Do you think that the Buddhist traditions have lent greater ethical foundation to the ancient Indian political thought? Give your arguments.(UPSC CSE Mains 2021 - Political Science and International Relations, Paper 1)
- The ethical principles propagated by Buddhism played a significant role in shaping the political ideologies and governance in ancient India.
- Buddhism is other worldly religion. Buddha is not considered as a political philosopher though scholars like Gail Omvedt and Kancha Illaiah do recognize Buddha as political philosopher. According to them, many kings visited Buddha to take advice on good governance. Buddha also provided his wisdom on the statecraft.
- Like Dharmashastra, Morality occupies highest pedestal in Buddhist tradition. The functions of state were similar to those of Arthshastra and Dharmashastra. Buddhist traditional too believes in welfare state. Primary objective of state is the well-being of the people.
- The origin of state is result of social contract: Earlier individual conduct was moral and they abided by principle of Dharma. There was peace and harmony in society. Later people became selfish, egoistic and hence anarchy emerged in society and for maintaining social order, state became necessary. It is result of contract among the people.
- Buddha’s political philosophy is therapeutic, because Buddha’s entire philosophy is paideia. This finds echo in Plato. Two-thirds of Plato’s Republic is devoted to education. A “just” pedagogy – a paideia which does justice to evolving beings – is a pilgrimage of centering; nourished by dialogue and debate; manifest in creative talent, “giving birth to beauty in time.”
- Buddha, like Aristotle, was less concerned with the form of government than its consequence. Monarchy, aristocracy, democracy, or any combination thereof – its measure is benevolence: the social virtue it serves.
- The highest social virtue is awakening (prajna) – in mindfully compassionate body, speech and mind (karuna). Compassion is the essence of Buddha’s political philosophy. In Kantian terms: Wisdom without compassion is like concepts without percepts. Kant articulates the Buddhist challenge: The task – individual and collective – is to move “from an age of enlightenment to a more enlightened age.”
- Buddhism asserts (with echoes in Rousseau, Blake, Wordsworth, and Emerson) that joy and compassion constitute our “natural attitude;” that unity has primacy over separation; that interbeing – universal brother-sisterhood – is the quantum field sustaining the dance of diversity.
- Buddha’s famous declaration of no-self – anatman – is not a denial of individuality or soul. It is a way of showing “soul” as window to the universe. The universe of interbeing. Our mutually interpenetrating influence in a unified field spiced with karmic effort and a common pedagogical project.
- “Interbeing” (pratitya-samutpadha – “dependent co-origination”) is Buddha’s quantum insight into universal brother-sisterhood. Universal brother-sisterhood promotes heart-centered rationality. Heart-centered rationality points to the tension in detached action.
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