Kaushik Roy challenges the view, common among Western scholars, that precolonial India lacked a tradition of military philosophy in his book. He traces the evolution of theories of warfare in India from the dawn of civilization, focusing on the debate between Dharmayuddha (Just War) and Kutayuddha (Unjust War) within Hindu philosophy. This debate centers around four questions: What is war? What justifies it? How should it be waged? And what are its potential repercussions? This body of literature provides evidence of the historical evolution of strategic thought in the Indian subcontinent that has heretofore been neglected by modern historians. Further, it provides a counterpoint to scholarship in political science that engages solely with Western theories in its analysis of independent India’s philosophy of warfare. Ultimately, a better understanding of the legacy of ancient India’s strategic theorizing will enable more accurate analysis of modern India’s military and nuclear policies.
Here are excerpts from this book:
“”The dominant view among Western scholars is that pre-British India
had no tradition of strategic thinking. There have been some sporadic
attempts by Western commentators to flesh out military ethics based
on examination of Hindu religious texts. What we lack is a consistent
analytical narrative, taking into account the opinions of different Indian
acharyas (teachers) who wrote commentaries on vigraha (war) and justice
throughout the ancient and medieval eras. To give an example, very
few Western scholars know that Kamandaka (sixth century ce ) speaks
of the interrelationship between righteous war, people’s support and a
stable government, long before Carl Von Clausewitz came up with his
famous trinity. And Kautilya (third century bce ) is probably the first
authority on biological warfare. Again, Kautilya, Manu (Common Era)
and Kamandaka wrote about the interconnections between conventional
warfare ( vigraha) and insurgencies ( kopa). Modern historians dealing
with South Asia completely neglect the historical evolution of military
strategic thought on the Indian subcontinent. And political scientists
mostly engage with Western theories while trying to analyze the contours
of independent India’s philosophy of warfare and nuclear gaming.
The objective of this volume is to trace the effect of Hinduism on
the evolution of theories of warfare in India from the dawn of civilization
until the present era. The focus is to bring out the complex debate
between dharmayuddha and kutayuddha within Hindu philosophy.
It must be noted that these two concepts are mere abstract and ideal
In this volume the term “theory of warfare” is considered equivalent to the philosophy
behind warfare.
Hinduism and the Ethics of Warfare in South Asia types, and in pure form have never existed or operated in history. The terms are to be understood as a heuristic device for clarifying certaintrends in history. Somewhat like Carl Von Clausewitz’s concept of absolute war/total war, dharmayuddha and kutayuddha are ideal concepts that can never actually be realized due to ‘frictions’ in the real world. In fact, the two above-mentioned Hindu concepts were never frozenin time. Rather, they have evolved through the last two millennia. For instance, the concept of dharmayuddha in the two epics ( Ramayana and Mahabharata around 400 bce ) is quite different from the dharmayuddha concept that emerged in the Manavadharmasastra ( Laws of Manu ) composed around the Common Era. This book attempts to show how these two key concepts have emerged gradually throughout the last two millennia.
The debate revolves around four questions: what is war, what are the
justii cations for starting it, how it should be waged, and finally, what
could be the possible repercussions of using organized violence? The
tension between the Lokayata (i.e., empiricist/positivist/materialist) and
non-materialist/spiritual traditions within darsana (Indian philosophy)
needs to be chiseled out. Hence, the comparative analysis of different
religious-cultural streams within the heterogeneous Hindu tradition is
undertaken. This monograph partly takes into account the religious traditions that emerged within India (i.e., Buddhism and Jainism) as well as the foreign inputs (Islam and Christian militarism) and how they have shaped the traditional Hindu view of the relationship between warfare, politics and good governance.”
(The book is available at https://www.amazon.in/Hinduism-Ethics-Warfare-South-Asia/dp/110701736X)
