IDSA Workshop on Kautilya: Creating Strategic Vocabulary

April 09, 2013

The Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) organised a ‘Workshop on Kautilya: Creating Strategic Vocabulary” on April 9, 2013. The workshop was a part of the IDSA project on Indigenous Historical Knowledge. It followed an introductory workshop on Kautilya organised by IDSA on October 18, 2012, which discussed the relevance of Kautilya in Indian strategic thinking.

The workshop started from the point suggested by Mr Shivshankar Menon, National Security Advisor, in the previous workshop, about the need of developing an indigenous vocabulary. A total of six presentations were made relating the Kautilyan concepts and terms to the contemporary affairs of international relations, peace studies, war, intelligence and internal security. The presenters were Dr. Deepshikha Shahi, Asstt. Prof. Janki Devi Memorial College, University of Delhi, Mr. Kota Mallikarjuna Gupta, Student, Nelson Mandela Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution, New Delhi, Mr. Satyam Malaviya, Student, Nelson Mandela Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution, New Delhi, Mr. Jean Langlois, from EHESS, School for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences, France, Group Captain Vinay Vittal, Air HQ and P K Gautam, Research Fellow, IDSA.

The deliberations covered a constructivist interpretation of Arthashastra, aspects of peace in Kautilya, troop solidarity on the battlefield, the grand strategy, just war, laws of armed conflicts and many other topics during the discussions.

Dr. Kalyan Raman, Research Fellow IDSA said that we should avoid looking for an Indian IR theory in isolation from the Mainstream or the so called western IR knowledge body. We should rather integrate our indigenous knowledge body with the mainstream.

In his concluding remarks, Director General IDSA, Dr. Arvind Gupta, said “we rather need an Indian discourse of International Relations than Indian International Relations Theory, and the workshop is a small step towards this goal.”

Colonel P K Gautam (Retd.) Research Fellow IDSA, who is steering the project, chaired the workshop.