has made it clear that in sub-clause (b) of clause (2), the reference to Hindus shall be construed as including a reference to persons professing the Sikh, Jam or Buddhist religion, and the reference to Hindu religious institutions shall be construed accordingly." (from pages 259-266)

There should be no worry in accepting the truth that Hinduism is the only secular religion, and the word secularism does not in any way contradicts with Hinduism. In India and abroad there is some kind of an unofficial embargo on those who speak for Hinduism or on any classics which even has a remote connection to Hindus and their glory. And the Hindu scholars are chastised for their stand in their work. There is of course a grand conspiracy which constantly obstructs processes through which the history can be set right, ie., where we can get a rightful place in the world for our knowledge and wisdom.

For Europeans who endured the pain of religion which controlled their very private affairs the secular/Non-secular question was more relevant to them not for us, because implicitly Hindus are secular. Hence for Europeans age of enlightenment is some kind of higher calling but people in this sub-continent have always lived in enlightenment. With sages and seers walking this land by foot teaching values which benefits and befits humans and imparting practical wisdom for a day to day life was a routine. But for Europeans and others it was new.

If there is one thing that propelled westerners in the forefront of supremacy it is because they are organized and it is our curse that we could not organize ourselves and even after enduring 1000 years of enslavement from Islamic and Christian aliens from distant lands we are still busy with our petty internal fights which arise out of Ego and prejudice. After his whirlwind tour of west when Swami Vivekananda returned Bharath he acknowledged the fact that we are not organized like England. Moreover the only reason why a tiny Island ruled most of this world is because it is organized.

It is a matter of grave concern that the Indian political thought is not promoted on par with the western political thought. When the outsiders are taking a serious interest in all that is Bharath and India we are yet to learn what our roots are. It will be a great service to this country if governments can take serious note of this and promote our residual knowledge.

US state department paying $50,000 grant to digitize our manuscripts shows where we stand and what our priorities are not to mention that it highlights our indifference. It is a sad state of affairs.

At the end author suggested many research themes based on Arthasastra and students should very well pick up some cues from this and bring this trove of knowledge to the fore with their new, intriguing and brilliant interpretations. Thanks for Author’s service to a greater cause.

Responding to Col. PK Gautam's comment

Thanks for responding.

It is agreed that much needs to be done on the secular aspect of education. But all those epics and other religious texts when they were written originally they were not meant to be non-secular. In my opinion this secularism debate came to the fore because of the church-state debacle in Europe and I feel that it has been unduly imposed on earth with out giving due regard to unique conditions of others cultures.

If there is any civilization which is truly secular it is Hindu Civilization, I am sure you would agree. Though we cannot say that it is perfect one but is best of all, which was verily agreed by Swami Vivekananda who argued that barring Vedas the whole body of Hindu scriptures must be re-worked to reflect the current day realities. But you & I know that, the scholar who could do this Himalayan task is yet to be born.

You have talked about alliances which Cholas practiced. But all that grand alliances, strategy and diplomacy has been practiced in its advanced form in Mahabharata long ago.

The begging question is how to handle the grave threat of Militant Islam & Islamists and does our indigenous wisdom help us address this question ? Yes. I agree, for this we have to remain bi-partisan, ideological-neutral and religious neutral. But remaining neutral does not definitely mean being prejudicial to one point of view and this is exactly why we should differ ourselves from our Marxist friends who have different yardsticks for measuring secularism.

Looking forward to read some of your other work too.

Response from Col. PK. Gautam reg. my comment on his Monograph

Response from Col. PK. Gautam with respect to my comment on his monograph

Dear Sathya,

1.  Thank you so much for your kinds words. The project has only begun starting with Kautilya. Many more periods and regions need to be covered. At Note 42  reference has been made.  I paste specially for you the work so far below after paragraph 4 and my signature block.

2.   In my monograph and also in the forthcoming edited book of the two seminars of October 2012 and April 2013 in the policy suggestion it has been stressed that the work is a-religious and a-political..Please see H at p.83.from pages 83 onwards.  Rather in my monograph I have explained the old issue of nationalist and Marxist also (p.74)  and surely we are beyond that now. Please  see pages122 -125 of my monograph.

3.  For the  other South Asian countries I have urged them to own up these traditions(pp. 108-109 including note 259). Also I do not agree with what   A Matto says.  In chapter III  have argued on that issue at pages 50 to 51. This aspect has been covered by me in my   Shruti and Smriti : Some Issues in the Re-emergence of Indian Traditional Knowledge, IDSA Issue Brief, February 12, 2013 at    http://idsa.in/issuebrief/ShrutiandSmriti_PKGautam_120213

4. All religious text has both religious and secular text. Much needs to be  done and  in my forthcoming work I have explained it as : “   Because of absence of teaching secular aspects of religion and not studying all knowledge emanating from religious literature we are missing out on many things of philosophy both at individual level and at the state level.( This type of education  to approaches to study of religions is called “ Phenomenology” . Phenomenological epoche is an approach to the study of religions to become and remain entirely neutral about what is studied. See Sushil Mittal and Gene Thursby, ‘ Introduction’,  in Sushil Mittal and Gene Thursby (eds.), Religion in South Asia: an Introduction, Routledge, 2006, pp.10-11)
You can also write to the editor of JDS  and if they consider it fit may publish it in future

Regards
PKGautam

Reflecting on Col. P K Gautam’s recently written paper in IDSA

Reflecting on Col. P K Gautam’s recently written paper in IDSA on Enduring issues of Statecraft, Military Issues andInternational Relations from Cholas the powerful southern kingdom.

It is a scintillating write up which talks about areas which needs focus to solve some of the serious issues which afflict the present day world. Col. PK Gautam talked about indigenous solutions to global problems.

All major issues which remain unsolved in the arena of international politics India has solutions. Firstly in the academic domain there is no great interest in researching our glorious past, even if somebody does, it is completely distorted because of researcher’s ideological moorings. For example, we have Romila Thappar who in a way eulogizes all Islamic Invasions and the destruction that ensued in the name of their religion.

Supremacy of Cholas:

Based on my elementary reading on Cholas I can say that, they were like Brits of 16 th and 17 th century, especially with respect to the invincibility of their naval fleet. They ruled throughout the Southeast Asia uninterrupted for nearly 500 years, engaged in trade with southern part of Africa. And the northern Kingdoms did not dare to enter in to their fiefdom. There was more of an internal conflict within the triumvirate of chera, chola and pandyas.

The take away for a budding student especially like me would be firstly not to go for foreign sources and ideas for everything and waste time, but look within. India was an intellectual power house once and we were systematically indoctrinated by a highly organized but a very small group of people called Brits and were forced to agree that everything indigenous was inferior. This feeling remains intact till this date.

Gandhi said if we have to for a moment imagine that the whole written literature of Hinduism is disappeared and only the first phrase of Isho Upanishad remains, all that lost literature can be re-constructed from that one phrase, Amitabh Mattoo described this in one of his op-ed some time ago. Mattoo went on and added that if the whole international literature has disappeared from this world, all can be re-constructed from the epic Mahabharata. That is the power of indigenous wisdom. Mahabharath is the best teacher you can ever have especially if you are a student of International Politics.

Yes. There were myriad independent political entities in the name of kingdoms but people were united with one culture, which we can conveniently call it as Hindu religion. Though few in the current days who were completely indoctrinated with Marxist ideology might have an objection with that “H” word, truth remains unsullied.

We Indians should take the study of history seriously and learn from our past for the sake of addressing our own problems and subsequently to help others too.

Thanks to Shri. Col. P K Gautam.