Balbir Sihag's book on Kautilya: the most important economics book in India since the Arthashastra

[Sanjeev Sabhlok]

I was eagerly looking forward to reading Prof. Balbir Sihag's book (although I've read most of his underlying articles published in peer reviewed journals and commented on many of them on my blog). 

I procured the hard copy in India during my recent trip and have finally started reading it today. It is a pure gem of a book, the most important economics book written in India since the time of Kautilya himself. Please do buy it and read it. 

Now it is also on Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Kautilya-The-True-Founder-Economics-ebook/dp/B00JKMLQ52. Only $6! A steal. Get it!

I've already commented extensively on Prof. Sihag's work on my blog, but will write some more at the end of my reading of this book. Indeed, given time, I'd myself like to add to the scholarship on Chanakya - since in my view he demonstrates GREATER knowledge of key economic concepts applicable to public policy than ANY economist, dead or alive. Most economists have tunnel vision and aren't able to appreciate broader issues of governance. Chanakya is ranges broadly and deeply across a wide canvas. 

He is also important for two other reasons:

- a great critical thinker and agnostic 

- confirms that cow meat was widely consumed in ancient India (the cow - which was worshipped, but eaten after it became barren - became "holy" only later because of Jain influence, and now we have the disastrous situation in India where farmers deposit cows in cities where they feed on garbage bins and accumulate many kilos of polythene and nails in the stomach. Let's revert to a more humane policy for cows - send them to a merciful death at the butcher. Let's not torture them the way we do. Hypocrites, all. Chanakya would have been appalled at how hypocritical - and squarely opposed to the truth - Indians have become).

At a minimum, I'd hope that all economists will start thinking more deeply about Arthashastra now. I expect to see a flurry of books and articles on Chanakya across the world. Application of many ideas from Arthashastra to India is guaranteed to make India the Sone Ki Chidiya that it once was.

Btw, I am planning to convene a meeting over the next six months in India of those interested in setting up a Chanakya School of Government. This man, Chanakya, is unambiguously the greatest Indian of all times, and deserves a major school in his honour. The school would not only teach Chanakya's work but become the world's best school of government. 

To progress this school, I have purchased the domain csog.in I will now prepare an outline proposal in the coming weeks and circulate it widely for comment. 

For the meeting, I'm proposing to invitee the following:

Balbir Sihag

Ashok Desai

Gurcharan Das

Nandan Nilekani

Varun Arya

Prajapati Trivedi

Parth Shah

Barun Mitra

Bibek Debroy

Justice Tewatia

Gopal Subramaniam

Jaya Indiresan

TN Chaturvedi

Arun Kumar

Ishwar Dayal

(FTI members can volunteer to help organise)

This is a very tentative list. Please send send me names of others whom I should invite - along with their ph. no./ email ID, etc.

Please also circulate this email as widely as you can - so everyone in India starts reading this book on Chanakya, and gets involved in setting up Chanakya School of Government. 

Regards

Sanjeev

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