The Problem of the Indian Polity

Ancient Indian polity has always been an interesting and rewarding subject of study. Contrary to the view of the Western orientalists that ancient India produced only philosophers and mystics to utter neglect of all secular aspects of life which state of affair resulted in repeated subjugation of the nation by foreigners, it has been proved by Indian scholars, once and again, that Indians were not backward in materiat sciences and political thought and statecraft. Since the discovery of Kautilya’s Arthasastra, the study of ancient Indian polity gained momentum and serious attempts were made, during the days of freedom movements, to reevaluate the political and economic concepts of ancient India. The present volume embodies the results of such an attempt. The author of the present work has made a valuable in this study of Indian polity. He has dealt with the subject with unprecedented thoroughness and comprehensiveness. He has not only tried to interpret classical texts on Indian polity like Arthasastra and Kamandakiya and allied material, but has also sought to present the problem of Indian polity in relation to the life of the whole people. The main aim of the treatise is the understand the ideals, the philosophical bases and the foundations of ancient Indian political thought-social, religious and administrative. The main effort of the treatise, therefore, is to grasp the nature of polity as a whole, as infiuenced by its philosophical bases. The author has convincingly shown that ancient Indian state was fare from being secular, in the true sense of the term, but was itself a socio-politico-religious institution. To prove his point the author has traversed the whole of ancient Indian literature and has compared Indian ideals with their Western parallels. He has also tried to discover the present value of ancient ideals of India with a view to formulating the basis of the polity of the future. He has valuable things to say regarding the spiritual foundations which must be laid for the building of the India that is to be.