The Mahabharata & Kautilyan Ways of War
Each country has its own distinctive Strategic Culture and Way of War Fighting that evolves over time & tends to outlast the era of its inception. Thus the Chinese PLA still assiduously studies “Sun Zi Bing Fa” ( Sun Tzu’s Art of War) that was written in the 3rd Century BCE. They are convinced that this text has valuable lessons for the current era, for it was written in a similar Multi-Polar era of Warring States. So were the Mahabharta and Kautilya’s Artha Shastra written in similar era of Mult- Polar power equations & constantly warring Maha Janapadas (major states). These two seminal texts represent the quint essential Indian Strategic Culture and way of War-fighting, that is deeply ingrained in our psyche. Today we need to urgently study our Traditional Knowledge Systems, for they represent our innate genius and way of waging war. Not only do we need to indigenise the design & production of our weapon systems, we equally need to indigenise our military doctrines and way of waging war. Hence the need to study the Mahabharta’s and Kautilya’s ways of waging war because they have very significant lessons for us today. The Kautilyan way of war was premised upon waging a long covert campaign of destabilisation and psy- ops to break the balance of the enemy state. Then a swift & sharp military campaign was launched to mop up in the wake of the extended de- stabilisation campaign. Massed war elephants were used to produce shock & awe &speed up the campaign. Amazingly, the same war – fighting design emerged unconsciously in the Bangladesh war of 1971, when in just 13 Days, India broke Pakistan in two and liberated the whole country of Sonar Bangla. The author has carried out a comparative analysis of Kautilya with Machiaville and Sun Tzu that would be useful for scholars & soldiers alike.
Major General (Dr.) G.D. Bakshi, SM, VSM (Retd.) is a decorated combat veteran who was commissioned in the 6th Battalion of the Jammu & Kashmir rifles in 1971. He commanded his Battalion, Brigade and Division in active combat environments in J&K. He became a turn-around specialist and turned defeat into victory in very tough assignments. He has authored 46 books and written over 400 papers for prestigious defence journals. A highly popular TV commentator, he lectures extensively on the subjects of leadership, motivation and national security and is a thought leader on these issues. Currently, he is the editor of Indian Military Review, the defense monthly journal that has the largest circulation in India. In 2018, he was conferred the Chandra Shekhar Rashtriya Samman award by the Govt. of Madhya Pradesh.
