Bookmark Arthashastra and Indian polity

Politics in India by M.M. Sankhdher and Dr Gurdeep Kaur, Deep & Deep Publications Pvt Ltd, 506 pp, Rs 1,400.00

Indian politics has come to be classified as a curious mix of ideology and sheer opportunism, especially in the light of the turns it has taken in the last one decade. The concept of ramrajya gets only lip service; in reality, it is just the opposite in almost all its elements. Vote banks with fast-changing faces, quick shifting loyalties and thrust have become the order of the day, frequently taking U-turns from pre-election to post-election scenarios to meet the whims, fancies and power greed of political functionaries and leaders (elected, defeated and non-contested). It is in this context that the edited collection of articles and papers incorporated in the book under review are of a high degree of relevance for intellectuals and researchers of modern politics, political developments and political thoughts.

With the discovery of Kautilya'sArthashastra in 1904, Western colonial writers attempted to impose supremacy of their conceptual and working framework on India'sancient political setup and theoretical propositions based on what our people thought and practiced in ancient times. These have been very well presented in eight write-ups that form Part I of the book. Kautilya'stechniques of statecraft, foundations of Indian polity, conceptual framework of Brahmanism, kingship in sukra niti, political ideas in the Ramayana, and statecraft in the Mahabharata have been very well researched and presented.

Medieval times to present-day thinking in the political arena of India forms part of the second set of presentations which consists of nine articles.

Medieval times to present-day thinking in the political arena of India forms part of the second set of presentations which consists of nine articles/papers, each dealing with ?Political Ethics of Guru Granth Sahib?, ?Socialism in Theory and Practice?, ?Veer Savarkar: Thought and Action?, ?Gandhi Between Tradition and Modernity?, etc. These present a fairly good and updated picture of modern political thoughts, though, of course, the extent of their functionality and practice is missing. Thus this exercise by research scholars appears to be an attempt at theorising without much thinking on their practicality and functionality in a constitutional structure borrowed from the British.

It may be attributed to the fact that the first generation of lndian leadership in the 20th century has been the product of the British higher education/university system which is by and large, based on desk/library work rather than field work/case studies. As many as eight papers/articles presented here deal with the post-Independence scenario under the theme of ?Politics in Modern India?, ?Indira Gandhi and Congress Party?, ?Politics of Terrorism in India?, ?Role of Indian Bureaucracy?, which have been presented, analysed and evaluated. To provide ready reference for further work and authenticate various sets of themes and thoughts, a select bibliography of relevant literature has been provided at the end; this is followed by a functional index.

With the discovery of Kautilya'sArthashastra in 1904, Western colonial writers attempted to impose supremacy of their conceptual and working framework on India'sancient political setup.

On the whole, this publication is an extremely useful contribution which reflects the seriousness in academic pursuits and research interests of Prof. M.M. Sankhdher and Gurdeep Kaur. Traditionally, Indian academics have, by and large, remained serious thinkers rather than practical politicians and political operators, and as such, their work reflects this phenomenon. It would have been more appropriate to enlist the cooperation of legal and constitutional luminaries and well-known political personalities of present and past so that the utility of this publication would have been of high order for all stakeholders (including functional researchers and social scientists). It would also be appreciated if contours of 20-plus party governments and similar opposition could be examined in detail along with ministerial ?aya Ram, gaya Ram? running after chairs and power centres, along with their deeds/misdeeds on which plenty of judicial verdicts and pronouncements are available today.

(The author is retired Director, Delhi School of Economics, Delhi University and can be contacted at [email protected])