INDIGENOUS HISTORICAL KNOWLEDGE Kautilya and His Vocabulary
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INDIGENOUS HISTORICAL KNOWLEDGE Kautilya and His Vocabulary VOLUME III INDIGENOUS HISTORICAL KNOWLEDGE Kautilya and His Vocabulary VOLUME III Editors PRADEEP KUMAR GAUTAM SAURABH MISHRA ARVIND GUPTA INSTITUTE FOR DEFENCE STUDIES & ANALYSES NEW DELHI PENTAGONPENTAGONPENTAGON PRESSPRESSPRESS Indigenous Historical Knowledge: Kautilya and His Vocabulary Pradeep Kumar Gautam, Saurabh Mishra and Arvind Gupta (Editors) First Published in 2016 Copyright © Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi ISBN 978-81-8274-909-2 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without first obtaining written permission of the copyright owner. Disclaimer: The views expressed in this book are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, or the Government of India. Published by PENTAGON PRESS 206, Peacock Lane, Shahpur Jat, New Delhi-110049 Phones: 011-64706243, 26491568 Telefax: 011-26490600 email: [email protected] website: www.pentagonpress.in In association with Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses No. 1, Development Enclave, New Delhi-110010 Phone: +91-11-26717983 Website: www.idsa.in Printed at Avantika Printers Private Limited. Contents Preface vii About the Contributors xi Welcome Remarks by Dr. Arvind Gupta, Director General (DG) IDSA xv Keynote Address by Shri Shivshankar Menon, National Security Adviser xvii PART I REVISITING CONCEPTS, ISSUES FROM TEXT 1. Economy, Ecology, and National Defence in Kauäilya’s ArthaàÈstra 3 Patrick Olivelle 2. Non-Aggression Pacts and Strategic Partnerships in Kauäilyan Foreign Policy 16 Mark McClish 3. Statecraft and Intelligence Analysis in the KauäilÏya-ArthaàÈstra 33 Michael Liebig 4. The Army: Then and Now 63 Pradeep Kumar Gautam PART II STRATEGIC CULTURE, NEGOTIATIONS AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 5. Strategic Culture in South Asia: Kautilyan Sempiternity 85 Rashed Uz Zaman vi Indigenous Historical Knowledge: Kautilya and His Vocabulary 6. Bargaining and Negotiation Analysis: Lessons from Arthashastra 103 Medha Bisht 7. Does Indian IR have a History? Mapping Articulations of Justice and Stability in the Arthashastra and Akhlaq Traditions 122 Jayashree Vivekanandan 8. Kautilya on Far-sight, Foresight and Freedom 134 Balbir Singh Sihag Appendix 153 Annexure I 156 Annexure II 158 Index 160 Preface We place here before you this volume, the third in a series of small steps taken by the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) that began in 2012. The chapters are select papers from an international seminar that was sponsored by the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) on April 9, 2014. Two scholars of Sanskrit (Patrick Olivelle and Mark McClish) from the United States participated via internet on Skype and we could harness current technology to network and obtain ideas and concepts both from Sanskritists and Indologists. We could also engage with the scholars by having a question and answer session. Balbir Singh Sihag’s paper was read out as he was not available online. All the presentations are available on YouTube at the IDSA website. We want to tell our readers that two methods are in popular use to write Sanskrit words in Roman alphabets. The first is to use diacritical marks to stress on the non-English sounds and pronunciation, and the second is transliteration without using diacritical marks; the word ArthaàÈstra may be written as Arthashastra, for example. The chapters will follow both patterns as used by the authors. The book is arranged first with the welcome remarks of the then Director General, Dr. Arvind Gupta, who places the idea behind this exercise in context. Like in the previous two national seminars in October 2012 and October 2013, the then National Security Adviser (NSA) Shri Shivshankar Menon delivered a brief keynote address. The chapters have been placed in the same sequence as was in the seminar in two parts. Part I: Revisiting Concepts, Issues from Text and Part II: Strategic Culture, Negotiations and International Relations. viii Indigenous Historical Knowledge: Kautilya and His Vocabulary Patrick Olivelle rightly terms the Kautilya’s Arthashastra (KA) as the most precious work in the range of Sanskrit literature. Chapter 1, ‘Economy, Ecology, and National Defence in Kauäilya’s ArthaàÈstra,’ in Part I of this book, deals with impact of economic growth on ecological management and centrality of economic strength of national defence and territorial expansion. Perhaps what may interest political scientists is his interpretation of wars of wits and outmanoeuvring both in the internal and external dimensions with the strategy of atisa£dhÈna. Chapter 2, Mark McClish, ‘Non-Aggression Pacts and Strategic Partnerships in Kauäilyan Foreign Policy’ likewise is a very detailed analysis and a pioneering effort of its kind. The focus is on the concept of peace pacts (sa£dhi) in the Arthashastra’s seventh book and what their study can tell us about the text itself. Non-Aggression Pacts and Strategic Partnerships are explained which, as in the case of Chapter 1, will surely be noticed by political scientists to relate the contemporary issues of strategic partnerships and non-aggression pacts. In the KA, espionage and other ‘operational’ activities of the secret service—notably ‘active measures’ and ‘covert action’— are addressed often and in detail. In contrast, Kautilya seems to say very little about intelligence analysis, assessment and estimates which provide the basis of strategic planning and grand strategy—and are key components of statecraft. Michael Liebig’s Chapter 3, ‘Statecraft and Intelligence Analysis in the KauäilÏya ArthaàÈstra’ has now filled this gap. According to him, the KA is relevant for the history of ideas of the political science sub-discipline, intelligence studies in contemporary times. What was the discourse on the army in ancient India? And what is the continuity? Answers to these questions demand a deep study of the Arthashastra. Unlike Sun Tzu’s Art of War or Clausewitz’s On War, Kautilya’s Arthashastra provides answers to troop composition, employment and morale. Chapter 4 by Pradeep Kumar Gautam tilted ‘The Army Then and Now’ uses the text to show and compare these aspects. The concept of strategic culture has become popular in the field of strategic studies. Chapter 5 by Rashed Uz Zaman, ‘Strategic Culture in South Asia: Kautilyan Sempiternity’, in Part II, looks at the relevance of strategic culture in the context of South Asia and the influence of Kautilya’s Preface ix Arthashastra upon South Asia; and attempts to answer what role, if any, Kautilya has for strategic culture. Are the principles of Arthashastra universal? Do they matter irrespective of time and place? These questions become pertinent, given that Kautilyan principles took roots more than two millennia ago, when the nature of polities were small, monarchy was prevalent, and one was oblivious to the ‘meanings’ of certain central terms such as state, sovereignty, power, order, rights, etc. An effort is made to invoke the relevance of the Kautilyan principles to the broader discipline of bargaining and negotiation analysis in Chapter 6 by Medha Bisht tilted, ‘Bargaining and Negotiation Analysis: Lessons from Arthashastra’. Indian International Relations (IR) studies is not about a history but many histories. Theories would seek patterns in state behaviour, diplomatic practices and role of ethics in statecraft or lack thereof. But in doing so, it is vital to contextualise theoreticians, philosophers and strategists within the times they lived and wrote in. Chapter 7 by Jayashree Vivekanandan, ‘Does Indian IR have a History? Mapping Articulations of Justice and Stability in the Arthashastra and Akhlaq Traditions’ attempts a comparison between two traditions that dominated the ancient and medieval periods in India and their divergent interpretations of the notions of justice and social order—arthashastra tradition and akhlaq tradition of the medieval period. Finally, the concluding Chapter 8 by Balbir Singh Sihag tilted ‘Kautilya on Far-sight, Foresight and Freedom’ demonstrates issues of ethics. The chapter provides a refreshing and apt interpretation of a people centric approach, comprehensive approach to national security and far-sightedness in treaty making and foresight in the prevention of calamities. There is a need for a wider and deeper study of the text and its interpretation. We hope that our effort to assemble, in a limited way, these essays and papers by an international group of scholars of repute with multidisciplinary backgrounds will generate a new interest of scholarship in India and the world. We thank the scholars and the ICSSR for supporting this work. July 2016 Editors About the Contributors 1. Amb. Shivshankar Menon was the National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister of India from 2010-2014 and Foreign Secretary of India from 2006 to 2009. He has served as Ambassador and High Commissioner to Israel, Sri Lanka, China and Pakistan. He was also seconded to the Department of Atomic Energy in the early eighties and was a member of the Atomic Energy Commission from 2008-14. His professional experience was concentrated on India’s neighbours, atomic energy and disarmament, and India’s relations with the major powers. Menon speaks Chinese and some German. He has an M.A. degree in History with specialisation in Ancient India. 2. Dr. Arvind Gupta is the Deputy National Security Adviser at the National Security Council Secretariat, Government of India. Earlier, he was the Director General of Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) from 2012-14 and held the Lal Bahadur Shastri Chair on National Security at the IDSA (2008-12). He retired from the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) after serving in the Ministry of External Affairs and Missions abroad in different capacities. He has attended a number of security conferences in India and abroad and written extensively on diplomatic and security issues. 3. Prof. Patrick Olivelle is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Asian Studies, University of Texas.