My Research

Revisiting Kautilya’s Arthashastra: Leadership, Humanism, Ethics

Kakali Roy Chowdhury

This research aimed to primarily analyse Kauṭilya’s perspective of ethics and the ethical implementation of Kautilya’s principles in contemporary political leadership.

Kautilya Arthaṡhā̵stra was my special paper in M.A. Rājadharma Prakaraṇam was the focus of the study from Arthaṡhā̵stra. There was another paper consisting of Dharmaṡhāstras like Yāgnavalkya Samhitā, Manu Samhitā, and Kāmandakīya Nītisāra. The purpose of this alignment of Dharmaśāstra and Arthaśāstra is important, and it has been explained with much significance from the perspective of academics as well as application in practical life in ancient Indian society. In Arthaṡhā̵stra Kautilya has an open declaration about the contributions of Dharmaṡhāstras in his treatise.

The preceptor of Arthaṡhā̵stra and the treatise itself is somehow misunderstood by the readers. Kautilya is often ridiculed as a teacher of unethical practices and as an advocate of the theory that ‘the ends justify the means’. Some scholars even mentioned Kautilya as an equivalent of Machiavelli. This popular view is not only too simple to rely on but also untrue. The reason behind such imposition of an image on Kautilya is that only scholars of ancient Indian history are aware of the expansive range and depth of Arthaśā̵stra.  Arthaśāstra is popularly known to be a treatise on Statecraft. To the educated lay readers, it’s a book on Economics, the first book of Economics in India.

Unfortunately, the greatness of Kautilya remains unappreciated for want of an appropriate translation as well as an interpretation that is relevant to the time. It is needless to say, Kautilya Arthaśāstra is always relevant in the Indian socio-political-economic context. The conscious referencing of the treatise in all possible contexts is prominently visible in scholarly works. Also, the influence of the content of this text has a vast range on Indian ‘political scripture’.

The interpretations of Kautilyan principles on various aspects of life and livelihood are much needed for the upliftment of the moral standard of human life. Thus, doing an in-depth study of the ethical aspect of the Kautilyan strategies and principles was found to be interesting.

The contour of the political scenario during Kauṭīlya’s time has a significant transformation after 2500 years of the composition of the treatise. It is important to remember that his suggestion to build a good governing system has followed the Code of Law or Dharmaṡhāstra. The original text of Arthaṡhā̵stra is composed in Sanskrit and a linguistic content analysis becomes an essential part of this study. Through analysis, the essence of the Sanskrit text as well as a few significant terms that are used as keywords like dharma and artha is understood better. Dharma encompasses the value of ethics and justice, and these concepts are mutually related. Dharmaṡhāstra  as the Code of Law has directions for people to maintain dharma, artha and kā̶ma in order to attain mokṣa. Dharma prevails in all directions of leadership, humanism, and ethics and thus Kauṭīlya’s approach to the mechanism of a successful governing system adopts the concept of ethics as inbuilt support. Kauṭīlya’s suggestions may appear to be hard to implement in the current political scenario, although there is a good scope for the reinterpretation of Kauṭīlya’s principles and this research work puts an effort to find a scope for implementing this ethical perspective in today’s political leadership despite having a huge time gap. A brief study of the leading trend of governance and sovereignty across civilisations and time has been done contextually.

The presence of Sabhā and Samiti in the Vedic administrative system, checks and balances as a part of governing structure, and most importantly directives of Dharmaṡhāstra could create an observatory around the king. The perspective of inclusivity and equality has been explored in the context of the responsibility of the state although the researcher likes to find responsibility as mutual. The ethical perspective of political leadership has been reflected in both internal and external state affairs. This research contains a detailed discussion of some recent developments in national as well as international politics and it shows that in any sphere of political leadership, ethics that merges with justice or dharma, maintain the trust quotient in society. In a democratic system, the trust quotient is an important factor that may lead to success and sustainability. 

Ethics as a concept may be perceived in various ways in the context of different individuals, geographical boundaries, and time, but ethics as it merges with humanism is not time-bound. While exploring this concept this research attempts to implement Kauṭīlya’s approach in relevant political leadership.

A survey has been conducted and the quantitative data is used to support the view stated in this research. Ethics in leadership appears to be an interesting subject that combines the study of various domains in social sciences like sociology, economics, anthropology, and psychology, humanities like history and philosophy, and organizational studies like management and education. Further studies and research may help in finding the possible scope of exploration to a greater extent for the proposed research.

It took three and a half years for me to complete the work. Although the official domain of this research is Cultural Studies, this multidomain research involves Language Studies, Political Science, Sociology, International Relationships, Women Studies, History, and Philosophy. There are ample literary works available that could be considered as either a direct or an indirect source of data for my research. Thus, selecting data from a huge pile of work was a tedious job. Especially during the pandemic, the data collection process was forced to be from virtual sources only. This was the second biggest challenge that slowed down the pace of my work. The speed of the work got revived once life started coming back to normalcy and the actual feel of ‘research’ started showing up. I can hardly express the state of my life in the last 2-3 months before the internal colloquium, but it is fact that study has always been the best outlet for my stress. Could manage to get 4 hours of sleep a day and to be honest can’t remember much about what all were happening around me apart from my work… yes, it was extremely strenuous!

This stress didn’t leave me completely even after the final submission on 5th September 2022 since there was a major step to be covered and finally, after the completion of the viva defense, I was completely empty in my mind. People around me were delighted and I could hardly believe that I had completed my thesis work.

Lastly, as I also mentioned in my viva presentation, this research is not the end of the journey, it is the beginning of the journey to the path of cognizance. 

Dr. Kakali Roy Chowdhury

8th March 8, 2023