The Arthastra in a Transcultural Perspective

This book is the product of a collaborative effort by the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi; South Asia Institute, Heidelberg University; and Institute of South Asian Studies, National University Singapore. The volume contains papers exploring Kautilya's Arthasastra in a transcultural perspective, comparing it with the thoughts of Sun-Zi, Nizam al-Mulk, Barani and Machiavelli. It is agreed that the field of modern International Relations (IR) and Political Theory is predominantly Eurocentric, and based on European sources of philosophy and history. But, nowadays, scholars have been exploring the possibility of a world intellectual history, as ideas are dynamic throughout temporal and geographical spaces. They transform, hybridise and travel long distances over a period of time in such a manner that they appear belonging to the place where we find them at a particular point of time. It is also intriguing to observe that India, with a long civilisational and philosophical history, is credited with no contribution to the evolution of the modern IR and Political Theory. Therefore, this volume explores the philosophical systems, thought-figures and ancient cultural spaces, on the path from India to Europe, looking for any possibility of Kautilya's Arthasastra, the most comprehensive and systematic text available on art of governance from ancient India, having interacted and influenced the evolution of IR and Political Theory that are considered as originally European intellectual contributions. We note that the chapters in this book give ample and convincing reasons for initially believing in the Arthasastras value for the evolution of IR and Political Theory, and making further research on Indian contribution to the intellectual history of IR and Political Theory a desideratum.