A Brief Note on the Evolution of the State in India

In the third century BCE, a great empire emerged under Chandragupta Maurya which covered almost all of present-day India (south India was not part of it) and even extended to Kabul in the north. During this period, Kautilaya is supposed to have written his treatise, the Arthásastra, (the ‘Science of Polity’), which dealt with statecraft and establishment, the growth and preservation of a state. Jawaharlal Nehru considered the Mauryan Empire to be a prominent example of the emergence of a vast centralized state in India.³² Nehru’s analysis of the Mauryan state characterized it as a ‘dictatorship at the top with great deal of local autonomy. He went on to say that, ‘the state was very far from being just a police state, interested in keeping external and internal peace and collecting revenue. Despite its limitations, it interfered with the life of the people and effort was made to regulate and control life.’ Nehru’s analysis acquires credence if one looks at Kautilaya’s principles of statecraft where he propounds the sphere of activities of the king and the State relating to taxes, welfare (the concept of yogákshema), trade and religious affairs.

During the rule of the Turkish Sultanates and the Mughals, elements of the feudal state could be found. However, the spread and depth of the feudal State in India was not comparable to that of Europe. The mansabdari system somewhat compares with the vassal-based system of patronage and military support by the mansabdars. In fact, it was colonial rule that characterized agrarian relations on the one hand and State revenue collection on the other were characterized by feudal relations. Nehru maintains that Indian feudalism and the king’s power, unlike the European system, was not based on the conception of dominium.³³ During the Middle Ages, before Turkish and Mughal rules, glimpses of the Indian polity could be found in a tenth century treatise on polity written by Shukracharya entitled the Nitisara. Though not comparable to Kautilaya’s Arthásastra, it gives details of the organization of a central government, the king’s council and a government setup, village panchayats, etc.³⁴

There was no State for Indians. A constitutionally defined democratic welfare State emerged in India only after independence.