For students of law, it is important to understand that law is evolving with traditions. Every tradition formulates its own law – some with a text and some without a text. Most texts of Indian Political Thought have been in conversation and debate with questions of jurisprudence and they have also influenced traditions and thinking. This is a standalone course and does not develop on a prior course.

Choice of materials: primary or secondary readings / case law; I have approached the course vis a vis law and tradition. From the ancient to the modern times, political thinkers have argued vis a vis king- kingdom, nation – state and law is the recurring theme in all the thinkers of Indian Political Thought. I have included thinkers who have written on Dharma shastras, statecraft and law vis a vis human beings in the Indian subcontinent. The materials chosen for basic reading are that of the primary writings of the thinker and some readings that have researched on the thinker and their texts.

The pedagogic method includes lectures, socratic discussion, seminar discussion and seminar paper.

Text designs the political thought of a thinker. Thinkers influence political thought and its traditions. There are different ways of imagining a nation – state, statecraft and its law vis a vis its citizenry. The course begins with Skinner’s essay Meaning and Understanding in the History of Ideas, explaining the importance of the context of the text and the idea that the text is producing. On Indian Political Thought, the course will begin with understanding Kautilya’s Arthashastra and end with JP Narayan’s Swaraj for the people – so as to connect the statecraft and the citizenry in the Indian Political Thought.