Kautilyanomics for Modern Times

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India was an economic power to reckon with until its economic decline in the 18th century. What explains this long period of prosperity? The answer might lie in a framework of social and economic thought that lies buried in our ancient heritage, says Sriram Balasubramanian, of which Kautilya's Arthashastra is a major example.

Kautilyanomics for Modern Times seeks to do three things-first, to provide a structure and a context for Kautilya's economic thoughts; second, to examine his work's relevance today; and third, to do it in a way that a lay reader can follow and grasp easily. Kautilya's thought is mainly articulated through the prism of dharmic capitalism and its components-some examples include his views on global economic outlook, state-market dynamics, and sustainable growth through observance of environmental, societal and familial responsibilities.

Fathoming India's rich economic and philosophical heritage and making use of it, Balasubramanian argues, would prove to be a great asset in India's/the country's/the nation's ascent again.

I was sitting on the veranda of the Madras Sanskrit College (MSC) with three things in front of me. Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, a one page summary of the Arthashastra, and the buzzing Chennai metropolis. Three things that seemed extremely unrelated somehow coalesced to get me thinking: Why is ancient Indian economic thought barely mentioned when talking about the Indian economy?

The Indian growth story after economic liberalisation in the 1990s has been one of the most discussed developmental success stories in the world. Rapid development in infrastructure and technology has powered this growth over the last few decades. Be it the mobile phones that we use, the expansive highways that we drive through or the enormous shopping malls that have engulfed our cities-all of this has transformed the way we live our lives for the better. Yet the emergence of India as a global power isn't a once in a millennium event. Until its relatively recent decline in the Eighteenth century, it was a global economic powerhouse for several centuries. Angus Maddison, the renowned economist and historian known for his work on the historical gross domestic product (GDP), showcased in his research that India and China were the leading economies (in terms of GDP and GDP per capita) in the world from O CE until the 17th century CE (Maddison 2001). Numerous historical accounts such as those by Alexander the Great, ancient Greeks such as Megasthenes, Chinese historian and traveller Feix in and the Seleucids (rulers of the erstwhile Hellenistic state from Western Asia) have all reiterated this in their writings. While some have analysed the reasons for India's economic dominance in this period, my intuitive view is that there had to have been a functioning ecosystem prior to o CE for India to have been a superpower back then. There had to be a philosophical and economic framework that provided the springboard for almost a millennium of economic growth. Furthermore, this would also mean that the foundations of modern economic history attributed to Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations can be predated by several centuries to individuals in the Indian subcontinent from an earlier era that was equally prosperous. Many other countries, Japan and China to name a few, who have a similar heritage have made efforts to document their past and learn from it. However, these questions were neither answered in history books that I was taught in my school nor the ones that I read later as an adult. It is no wonder then that I wasn't able to find any of ancient thought in our contemporary academic discourse on economics.

**Contents and Sample Pages**