An Analysis and Review on the Principles of Governance and Administration Ideas of Kautilya, Abul Fazal Ibn Mubarak, and Gandhi

The principles of governance and politics were studied as a separate discipline right from early ancient eras in Greek and other ancient civilizations. Indian civilization which is one of the oldest civilizations also saw this emergence of political science as a discipline. In our theoretical way of political administration these theories largely starts with the diplomatic ideas of Kautilya who is also known as Chanakya and Vishnugupta who was the prime minister of Magadha under Mauryan Emperor Chandragupta Maurya. Ideas of Chanakya were greatly seen as diplomatic strategies involving foreign relations, war strategies and political administration. In the advent of medieval era, India saw a range of invasions starting from the invasion of the Mahmud of Ghazni to Muhammad of Ghor and the establishment of the Delhi Sultanate and later the establishment of the Mughal Empire. I would like to emphasize on the medieval ideas of Abul Fazal Allami. He was a historian largely known for writing the official biography of Mughal Emperor Akbar and recording the details of the administrative system of Akbar. In modern era of ideas, I would like to present the views of Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation India. His views were different from the two former scholars, because the former was a strategist and the latter was a historian. But, here Gandhi’s idea on Governance and Politics were more like a philosophical idealistic version which he proposed for India’s future and was unfortunately not implemented. Finally, I would like to present a comparative view of all these three philosophical views and their criticisms.