As the world awakens to the growing importance of India, an understanding of Indian strategic culture and adherence to moralpolitik policies will certainly help make sense of the way India sees the world. Any discussion on this must start by understanding the role of history in the development of Indian strategic culture.

India’s actions have their origins in the teachings of traditional Indian strategic thinking. The most important source of this is the Arthasastra written by Kautilya. It was with the help of Kautilya that Chandragupta Maurya laid the foundations of a truly great Indian empire in 320 B.C.