The title of this blog, Raja-Mandala, is drawn from the ancient Indian description of the laws that govern the conduct of relations within a circle of states. While the mandala theory of international politics was referred to in many of India's dharmashastras, it was Kaultilya's Arthashastra that codified it.

Raja-Mandala is, in part, a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the publication of Arthashastra. Kautilya's long forgotten wisdom from the fourth and third century BC was restored to modern India when Dr. Shamashastri of Mysore discovered a manuscript of the Arthashastra in 1904 and published it to great acclaim in 1909.

This blog—a conversation on New Delhi's statecraft and diplomacy—wants to underline the need for a rising India to create a strategic vocabulary all of its own. That India's strategic lexicon must be rooted in its own political traditions has not always been self-evident.

Much like the Chinese Communists and nationalists in the 20th century, the Indian political classes too had little time for theories of statecraft from the past. It was all too easy to borrow political terminology from the West.

This bias is bound to change as China and India emerge as great powers in the 21st century. As they begin to end the Western political dominance, strategic thought from Asia's past is likely to return to the centre stage.

Chinese communists, who once denounced Confucius, now swear by him. Meanwhile, Western scholarship has begun devoting considerable attention to China's ancient strategic thought. Sun-Tzu has been required reading in U.S. military colleges for quite some years.

... contd.