IDSA Scholars Participate in Trilateral Workshop on Kautilya's Arthashastra in a Trans-cultural Perspective

A two day international workshop was organised jointly by the Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis (IDSA), Delhi (India) and the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS), National University of Singapore (NUS) in Singapore on February 25-26, 2016.

The workshop discussed the core concepts of Kautilya’s Arthashastra and compared them with the politico-strategic writings of Sun-Tzu (The Art of War), Niccolo Machiavelli (Discorsi and Il Principe), Persia's Nizam ul-Mulk ('The Book of Government') and the political philosopher Barani (Fatwa-i-Jahandari).

The central endeavour at the workshop was to understand the manifest and latent influence of Kautilyan thought on the foreign policy and domestic politics of South Asia. The workshop also tried to establish whether there had been a 'trans-cultural flow' of Kautilyan thought-figures beyond the South Asian subcontinent.

Col. P.K. Gautam (Retd.), Dr. Pratibha, and Dr. Saurabh Mishra joined the workshop from IDSA.

Click here for ISAS special report on the workshop