From media debates to intellectual exercises, invocations of ancient wisdom have become central to India’s effort to reclaim its civilizational identity. This exercise often leads to comparisons between Kautilya and Sun Tzu, mostly as a shortcut to gain intellectual legitimacy. Such comparisons constrain the scope of Kautilya studies and risk taking the texts out of context. How can we move beyond selective appropriation and harness the strengths of ancient wisdom more effectively?
Intellectual discourse on ancient political philosophy has historically meandered in tandem with changes in global power. As the West confronts relative decline and the rise of China and India shifts the world’s centre of gravity toward Asia, civilizational frameworks of statecraft have regained prominence as tools to decode modern strategic behaviour. For the Indian scholars—and to a lesser extent their Chinese counterparts—Kautilya and Sun Tzu have been the primary ‘poster boys’ for this revival. This essay examines the motivations and methods of the Indian strategic community, to demonstrate how attempts to read and compare these two thinkers often miss the mark.