Page 14 - SAU Connect December 2019

The Quarterly Newsletter of South Asian University | Volume 4 Issue 2 December 2019

SAU Bookshelf

Medha Bisht, Kautilya Arthashastra: Philosophy of Strategy
(Routledge:London and New York, 2019)

Non-western classics not only invite us to understand multiple
thoughtways, but also familiarize us with a genre of epistemic
practices which stemmed from specific geo-cultural
spaces.Significantly, reading classics helps emancipate ideas
which are non-western and helps decolonising disciplines such
as International Relations, which were primarily built on the
experience and the intellectual thought of the Anglo-
American world. A classic reflection of such unconscious
cognitive bias is indicated through interpretations of
Kautilya’s Arthashastra, as the treatment of the text is driven
by a paradigmatic approach, and little effort has been given to
understand the philosophical/ideational underpinnings of
Hindu philosophy which inspired the grand strategic design
offered in Kautilya’s Arthashastra.The book examines in detail
the strategic relevance of the Arthashastra and situates this
classical treatise on state and statecraft at the intersection of
Political Theory and International Relations.Adopting a
hermeneutic approach, the book discusses certain homologies related to concepts such as power, order,
and morality as used in International Relations.

Book Discussion

Promodini Varma and Anubhav Pradhan were invited to the 3rd edition of the Valley of Words, the
International Literature and Arts Festival held at Dehradun from 15 to 17 November 2019, to talk about
their recently released book Yeats and Kipling at 150: Retrospectives/Perspectives, which they have edited.
In conversation with Divya Saksena, Dean, Liberal Arts, at the IMU Unison University at Dehradun, they
discussed the continuing relevance of W B Yeats and the recent revival in Kipling studies. Though Kipling's
very popular Jungle Books have never really gone out of favour, with newer versions of these stories
filmed every few years, Kipling the imperialist had taken a rather severe beating after his rather meteoric
early rise in the last century. However, postcolonial studies have once again generated interest in both
Kipling and Yeats with many Indian scholars, included in their volume, doing good work on both.

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