So if you really look at the data from the
Common Era beginning all the way till 1700,
India and China were literally leading in
GDP.
In the beginning phase, India was higher than
China, if you notice and then India retains
eighteen thousand, thousand five hundred.
China comes slightly higher than India and
thousand six hundred, China takes a jump compared
to India, in terms of GDP.
But during this entire time till 1700, where
India again overshoots China, but during this
entire phase, if you look the Western countries
or Western Europe, their contribution to global
GDP was much lower and you had a significant
contribution from India and China towards global GDP.
So we are looking at a period of almost seven
hundred years, where different rulers were
there in these countries.
But there was something there, which made
them powerful or one of the top countries in the world.
So there are two lines of argument here.
One line is in those days because of lack
of production and lack of Industrial Revolution,
the population was a representative economic activity.
So the more people you had, the more kind
of economic activity that you have.
So that is one worldview that people interpret.
Another worldview is that, countries like
India and China had a lot of resources at
that time, lot of wealth, natural resources
and that transferred into this growth, during
this period of time and there was a system
in place.
My analysis basically goes at the beginning
of the Common Era and before my understanding,
this entire system is that, what I feel is
that, there must have been an ecosystem in
place, for you to facilitate this kind of
economic activity and that's where I think
Kautilya’s framework comes into play.
So, what was Kautilya’s major goal?
His fundamental approach was to ensure peace
and prosperity in the kingdom, at least the
modern Kingdom and that was one of the principal
goals that he had.
But only difference is, he wanted economic
development to be the core that facilitates this.
So, he wanted to ensure that unlike in ancient
times, his focus was primarily on having economic
development being a driver for peace and prosperity,
perhaps he understood in Kaliyuga, that you
probably need money more than anything else
or regions had and understanding of the people's
sense that economic development is very important.
But on top of economic development he had
three fundamental pillars, which were core
to his understanding in the world.
One was strong defense capabilities as you
can see; another is communal harmony, which
is again something that was very, very important
to Kautilya and then strong and robust governance.
So these were three principles which Kautilya
had.
