Context is King: Situating the Kautilyan Notion of Sovereignty within India’s Strategic Traditions

Abstract

Where does the intellectual exercise of tracing the origins of India’s strategic history lead us? What motivates researchers and political elite to identify and uphold key values as intrinsic to a state’s very existence? In seeking answers to these questions, the paper problematises attempts at theorising state building in India that have leveraged history to address contemporary concerns. They have also led to the essentialisation of national identity that seeks to distill, from the vast diversity of historical experiences, certain basic characteristics that presumably remain unchanged across epochs. Together, these have given us a sanitised version of the Indian state. The paper suggests that one of the ways to address this lacuna is through the process of historicising. It seeks to recover historical contingency by locating Kautilya within the ancient arthashastra tradition that upheld the theory of contractual kingship. The paper argues that the significance of Kautilyan philosophy can be grasped by understanding the material and ideational conditions prevalent at that time. More specifically, an appreciation of sovereignty in ancient India would be vital in order to understand state behaviour, diplomatic practices, role of ethics in statecraft (or lack thereof), and practices concerning territoriality. Being attentive to the cultural context of power and political fragmentation, it is argued, would yield a fuller understanding of Kautilya than an essentialist and ahistorical approach would afford.