Ethics and Integrity: Contribution by Moral Thinkers- Kautilya

Kautilya was the shrewdest minister in the court of Chandragupta Maurya during 317-293 BC. He has expressed his views on state, war, social structures, diplomacy, ethics, politics and statecraft in his work Arthashastra. Kautilya was known for his sharp opinion on each of the four dimension framework of: war and peace, human rights, international economic justice and world order. The work is said to be based on political realism where the state is considered paramount and the king is bound to carry out all his duties to preserve the state. He justifies gory and brutal means to be adopted by a king to stay in power.

• He proposed welfare state but encouraged war for preserving the power of the state. He strongly believed that a king should constantly struggle to augment his power. This coincides with Weber’s view that international politics has no morals and states must be at war at all times.
• He also advocated that science is a great source of power. He further believed that ‘power is strength and it is the strength which changes the mind. This view has its parallels with Thomas Hobbes viewpoints. He is thus a realist and stresses on ethics of responsibility. He strongly believes that for any king to have power he should focus on creation of wealth, have sound armies and should be able to conquer more kingdoms to enlarge the size of his state.
• In a war-like situation both Kautilya and Machiavelli share the same reasoning. Both propagate that a king should be closely involved in the science of war. Kautilya has proposed three types of war:
  • Open war: War fought between states
  • Concealed war: It is fought on the lines of guerrilla warfare
  • Silent war: It is fought continuously inside the kingdom itself so that the king’s power does not get diluted.

However, Kautilya was quite harsh in his detailed narrations of war and he also considered women as weapons of war. Kautilya was also a strong advocate of social structure. He had strong belief in caste system and the relative position of man and woman in a caste. He defends the state under all stances and advocates that religion and morals are supposed to serve the state. There was no place of chivalry in the war.

Kautilya was very clear about his ideals about prosperity and control of state. He stood for a just and realistic rule of law.

• He gave great importance to property rights and protection of wealth. He advocated that one could get rid of corporeal punishment by paying off fines. He puts great stress on human rights and on how the invaded ruler and his ministers should be treated.
• He emphasizes criminal justice and war justice. Contrastingly, for a man of his nature who was both harsh and realist, he showed mercy towards people who were defeated in war. He instead advocated that the defeated king should be treated with respect and be made an ally.
• In regards of punishments he believed that punishment is a means to an end and needs to prevent the commission of the crime. He was greatly devoted to social structure and believed that Brahmins should be given less severe punishment and should not be inflicted any torture. Thus, dandaniti was very dear to him which included protecting property, acquiring property, augmenting and distributing the same.
• His view on crime and justice is very elaborate and he advocates different punishments depending upon if the crimes were committed while in public office, civil crimes, sexual crimes or religious crimes.

In terms of diplomacy he was clear that nations always acted in their political, economic and military self-interest. He strongly said that all foreign policy and diplomacy will be practiced as long as the self-interest of the state is served. He stood for the belief that diplomacy is a series of actions taken by a kingdom such that it gains apparent strength and is able to conquer the nation with which diplomatic ties were created.

Kautilya’s Concept of Rajrishi and Its relevance today [Important]

The concept of Rajrishi envisaged by Kautilya is very important for a good King. This concept is very close to the concept of “Philosopher King” by Plato. In this concept, Kautilya has identified indicators of good governance. These indicators are as follows:

• An ideal king must merge his individuality with duties
• An administrator must guide properly.
• An ideal king must avoid extremes without missing the goal.
• The king and public servants must get fixed salaries and allowances.
• The main duty of the king and servants is to maintain law and order. The losses due to theft and corruption should be made good from kings’ and his servant’s salary.
• An important duty of king is to carry out preventive and punitive measures against corrupt officials.
• Another important duty of king is to find replacement of ministers by good ones.
• Disciplined life with a code of conduct for king and ministers
• Kautilya also lays great stress on appointment of Amatyas who were the highest in status. They were selected on merit with great care

Emulation of administrative qualities like uniformity in administrative practice, ‘ competent ministers the king possessing qualities of leadership, intelligent, good moral conduct and physical powers.