Dr. Vinay Thusoo
It may sound absurd that I am trying to invoke Chanakya (also known as VishnuGupt or Kautailya), but the purpose of invoking Chanakya is to underline the fact that invaders like Afghans, Mughals & Britishers were successful in overpowering and ruling India, primarily due to lack of political unity among various small kingdoms, just for short term political gains etc.
The scope of this article is to discuss how British were successful to rule India, after Mughals were weakened. British infamous divide and rule policy and certain other games which they were playing could have been encountered by the philosophy (niti) of Chanakya, had the Chanakya Neeti and Chanakya Sutra not been lost for more than a millennium. and are believed to have been discovered in 1905. Even though Indians never have forgotten the Arthsashtra, but the study and practical applications of the book lost its importance since the British rule. Professor Shama Shastry rediscovered the book in 1905.
Primarily, British and their apologists more often try to justify Colonial rule on the grounds that they were able to provide organized education system and the political unity. To begin with, let me put it straight that due to continuous onslaught of foreign invaders, the powerful and practical Indian education system namely Gurukul education was lost. Whatever was left was systematically banned and removed by British. One must also know how Indian education system/Gurukul system was overtaken by convent school culture under a well drafted plan to produce Indians who think and behave like the English. Even after the Britishers were able to take over the control of the Country, they realized that the public at large was not listening to them. They were all listening to the Gurus. The Gurus had established large institutes where they taught arts and crafts e.g if someone wanted to learn carpentry etcetera, he was groomed for that specific job. In 1800 century AD there still were thousands of Gurukuls / Madrassas & Universities, where the Gurus imparted knowledge based on the requirements/interest of the student. The British in order to discover the base of the strength of India assigned job to Thomas Babington Macaulay, who reported as follows in 1835. Lord Macaulay said,” I have travelled the length and breadth of the India and haven’t seen one beggar, unless we break the spiritual and cultural heritage, which is the backbone of this country. And, therefore, he proposed to replace the old ancient Indian education system with British education system and make them believe that their system of education is greater and superior to their own. They will lose their self esteem and culture and will become what we want them to become and help us to truly dominate the country”. Thus British was successful in destroying the spiritual and cultural Indian Gurukul system of education with Government certification system. It was their conspiracy to weaken India and rule here by producing more and more donkeys to work for them.
Secondly, the British in moments of self justifying means also like to take credit for the political unity of India. But every period of disorder throughout the Indian history has been followed by a centralized impulse e.g the Maurya (322 BCE- 185 BCE), Gupta (320-550 CE) and Mughal (1526-1857 CE) empires is a manifestation that gave political Unity in India. Had British not been the first to take advantage of India’s disorder with deceit, it may have been possible that an Indian ruler would have accomplished dynamic economic and political order. The 18th century India after Aurangazeb was in shackles. Whenever India was not united she was vulnerable to external aggression. It happened in many other countries too e.g South American kingdoms were disunited and defeated because they were technologically inferior compared to the Spanish invaders and thereafter taken over. One thing that could have prevented the Colonial rule was the presence of a strong India.
Niccolò Machiavelli ,well-known to many, is perhaps a minor figure when compared to Chanakya. Machiavelli’s writings are narrowly about how to capture and maintain power using immoral means. In contrast, the focus of Kautilya’s Arthashastra is on governance. There is occasional mention of conspiracy and spies, but only in the broader framework of maintaining order. In the era of science and technology, the teachings of Chanakya are still relevant because human responses to any situation remains more or less same. That is why reading Chanakya augments vision on issues of strategy.
One of the theories which has late have captured imagination of every think tankers/policy makers is a famous Raja Mandala theory of Chanakya which gave the administrators of that time better understanding of the follies and deceit played by the external aggressors. The four components of the Raja Mandala theory are Ari (Enemies), Mitra(Friends), Madhyama (Mediators) and Udasina(Neutrals). Hostile and friendly rulers are divided into two types, natural and artificial. According to Chanakya, the king and his immediate neighbours are the natural enemies (Ari) to each other. A king who gives trouble to another king without any reasonable cause is an artificial enemy. According to Chanakya, Consistent straight forward and whose friendship is inherited from one generation to another is a best kind of friend (Mitra). A ruler whose friendship is courted for the sake of protection of life and property is the artificial friend. The ruler whose territory is situated close to that of a king and his enemy and who was capable of helping both the kings or of resisting either of them, according to Chanakya is a Mediator (Madhyama) and the ruler whose territory is situated between the territories of two rival kings and who is powerful enough to help or resist either of them or a mediating king is Neutral ( Udasina) . The distinction between Neutral and Mediators are not very clear but perhaps it means, the king who remains passive in regard to both the parties are Neutral while Madhyama king is the one who exerted his influence to bring reconciliation. In contemporary terms, it is amazing how easily one can still view various dimensions of modern geopolitics through 2,300-year-old theory prism.
“Arthashastra” and “Nitishastra” of Chanakya continue to guide the generations with his wisdom. It would be appropriate to rest my write up with a quotation by Chanakya.
“The happiness of the commoners is the happiness of the King. Their welfare is his welfare. A king should never think of his personal interest or welfare, but should try to find his joy in the joy of his subjects.”
(The author is a Public Relations Officer, University of Jammu and can be reached at thusoovinay@gmail.com)
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