The Concept of Human Nature in Chanakya’s Arthashastra and Machiavelli’s The Prince
Anil Kumar Vaddiraju
Abstract
This paper aims to compare the understanding of human nature in Chanakya’s Arthashastra and Machiavelli’s The Prince from the perspective of the Comparative Political Theory. Both these political thinkers belong to varied continents of time and place. While Chanakya belonged to ancient India, Machiavelli belonged to the period of the Renaissance, but both have clear and lucid portrayal of human nature in their works, which is comparable. Both portray human nature as cynical. And both have at their heart the well-being of the state and the welfare of the people. And both use this concept of human nature to advise the prince/raja on matters of state craft. For both, the consolidation of the state and its maintenance are chief concerns. This leads both the thinkers to a stark ‘realism’ in thinking in terms of domestic and interstate relations. The ends in question for both are the strength of the states in question and the well-being of the people. While discussing this, one should keep in mind that Chanakya was not the first philosopher to advise the rajas. He built upon the ideas of others who came before him. The same is true of Machiavelli. In Machiavelli’s time, it was a trend among many scholastic writers to writepietistic advice to Italian princes. What, however, distinguishes Chanakya in the Indian context and Machiavelli in the Italian context is that they radically break with their predecessors in advising the rajas/princes in terms of what is expedient according to the context.