Kautilya’s Relevance for India Today

Abstract

Strange enough, Kautilya’s Arthashastra, a classic work of political theory and statecraft, has remained on the sidelines of the political science and strategic discourse not only in the West, but even in India itself. How does modern India relate to Kautilya? We investigate first Nehru’s ‘special relationship’ to Kautilya and then turn to the mainly ‘latent presence’ of Kautilyan thought among the political, academic and strategic elites of today’s India—using Bourdieu’s concept of ‘habitus’. We also look into the peculiar constellation of social science schools which has tended to inhibit an active, but critical, engagement with Kautilyan thought. Lastly, we show indications pointing an active ‘re-use’ of endogenous politico-cultural resources—including Kautilya—in India. This trend should be seen in the context of India’s rise in the multipolar world which also entails the need to articulate a soft power stance based on endogenous politico-cultural resources.