“Knowledge is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong
journey to acquire it”.
Kautilya, a prodigal diplomatic genius, that the human history has ever seen, was
a man who sparked my inquisitiveness from the day one. The unquenchable
thirst to know him better, deeper and a different way made me step into the
ocean of knowledge after 13 years of breaking away from studies. ‘Amazing!!’
was my first reaction when I was pulled inside the depth of the readings of the
books based on political, historical, philosophical and sociological theories. The
experience is as enigmatic as that of a diver who is pulled towards the depth of
the deeper end of the bottom of the ocean.
Kautilya’s book is a complete work that narrates socio-economic structure of a
kingdom and statecrafts that still considered to be relevant in the modern day
society irrespective of the pattern of governance it has.
The 16th century Italian thinker, Niccolo Machiavelli’s renowned work ‘The
Prince’, bears quite a lot of similarities with Arthashastra on warfare and
governance. Machiavellian strategies are different from Kautilyan due to the
cultural and periodical dissimilarity. Nevertheless, both the thinkers had similar
opinion on a very vital point that both of them used to believe, the strategy ,
policy or theories, are good enough to follow for a king as supportive tools of
administration, ultimately the king has to decide his strategical approach as per
the situation.
A strong notion of mine that says application of Kautilyan strategies is possible
in the current political situation in order to have a benedictory rule for people
under a democratic governance and,
The ultimate joy of a strenuous journey lies in its success.
Dr.Kakali Roy Chowdhury
Email:kakalirc@hotmail.com
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