Chanakya’s book on political economy is a heritage of all Indians

The University of Hyderabad celebrated Sanskrit week and organised a lecture by A.K. Khan, DGP, Anti Corruption Bureau, Telangana State on ‘Arthasastra’ and its relevance to present-day administration. Mr. Khan spoke at length on the subject giving a detailed overview of the text and then presenting the take-away from the text, amongst which two aspects stand out.

Whereas “The Art of War” has to be mandatorily read even in the US Army academies, ‘Arthasastra’ which deals extensively with foreign relations and military affairs is not in the prescribed syllabus for officers of Indian Foreign Services or the Indian Army.

The second point was that India today is passing more and more draconian laws with tax implementation, whereas the ideal system would be moderate laws with much higher levels of enforcement, which seems to be the situation at the time of ‘Arthasastra’, said Mr. Khan.

A treatise

At the beginning of his lecture, Mr. Khan described Arthasastra as a succinct treatise on the Political Economy dealing with, amongst others, City Administration, Town Planning, Taxation, Census taking, Civil Amenities, Environment Protection, Management of Crafts and Guilds, Vigilance, Duties of a King, Grooming of a Successor, Foreign Relations, Military Affairs and others. While giving an overview of each section, he mentioned certain specifics or at other times gave examples to illuminate the topic.

In passing, the former Traffic Head of Hyderabad, mentioned that the Arthasastra had penalties for a cart being driven by a child, or being unattended.

Delving on the Vigilance Department, he noted that Kautilya recognised that corruption is inevitable in treasury, etc. and therefore emphasised preventive measures more than post-facto punishments. A government servant is like a fish in water, and just like a fish is bound to drink some water, an officer dealing with treasury might partake of the royal income. Expecting a person dealing with money day in and day out not to keep some for himself, is like asking a person to have honey on the tip of his tongue not to pull the tongue inside.

Mr. Khan also pointed out that for economic offences; fines were the norm rather than imprisonment. Also, the fines collected accrued to the affected party and not the State.

He showed how some of the present day programmes like Swachh Bharat and Skill Development Programmes, find mention in the text.

Chanakya has given a number of rules for protection of environment and made training of apprentices mandatory in the guilds. This approach of training the youth is very much required, Mr. Khan urged, if India were to reap its demographic dividend. Some of the examples of laws he cited, were those dealing with land encroachment, and nuisance laws.

Overall, Mr. Khan observed that what strikes a reader of Arthasastra was the emphasis on fairness of law and punishment. Kautilya warned against laws and punishments which were excessive as these make the King lose the support of people. He contrasted that with the present situation of tough laws and soft implementation and how this makes many foreigners wonder as to why the world’s largest democracy has such draconian laws.

Mr. Khan, having thus illustrated the relevance of Arthasastra, was pained that this text was not required to be compulsorily read by officers governing India.

He was of the view that there is a need to prescribe such texts in Officer Training Academies.

Mr. Khan said that he read the entire text and did not find anything religious in this, and that this situation obtains in text after text in Sanskrit. This is the common heritage of Indians and should be cherished by all.

The association between a language and a religion, between Urdu and Islam, or between Sanskrit and Hinduism should be removed and each language must be approached with an open mind.