He was cunning-some say wicked, arrogant, and egoistic. He could go to any extent to fulfill his objective. Even accused of murders. Morality was not a word in his dictionary. A traitor by conventional means. In his times he was more hated than he has ever been loved thereafter. At times his own men suspected him because he was overtly secretive.Conversely – He was one of the most learned men of all times. A strict disciplinarian and an astute politician. He commanded unparalleled respect from people across ideology, sects, religions and nationality. One is often awed by the qualities a single person would ever possess and hence he often remains as much a myth as history.
Yet one quality that always separates him out is – His vision. A vision hitherto never thought of. Nay ! – Something that was so well ahead of the times that it took another nineteen hundred years for another one like him to walk the rope.
Arya Chanakya aka Kautilya aka Vishnugupta was the architect of India in true sense. Of course, many may disagree with this –given the fact that we are still stuck in the date of birth controversy about India ! ( there is a controversy about usage of this name as well !. but that’s for later). For some it starts with the tale of ‘Bharat’ –which again is argued to have ‘happened’ ranging from 10,000 years to 50,000 years ago!. Some ‘scholars ‘attribute it to the Mughal times while others give a sacrosanct date-year of 1492 AD!. Then there are the neo evangelists – who depending on their ideological (and of course political) positions, attribute it to years 1818, 1947 etc etc !.
For me, Chanakya remains the greatest teacher for students of polity till date and one of the greatest visionaries of all times ! Unfortunately, he is revered, but not worshipped in this country - and understandably so because we as a society have always believed in the righteousness of the means as much as the sanctity of the goal. And Chanakya fails this test!. However, I firmly believe that we owe our identiy to this man as much –or should I say MORE -as we owe to the legends of all times.
Anyways, much can be written about Chanakya and tons of material already available everywhere. That is not the subject of this article. History always repeats itself ( ah well good Mr Gosavi for letting us know this !! ) and the socio-political situation was no different around 500 yrs ago ( or you can take any number for that matter, barring a few instances and places in the history o India) ,as it was during the times of Chanakya.
Even today, we have the Dhananands who are ruling the Empire of ‘India ’ in an aristocratic sense. , the Paurus and the Ambhis who donot tend to look beyond their kingdoms and the Kalingas who have ‘bought’ peace with the mighty!. Then there are the ‘rebels’ who have the courage but not the statesmanship, the good hearted who have the urge but not the conviction and many others who have a bit of all but no means to help better the situation. There is increasing anarchy with the common people loosing their confidence with the ruling class. A sense of terrible helplessness reflecting everywhere – A perfect recipe for a rebellion (“Not in a classical sense” I should say – else I may be convicted of treason! ). To top it, We also have the Alexanders of modern times knocking our doors in a political and economic sense! .
What we desperately need today is a ‘Chanakya’- to dream, believe in his dream, make us believe in his vision and march us in that direction! ‘Acharya’ – We need you !!. And we need you as never before!!. We might have a Chanakya somewhere around us. Or we may have him sometime in the future. However, we may not even know – For – Great people are remembered and honored after their death – And the greatest ones ?– Centuries later !!!
