1st Edition
Kautilya’s Arthashastra Strategic Cultural Roots of India’s Contemporary Statecraft
This book studies India’s foreign policy through the lens of Kautilya’s Arthashastra, an ancient Indian treatise on state and statecraft. It assesses the extent of influence of the foundational elements/core beliefs extrapolated from the Arthashastra on the nation’s international behaviour to understand the grand strategic preferences of independent India. The volume examines the basic realist and cultural underpinnings of statecraft such as Yogakshema (Political End Goal), Saptanga (Seven Elements of State), Sadgunyas (Six Measures of Foreign Policy), Rajdharma (Duty of a King), Rajamandala (Circle of kings), and Dharma (Order), mooted in the Arthashastra which have withstood the test of time and space. It evaluates the continuity of strategic cultural traits under the themes of nonalignment, bilateral relations with China and Pakistan, and nuclear policy.
An important intervention in the study of India’s foreign policy, the book will be useful for scholars and researchers of foreign policy, defence policy, international relations, defence and strategic studies, political science, Indian political thought, political philosophy, classical literature, and South Asian studies.
Foreword
Preface
Glossary of Sanskrit/Hindi Terms
Introduction
1 Kautilya’s Arthashastra : Central Paradigm and Grand Strategic Preferences 1
2 Nehruvian Foreign Policy (1947–1964): Realism and Idealism
3 Shastri and Indira (1964–1984): Righteous Wars
4 Rajiv and Rao (1984–1998): Modernization and Liberalization
5 Vajpayee and Singh (1998–2014): Alignment and Autonomy
6 Modi’s Foreign Policy (2014–2019): Peace and Power
7 Grand Strategic Preferences and India’s Nuclear Doctrine
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
Biography
Kajari Kamal is an Associate Professor at Takshashila Institution, Bangalore, India. She is a guest speaker at premier defence institutions in India. Her research interests include ancient strategic thought, grand strategy, and strategic culture.
"Kajari Kamal’s book on Indian strategic culture and Indian foreign policy is a contribution to Indian strategic culture studies, Arthashastra studies, and scholarship on India’s foreign policy. She bravely relates Kautilyan insights to crucial episodes in India’s external policies and forces us to think about non-Western approaches to International Relations."
Kanti Bajpai, Wilmar Professor Asian Studies, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore
"The book is a remarkable combination of the theoretical, empirical, and critical. Rigorous methodological design brings back Kautilya’s Arthashastra to life by a creative use of theories on strategic culture and grand strategy. Critical analyses of independent India’s foreign policies derived from ancient Indic heritage of Kautilya, demonstrates that Indic traditions of statecraft are both enduring and relevant."
Colonel Pradeep Kumar Gautam (Retd), Honorary Distinguished Fellow, Centre for Military History and Conflict Studies, United Service Institution of India , New Delhi and former Research Fellow/ Consultant to Indigenous Historical Knowledge project at MPIDSA.
"The book is a significant contribution towards rediscovering Arthashastra. Its strength is in excavating the nuances of statecraft that are derived from the complexity of human nature which also provides the thread that connects the past, present and future."
Lt General (Dr) Prakash Menon, PVSM, AVSM, VSM, Director, Strategic Studies Programme, Takshasila Institution, Bangalore
Deploying Kautilya’s celebrated work, Arthashastra, as the central text to interpret independent India’s strategic culture as well as foreign policy, this brilliant epistemic exercise persuasively demonstrates expansive explanatory potentials of the ancient text across time and place. Engrossing in the analysis, the book will be of immense use to scholars and students of international relations and India’s foreign policy.
Rajen Harshé, Founder and former Vice Chancellor of the Central University of Allahabad.
"India's approach to the world is changing fast, as it emerges as a major economic power and a significant diplomatic actor. Understanding New Delhi's grand strategy - and the culture in which it is formulated - is therefore imperative. In that light, Kajari Kamal’s Kautilya and India’s Foreign Policyis an essential work, providing an insightful reading not just of India's strategic behaviour since independence, but also that of classic manual of statecraft, the Arthashastra."
Ian Hall, Professor of International Relations, Deputy Director (Research), Griffith Asia Institute, Australia
"A ground breaking study of India’s strategic culture through the prism of Kautilyan statecraft, the study is a valuable contribution to both international relations theory as well as providing deep insights into the remarkable resilience of the main tenets of the Arthashastra."
Amitabh Mattoo, D.Phil. (Oxon.), Padmashri, Professor, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, Honorary Professor of International Relations, University of Melbourne
"Strategic Culture is a much used and abused term in the Indian context. Kajari Kamal provides some much needed clarity to the concept by using Kautilya’s Arthashastra as a key reference text in delineating the influence of Kautilyan core beliefs on India’s strategic behavior. At a time when anyone and everyone wants to appropriate Kautilya, this book systematically uses the Kautilyan precepts empirically to make a broader argument about the role of culture in shaping state behavior. It is theoretically rich and empirically detailed. A great leap forward in the study of Kautilya and Indian foreign policy!"
Harsh V Pant, Professor of International Relations, King’s College London and Director of Research at Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi
"Dr. Kamal's book is a distinctive effort to present the story of India's foreign policy since independence through a Kautilyan lens. In doing so, she has made the teachings of an ancient master and his uniquely Indian approach to statecraft accessible to contemporary academics. The book is a worthy addition to the scholarship on India's strategic culture."
Shri Ram Madhav, Member, National Executive, RSS
