The Edinburgh Companion to Political Realism, 2018
Kauṭilya's realism revolves around two distinct yet connected political goals, which can be attai... more Kauṭilya's realism revolves around two distinct yet connected political goals, which can be attained to the extent that both are efficiently self-regulating: domestic security and foreign expansion. This chapter explores these two dimensions of his realism by tracing an analytical metaphor that pervades the Arthaśāstra: namely, the 'body' and its constituent parts, including the proper role that each part plays in securing internal order and external political expansion. The chapter explains how the underlying logic of this realist stance is a response to natural 'auto-tensions' that follow from individual, political and economic complexities associated with different levels of embodiment. Consequently, Kauṭilya's aim is not to eradicate this complexity but rather to hone and manage it as efficiently as possible, beginning with a unitary conception of ruling power at the top of the political order. Operating in both a top-down and an inside-out fashion, one can observe how a centrifugal, ascetic conception of ruling over oneself and others relies on a 'layered purity' through ritual self-discipline. In sum, Kauṭilyan realism amounts to a totalizing web of tightly controlled socioeconomic and political relations at the macro-level, which aim to mirror perfectly his desired level of control and purity at the micro-level of the ruler and the ruler's closest advisers.
From the late nineteenth to twentieth century, the Bhagavad-Gītā became a transnational text infl... more From the late nineteenth to twentieth century, the Bhagavad-Gītā became a transnational text influenced and molded by British colonialism and Orientalism. In this article, I argue that a particularly influential western figure, Peter Brook, adapted and represented the Gītā for a transnational audience in ways that expanded a neocolonial and Orientalist interpretive horizon for its contemporary reception. This essay examines how Brook's particular approach to and universalist representation of the Gītā reveal an important decolonial paradox: the extension of colonial relations into artistic and scholarly exchanges when attempting to enhance a text's cross-cultural intelligibility. I advance this argument by critically exploring Brook's universalist claims and ethical reflections on war, showing how his neocolonial vision of order-along with his impulse for control and speedy consumption of "performance capital"-ultimately undercut his universalizing aspirations. Finally, this examination elucidates a positive strategy for addressing the decolonial paradox in a contemporary Indian setting.
While numerous methodological and interpretive challenges confront the study of cross-cultural po... more While numerous methodological and interpretive challenges confront the study of cross-cultural political theory, this essay examines a particular premodern Indian tradition as an example of such difficulties and one way in which they can be overcome. Exploring the problematic ways in which people have interpreted and made use of India's ancient past, it critically examines arguments for the existence of secularism, free elections, and democratic assemblies in the Vedas. Defending what I call a " critical revivalist " position, it is argued that predominant approaches to premodern traditions in contemporary Indian political theory place significant constraints on cross-cultural intelligibility and theory building within the Indian context. To elaborate this point, I shift from a " political " to rājan-oriented categorical register in an effort to reposition current understandings of self-rule (swaraj) in India within a broader rajanical tradition. Finally, this essay explains how contemporary Indian political theory can draw insights from this native tradition without necessarily reverting to familiar Western idioms.
Scholars have highlighted various issues and approaches on which to focus attention within the em... more Scholars have highlighted various issues and approaches on which to focus attention within the emerging field of cross-cultural political thought. Developing a responsible methodological approach to non-Western traditions is of particular significance, given the growing importance of such traditions, the danger of cultural reductionism and the undue imposition of Western terms and categories during the comparative process. Consequently, this article argues for a historical approach to Brahmanical-Hindu political thought that examines distinctions between genres, concepts , terms and categories, including how these distinctions influence the historical meaning of political ideas. To illustrate my argument, a revised interpretation of the Sanskrit word mªtsyanyªya — which had been unfortunately translated into the familiar phrase 'state of nature' — both clarifies our understanding of Brahmanical political thought and displays how existing comparisons 'domesticate' important differences between European and Brahmanical political ideas. Such analysis exposes a culturally reductive interpretive process operating within existing comparative scholarship.
Since the rediscovery of the ancient Indian political thinker Kautilya and his Arthaśāstra in the... more Since the rediscovery of the ancient Indian political thinker Kautilya and his Arthaśāstra in the early twentieth century, scholars have argued for similarities between his political thinking and Machiavelli's, especially on the topic of realism. Employing a new analytic approach to reexamine their political thought, I locate unidentified tensions and overlaps between Machiavelli's secular ethic, which pulls towards autonomous standards, and Kautilya's political-theological ethic, which follows traditional brahmanical beliefs. In the first part of the essay, I challenge existing interpretations of Kautilya's thought and clarify a coherent political theology in the Arthaśāstra. The second part critically assesses their realist positions using the concepts of flexibility and legitimacy. While I explain how the Machiavellian position poses justifiable objections to the apparent repression and self-defeating nature of brahmanical realism, I also argue that the Kautilyan position raises important questions concerning both the flexibility and inflexibility of a secular realist position.
Since the rediscovery of the ancient Indian political thinker Kautilya and his Arthaśāstra in the... more Since the rediscovery of the ancient Indian political thinker Kautilya and his Arthaśāstra in the early twentieth century, scholars have argued for similarities between his political thinking and Machiavelli’s, especially on the topic of realism. Employing a new analytic approach to reexamine their political thought, I locate unidentified tensions and overlaps between Machiavelli’s secular ethic, which pulls towards autonomous standards, and Kautilya’s political-theological ethic, which follows traditional brahmanical beliefs. In the first part of the essay, I challenge existing interpretations of Kautilya’s thought and clarify a coherent political theology in the Arthaśāstra. The second part critically assesses their realist positions using the concepts of flexibility and legitimacy. While I explain how the Machiavellian position poses justifiable objections to the apparent repression and self-defeating nature of brahmanical realism, I also argue that the Kautilyan position raises important questions concerning both the flexibility and inflexibility of a secular realist position.
Scholars have highlighted various issues and approaches on which to focus attention within the em... more Scholars have highlighted various issues and approaches on which to focus attention within the emerging field of cross-cultural political thought. Developing a responsible methodological approach to non-Western traditions is of particular significance, given the growing importance of such traditions, the danger of cultural reductionism and the undue imposition of Western terms and categories during the comparative process. Consequently, this article argues for a historical approach to Brahmanical-Hindu political thought that examines distinctions between genres, concepts, terms and categories, including how these distinctions influence the historical meaning of political ideas. To illustrate my argument, a revised interpretation of the Sanskrit word mātsyanyāya — which had been unfortunately translated into the familiar phrase ‘state of nature’ — both clarifies our understanding of Brahmanical political thought and displays how existing comparisons ‘domesticate’ important differences between European and Brahmanical political ideas. Such analysis exposes a culturally reductive interpretive process operating within existing comparative scholarship.
The political thought of Mohandas K. Gandhi has been increasingly used as a paradigmatic example ... more The political thought of Mohandas K. Gandhi has been increasingly used as a paradigmatic example of hybrid political thought that developed out of a cross-cultural dialogue of eastern and western influences. With a novel unpacking of this hybridity, this article focuses on the conceptual influences that Gandhi explicitly stressed in his autobiography and other writings, particularly the works of Leo Tolstoy and the Bhagavad Gītā. This new tracing of influence in the development of Gandhi’s thought alters the substantive thrust of Gandhi’s thought away from more familiar quasi-liberal interpretations and towards a far more substantive bhakti or devotional understanding of politics. The analysis reveals a conception of politics that is not pragmatic in its use of non-violence, but instead points to a devotional focus on cultivating the self (ātman), ultimately dissolving the public/private distinction that many readings of Gandhi’s thought depend upon.
The Edinburgh Companion to Political Realism, 2018
Kauṭilya's realism revolves around two distinct yet connected political goals, which can be attai... more Kauṭilya's realism revolves around two distinct yet connected political goals, which can be attained to the extent that both are efficiently self-regulating: domestic security and foreign expansion. This chapter explores these two dimensions of his realism by tracing an analytical metaphor that pervades the Arthaśāstra: namely, the 'body' and its constituent parts, including the proper role that each part plays in securing internal order and external political expansion. The chapter explains how the underlying logic of this realist stance is a response to natural 'auto-tensions' that follow from individual, political and economic complexities associated with different levels of embodiment. Consequently, Kauṭilya's aim is not to eradicate this complexity but rather to hone and manage it as efficiently as possible, beginning with a unitary conception of ruling power at the top of the political order. Operating in both a top-down and an inside-out fashion, one can observe how a centrifugal, ascetic conception of ruling over oneself and others relies on a 'layered purity' through ritual self-discipline. In sum, Kauṭilyan realism amounts to a totalizing web of tightly controlled socioeconomic and political relations at the macro-level, which aim to mirror perfectly his desired level of control and purity at the micro-level of the ruler and the ruler's closest advisers.
From the late nineteenth to twentieth century, the Bhagavad-Gītā became a transnational text infl... more From the late nineteenth to twentieth century, the Bhagavad-Gītā became a transnational text influenced and molded by British colonialism and Orientalism. In this article, I argue that a particularly influential western figure, Peter Brook, adapted and represented the Gītā for a transnational audience in ways that expanded a neocolonial and Orientalist interpretive horizon for its contemporary reception. This essay examines how Brook's particular approach to and universalist representation of the Gītā reveal an important decolonial paradox: the extension of colonial relations into artistic and scholarly exchanges when attempting to enhance a text's cross-cultural intelligibility. I advance this argument by critically exploring Brook's universalist claims and ethical reflections on war, showing how his neocolonial vision of order-along with his impulse for control and speedy consumption of "performance capital"-ultimately undercut his universalizing aspirations. Finally, this examination elucidates a positive strategy for addressing the decolonial paradox in a contemporary Indian setting.
While numerous methodological and interpretive challenges confront the study of cross-cultural po... more While numerous methodological and interpretive challenges confront the study of cross-cultural political theory, this essay examines a particular premodern Indian tradition as an example of such difficulties and one way in which they can be overcome. Exploring the problematic ways in which people have interpreted and made use of India's ancient past, it critically examines arguments for the existence of secularism, free elections, and democratic assemblies in the Vedas. Defending what I call a " critical revivalist " position, it is argued that predominant approaches to premodern traditions in contemporary Indian political theory place significant constraints on cross-cultural intelligibility and theory building within the Indian context. To elaborate this point, I shift from a " political " to rājan-oriented categorical register in an effort to reposition current understandings of self-rule (swaraj) in India within a broader rajanical tradition. Finally, this essay explains how contemporary Indian political theory can draw insights from this native tradition without necessarily reverting to familiar Western idioms.
Scholars have highlighted various issues and approaches on which to focus attention within the em... more Scholars have highlighted various issues and approaches on which to focus attention within the emerging field of cross-cultural political thought. Developing a responsible methodological approach to non-Western traditions is of particular significance, given the growing importance of such traditions, the danger of cultural reductionism and the undue imposition of Western terms and categories during the comparative process. Consequently, this article argues for a historical approach to Brahmanical-Hindu political thought that examines distinctions between genres, concepts , terms and categories, including how these distinctions influence the historical meaning of political ideas. To illustrate my argument, a revised interpretation of the Sanskrit word mªtsyanyªya — which had been unfortunately translated into the familiar phrase 'state of nature' — both clarifies our understanding of Brahmanical political thought and displays how existing comparisons 'domesticate' important differences between European and Brahmanical political ideas. Such analysis exposes a culturally reductive interpretive process operating within existing comparative scholarship.
Since the rediscovery of the ancient Indian political thinker Kautilya and his Arthaśāstra in the... more Since the rediscovery of the ancient Indian political thinker Kautilya and his Arthaśāstra in the early twentieth century, scholars have argued for similarities between his political thinking and Machiavelli's, especially on the topic of realism. Employing a new analytic approach to reexamine their political thought, I locate unidentified tensions and overlaps between Machiavelli's secular ethic, which pulls towards autonomous standards, and Kautilya's political-theological ethic, which follows traditional brahmanical beliefs. In the first part of the essay, I challenge existing interpretations of Kautilya's thought and clarify a coherent political theology in the Arthaśāstra. The second part critically assesses their realist positions using the concepts of flexibility and legitimacy. While I explain how the Machiavellian position poses justifiable objections to the apparent repression and self-defeating nature of brahmanical realism, I also argue that the Kautilyan position raises important questions concerning both the flexibility and inflexibility of a secular realist position.
Since the rediscovery of the ancient Indian political thinker Kautilya and his Arthaśāstra in the... more Since the rediscovery of the ancient Indian political thinker Kautilya and his Arthaśāstra in the early twentieth century, scholars have argued for similarities between his political thinking and Machiavelli’s, especially on the topic of realism. Employing a new analytic approach to reexamine their political thought, I locate unidentified tensions and overlaps between Machiavelli’s secular ethic, which pulls towards autonomous standards, and Kautilya’s political-theological ethic, which follows traditional brahmanical beliefs. In the first part of the essay, I challenge existing interpretations of Kautilya’s thought and clarify a coherent political theology in the Arthaśāstra. The second part critically assesses their realist positions using the concepts of flexibility and legitimacy. While I explain how the Machiavellian position poses justifiable objections to the apparent repression and self-defeating nature of brahmanical realism, I also argue that the Kautilyan position raises important questions concerning both the flexibility and inflexibility of a secular realist position.
Scholars have highlighted various issues and approaches on which to focus attention within the em... more Scholars have highlighted various issues and approaches on which to focus attention within the emerging field of cross-cultural political thought. Developing a responsible methodological approach to non-Western traditions is of particular significance, given the growing importance of such traditions, the danger of cultural reductionism and the undue imposition of Western terms and categories during the comparative process. Consequently, this article argues for a historical approach to Brahmanical-Hindu political thought that examines distinctions between genres, concepts, terms and categories, including how these distinctions influence the historical meaning of political ideas. To illustrate my argument, a revised interpretation of the Sanskrit word mātsyanyāya — which had been unfortunately translated into the familiar phrase ‘state of nature’ — both clarifies our understanding of Brahmanical political thought and displays how existing comparisons ‘domesticate’ important differences between European and Brahmanical political ideas. Such analysis exposes a culturally reductive interpretive process operating within existing comparative scholarship.
The political thought of Mohandas K. Gandhi has been increasingly used as a paradigmatic example ... more The political thought of Mohandas K. Gandhi has been increasingly used as a paradigmatic example of hybrid political thought that developed out of a cross-cultural dialogue of eastern and western influences. With a novel unpacking of this hybridity, this article focuses on the conceptual influences that Gandhi explicitly stressed in his autobiography and other writings, particularly the works of Leo Tolstoy and the Bhagavad Gītā. This new tracing of influence in the development of Gandhi’s thought alters the substantive thrust of Gandhi’s thought away from more familiar quasi-liberal interpretations and towards a far more substantive bhakti or devotional understanding of politics. The analysis reveals a conception of politics that is not pragmatic in its use of non-violence, but instead points to a devotional focus on cultivating the self (ātman), ultimately dissolving the public/private distinction that many readings of Gandhi’s thought depend upon.
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Papers by Stuart Gray
secular ethic, which pulls towards autonomous standards, and Kautilya’s political-theological ethic, which follows traditional brahmanical beliefs. In the first part of the essay, I challenge existing interpretations of Kautilya’s thought and clarify a coherent political theology in the Arthaśāstra. The second part critically assesses their realist positions using the concepts of flexibility and
legitimacy. While I explain how the Machiavellian position poses justifiable objections to the apparent repression and self-defeating nature of brahmanical realism, I also argue that the Kautilyan position raises important questions concerning both the flexibility and inflexibility of a secular realist position.
familiar phrase ‘state of nature’ — both clarifies our understanding of Brahmanical political thought and displays how existing comparisons ‘domesticate’ important differences between European and Brahmanical political ideas. Such analysis exposes a
culturally reductive interpretive process operating within existing comparative scholarship.
Books by Stuart Gray
secular ethic, which pulls towards autonomous standards, and Kautilya’s political-theological ethic, which follows traditional brahmanical beliefs. In the first part of the essay, I challenge existing interpretations of Kautilya’s thought and clarify a coherent political theology in the Arthaśāstra. The second part critically assesses their realist positions using the concepts of flexibility and
legitimacy. While I explain how the Machiavellian position poses justifiable objections to the apparent repression and self-defeating nature of brahmanical realism, I also argue that the Kautilyan position raises important questions concerning both the flexibility and inflexibility of a secular realist position.
familiar phrase ‘state of nature’ — both clarifies our understanding of Brahmanical political thought and displays how existing comparisons ‘domesticate’ important differences between European and Brahmanical political ideas. Such analysis exposes a
culturally reductive interpretive process operating within existing comparative scholarship.