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Kautilya: The Circle of Power

Sunil Khilnani explores the life and legacy of Kautilya, a political strategist described as the Indian Machiavelli, whose treatise on statecraft is consulted even today.

Professor Sunil Khilnani, from the King's India Institute in London, looks at the life and legacy of Kautilya, whose treatise on political power dates back at least two thousand years. The Indian political strategist has been compared to Machiavelli. Some say he is more ruthless. Kautilya's text, written on dried palm leaves, lay forgotten for more than a millennium until it turned up at a library in Mysore at the turn of the twentieth century, providing inspiration for early Indian nationalists. "The discovery summarily exploded a Western clichΓ©: that Indians were primarily ethereal, spiritual thinkers," observes Professor Khilnani. "Here was a strategic text--focused on worldly ends, advocating ruthless means to achieve power."
Producer: Mark Savage
With incidental music by the composer Talvin Singh.
Listeners can catch up with the series and see the list of remarkable Indians featured on the Radio 4 website.

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15 minutes

Last on

Fri 22 Jan 2016 02:15

Broadcasts

  • Thu 14 May 2015 13:45
  • Thu 21 Jan 2016 14:15
  • Fri 22 Jan 2016 02:15

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