Everything in life happens for a reason. Author-economist Sriram Balasubramanian can vouch for that.
A few years ago, when he was working a data set of renowned economist Angus Maddison as part of his research, he found some fascinating numbers with respect to India and China's GDP over the centuries.
It was around the same time that he chanced upon the Arthasastra.
"Unfortunately, much of the modern literature I keep hearing about Kautilya's Arthasastra was either on its strategic element or the self-help books or fiction material it lent itself to," he says, seated at a cafe in Chennai during a recent trip. What was the 'artha' in Arthasastra, was a question that mystified him. It was also around the same time that he was undergoing a part-time course learning Sanskrit from the Madras Sanskrit College.
These three rekindled the writer inside him. The author started work on combining these subjects. Today, he sports a broad smile, thanks to the praise that that book, Kautilyanomics For Modern Times (Bloomsbury Publishing), is garnering.
Listen | Author Sriram Balasubramanian reads an excerpt from ‘Kautilyanomics For Modern Times’
"The years of prosperity in India that Maddison alluded to had to have some kind of a framework before it. If Raja Raja Chozhan could build an amazing engineering marvel in the Brihadishvara Temple in Thanjavur, he had to have some kind of understanding of economics and value of money.
These thoughts led to Kautilyanomics..., a work that took him more than five years to complete. "It was a labour of love," he says. Kautilyanomics... tries to create an economic framework to Kautilya’s thinking and contextualises it in today's times.
Author Sriram Balasubramanian | Photo Credit: VELANKANNI RAJ
So, why is Kautilya (or Chanakya), an Indian polymath who lived in the third century, relevant today? "What he wrote is context agnoistic. Which means that it is a sort of manual, and that's how we have to approach the relevance. Kautilya does not have solutions to every issue in the world today, because with evolving technology, things have changed. But, economics still deals with human beings and the choices they make," he says.
A chapter on trade, for instance, has a detailed note on how it functioned during the times of Kautilya, what the trends are today, and ends with a 'Kautilyan tantra'. "It puts forth an idea he had, with quotations from the original text, which could be a possible solution or add value to an existing practise."
A delicate balance
Sriram Balasubramanian, an alumnus of Columbia University, did part of his preliminary education in Chennai and Singapore. In 2010, he wrote a piece for the Chennai-based magazine 'Industrial Economist', which sparked off an interest in writing about public affairs and the economy. His first two books include Jamba: The Joint Family, which was a story revolving around a large Indian joint family, and The Wizards, which deciphers the lives of two chess champions.
With a heavy subject such as Kautilyanomics...., Sriram had the tough challenge of pleasing three different set of audiences: the economists, persons with a keen interest in the Arthasastra, and general audiences. "I can't be stupid to either of them. I cannot fall short of the expertise one set possesses on these subjects, but still cannot make it go way over the head of general audiences." It was a delicate balance, he says, something he tackled by doling out relatable examples of current-day popular institutions and schemes.
The average Indian reader has evolved significantly in recent times, feels Sriram. "The publishing industry is going through a revolution in India. In 2016, when I first pitched Kautilyanomics..., many publishers wanted this content diluted, less analytical and easy-to-read material, which I didn't want it to be. Due to technology changes and exposure to global content, readers are changing. Audiences are embracing complex content now."
