Due April 16, 2020The final research paper for this class is.docx

Due April 16, 2020
The final research paper for this class is your opportunity to tie
together you years here at FIU as an international relations
student with what has been covered in this course. The topic is
up to you to decide. A good topic will engage the course
literature and lectures. A good method for devising a research
topic will be to reflect on areas of knowledge you have built up
while at FIU and begin to re-examine those topics through the
fundamental literature we have covered in this course. In order
to avoid restricting your creativity, the final paper will not have
a page limit. You will be expected to fully engage your topic,
research question, and address all the issues in that area of
international relations. You can choose your own topic about an
historical or current event or person as seen from the
perspective of a philosopher. For example, what would Plato
have said about the election of President Trump? How would
Arendt have understood the popular hysteria leading to the
Rwandan Genocide?
This paper and the final should be formatted to be double-
spaced, 1 inch margin, and 12 font.
You will locate 4-6 sources that are important for understanding
your topic and following the citation of your chosen source
there will be 1-3 sentences explaining how/why this source will
support your topic. Only peer reviewed journals and/or
university press books are acceptable. Some popular journals
like Newsweek or the Economist could be used. You must also
include one class reading in your annotated bibliography.
ASIAN POLITICAL THOUGHT

TIMOTHY J. LOMPERIS
Saint Louis University
S cholars of Westem political thought have .not dis-puted the
fact that there is a rich body of political thought in Asia. They
lmve just not bothered to
incorporate it into their corpus. This chapter seeks to pro-
vide long-overdue recognition to this body of thought by
calling attention to the fact that despite its heavy religious
content (until modern times), the encounter with political
ideas in Asia is just as profound as it is in the West. In fact,
since these ideas in Asia are heavily fertilized by their
Western colonial legacy, the West has much to learn about
itself from these Asian borders to the West's material and
intellectual reach.
In this presentation of Asian political thought, what will
emerge is that the such central ideas as democracy,ji-eedom,
and equality were forn1ed in a historical context different
from the West. In the West, these ideas were expressed and
then refined through a prism of small city-states in Greece,
the universal empire of Rome, the subsequent collapse of this
imperium politically but its persistence intellectually in the
Thomist medieval synthesis, the smashing fem1ent (both
intellectually and institutionally) of the Renaissance and the
Reformation, and the birth of the modern nation-state in
the twin crucibles of the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) and
the French Revolution (1789-1795).
In Asia, these same ideas have been definitionally fil-
tered through a different historical stage in a play of three
acts. The first act is the traditional or classical era before
the Westem contact. We will see what from this period
endures as a mark today of"Asianness." The second act is

560
a scrutiny of the trauma of the colonial expericm:e. l Ji.,c
vast majority of Asian societies, either directly or mth,
rectly, came under Western eolonial eonlrol ur unikJ
spheres of Western influence. Ilow to react to thi:. in1m.:,;,11n1
precipitated a major ctisis but also resulted in a rid1 1md,
lectuaI fennent that produced the first articulu!il ,,i,. ,•I•
Asia's nationalisms. The third act is the modern t'-Cn<"'I
from the end of World War II to the present, when Asi,l ,,.,,,,.
set free on its own independent course. This has raised the
question, Whither modern Asia? Is Asia no dilforcnl lh•.m
a common globalizing world, or docs something llbtut.:,
tively Asian remain about its political thought'!
In these three acts, we will examine Asian conct.•p!s tiflhc
state and of statecraft, as well as or military grand s1m1cg1e:"'
and views on social equity and gender as they relate Ill th1..""'
three concepts. The focus will be on India um! Chinn
because these two ancient polities form the foundalillm1l p1J,
lam of Asia. Japan will also be given considerable atlcntiun.
along with some references to Korea. Southeast Asia will be
considered not so much as individual countries but us a
region tl1at has always been a tempestuous battleground
between Indian and Chinese ideas and institutions.
Theoretical Approach
Insofar as the political thought of Asia crune to the atten~
tion of Western political theorists, it tended to be painted.in
the broad brushes of overgeneralization. Karl Marx, In
outlining the global stages to his class struggle, wrote ol' an

"Asiatic mode of production" (quoted in Tucker, 1972,
p. 5), which he chanu.:terizcd as a labtir-inlcnsivc agricul-
tural society. Writing in this tradition, Karl Wlltfogcl
(1957) spelled this out as a form of "Oriental despotism"
ari::dng from the need to secure the necessary c()rvcc lnbor
to support the rice culture of what he termed "hydrau I ie soci-
ety." Taking a more cultural perspective, F. 8. ( •. Nm1hrnp
(l 946) distinguished Asia as having a more aesthetic
weltanschuuung than the scientific West. Ruther than the
clear subject object divide in the West, Asia, Northrop
contended, charted rculity along a mme l'lisctl aesllwtk
continuum, thereby creating different logics aml perel!p·
tions about the world.
More recuntly, such politit.:al scientists .is Lucian Pye
(1985) nml Duniel Bell (2000) have rl!nmrked on thu <lit:.
fcrent conceptions Asians bring to politics. To both, these
differencus require dcmocruey, in pnrticu lur. ltl undergo
considemble modiliculion for uny sm:ccssful transplanta-
tion to Asia. For Pye, the dwnges will have to allow for
a more dependent and paternal understunding (and accep-
tance) of pnwer. And ftir Bell, for Asia to be 1:0111fortable
with dcmocmcy, democracy will have tll give a special
place to knowledge over and above mere de111ucmtk
egalitarianism.
This is because idem; of <lcniocrncy, lh.:cdt1111, and
equality have developed llUt 01'11 historical context dillcr-
ent frnm the West':-. This conh:xt has led to cnndusions nn
the grnunding or these idl!as that are also ditforcnt from the
conclusions or the West. Put simply. We!itcrn pulitkal
thought is grounded in the individual as Liu: hash.: unit nf
politics, and in equality, in stm1c liirm, as the al·t·cptcd
basis for human relations ,md pnlitiL'al ruk. In the Asian
context, political thtiu~ht came lo h1: tn1t11Hk•d in the
group, not the individual. and in hicmn:hy. nut cqual1ty. As

shall be dear from the dL1scrir1tio11 ol' thi.: Ctlltcxt nr thn:L·
historical nets. the contact or the idem; ot' dcnwL·mcy. fret.··
dom, and equality with Asia calls liir some rcformulatiun.
In line, thi:; elrnpter explains that in 1assing these ll1rcL~
ideas lhrnugh an Asian histurical t:ncmmtcr. rnlL' L',111 ant n•
at l'icbl.!1 nmlticulturnl dcliliitions of sul'h scl'n1111~ly
11111-
versal political ideas.
Classical Asia
Asia has provided an arena for all the wnrld's value sys-
tems. Hinduism is the oldest. Its earliest forms wcrc
similar to the religion and idt:us or the ancient tircck:i.
Perhaps the Indo-Aryan invaders llf the lndiun subcun-
ti nent effaced the smne Triple Cfoddess m errun by
Jason and his Greek Argon11uts in the Black Seu city of
Colchis. In any case. Hinduism emerged in the first mil·
Jenni um BCE as 11 religion and political culture of conquest.
Buddhism amse later as a sort of L.utl1eran relbnnation to
Hinduism. ll held distinctly gentler political ideas. This
gentler failh, however, was literally obliterated by Muslim
Asian Political Tlumgllt • 561
invasions inlo the subcontinent that began in the 8th cen-
tury CE. (Buddhism went on lo thrive in China, Japan,
Korea, and Southeast Asia.) These new invaders oscil-
lated between two upproaches in !heir new dominions.
One was lo extenninule opposition and fon:c Islam by the
sword. The other wai; to cooperate with local power
groups and rule by accommodation. As it spread to
Southensl Asia, Islam became more modcrule and diffuse
in its ideas uml practices.
In ( 'hina around the 6th century llCE, Confucianism

devdopcd its own order among society, nature, and the
cosmos. This onlcring ririnciple, ul' the dual forces of yin
and ynng, was nn early portrait or u hisloricul dialectic sim-
ilar to that in the writings or I leraclitus, l Jegcl, und Marx.
Whill! ( 'onl'udanism prnpoundcd a rigidly hiernrchicul
sociopnlitkal order, the "turning or the wheel" from
I h1ddhism .ind the "rt.:version or the Dao" from Daoism
i1HrmluL:ed the idea or redprndty. Mencius politicized the
mlc or the emperor by entrusting him with the Mm1datc of
I leaven, but in tying this mandate lo rcciprodty, Mencius
also gave the pt.!nplc lhe right of revolution. Daoism aducd
the 111ystic:il and th! mugical to this mix. For all its order,
this ancient C 'hine:-.c system g.iw hirth lo II rom:111cc or
prntcst, with sage-knights :11.:ting as Robin I lomls. These
liilk hemes later inspired modern revolutionaries such ns
Man Zi..•dung ( Sehwarl/, I t>H5).
In this Asim1 tlranm. us in Europe. !here has been a grad-
ual gnmch ll( sl!cularism. But motkrn seculari:m1 has
lll'l.'I' been ,umplctcly succcssfiil in lndiu, and religion has
never d11:d III C 'hi1111. ln India, religion rl!prcsc11ts ll com-
pktL' ,alue system. This llca:ily religious value system,
hmn.' er. did nut predutk lengthy and systl!mmic trcal-
1111.•111 or p111iti17;d qucsti1111s. Tiu: cpk M11//ahh,m11a
eon-
1.1111, lung 11nhtiL'al t!ssa;·s 1111 st,ltl.'cra Ii, kingship. and
n11 ll1,1ry sllalcg~. One .mdcnt text. Kautilya 's :lrtlwshustm.
mtrndun::, all Mm:hiavdli's i,kas ;ibmu puliticul sur,,ivtd
nH11~· th,111 a lhm1sand yl!:11s carlii:r than The flrifl<'<'
cBasham. I ll~<lJ. < 'hma ,lc111t111stratcd a 1111)rc rnhust
tradi-
111111 111' sc·ularism, partly bc,·imsc tinnu:ianism never
r,•ally addn:s~cd the ,111est11m ti!' ( iud. Buddhism lilied this
~.:ap 1111: I i:}lahsrs a11cmptl.'d t11 plan' law as a hight'r
prin-
dpk of stil'.1al urdcnllJ! than cosntiL' rhytluns uf yin and

yan~i Bui d;,n;1stic mkrs prd~m:d the mnhiguitics or the
,:m,rnus to th1: l'.i1ncrch: l'Ullstraints ur the law. ln C 'hina,
11111, as tn ;111 Asia, r1.•ligion stayed on lop, li1:-i11g
society
am.I pulitks tu thL' sum:lity. sam:tiuns. und politicul pmtcc-
lltHI ur the ~.mb ( Schw.ir11. I tJX5 ).
Mme than 1m lop. lhc Y.um1111 cl.Ill in .htpan proclaimed
thl'llh,dH:s to he g.utls. In their :-;uccc:;s, they lmvc provided
Jupan with the lungcst single line nfldngs in world history
irnd 11 scnsL~ uf natkmalis111 and ethnic ic.lt::ntity thut runs
very dccf1. Although "divinely" rnled, the Japanese never
!MIW themselves us holding lhc gntewuy ttl heaven. They
were. then, nut averse tCl btim1wing, and they k1oked to
C'onfuchmism and Buddhism to order their slate and mean•
ing system. lronfo:nlly, integn1ting this borrowing into
indigenuus Shinto belie£.. became men's work. The further
562 • POLITICAL THOUGHT
development of Japanese culture-its novels, ceremonies,
and haiku poetry-was left to the creative talents of
women. Although gods reigned, warriors m led and warred
in Japan. A strong knightly code of Bushido steeled the rul-
ing samurai class in the political culture of the warrior-
ruler-knights (Yuzan, 1941).
Meanwhile, great kingdoms arose in Southeast Asia,
mostly on borrowed Hindu ideas transmitted by Theravada
Buddhism from Sri Lanka (Ceylon). There was the
Kingdom ofTen Thousand Elephants in Laos, Borobuddur
and Bali in Indonesia, and the Khmer empire in Cambodia.
The latter's capitol, Angkor Wat, is still the largest reli-
gious building complex ever built. Political ideas and insti-

tutions in this porous, vulnerable region were mostly
Indian (the Chinese influences in Vietnam were the notable
exception), but the societies of much of Southeast Asia
were ethnically Malay and were held together mainly by
their customa1y adat, or customs. These customs set up
three social classes (a ruling aristocracy, free land holders,
and slaves) bound together in a network of mutual obliga-
tions and responsibilities. In this adat, property and author-
ity could be held and inherited just as easily by women as
by men. When the Muslims came to Southeast Asia in the
13th and 14th centuries, they had about run out their polit-
ical tether and lacked the vehemence that they displayed in
India. They superimposed the veneer of their sultanates
on Malaya and Indonesia but were content to have the
sultanates upheld by Hindu and Buddhist political princi-
ples and by tl1e Malay social adat (Tambiah, 1976).
In classical Asia, then, politics were decidedly authori-
tarian, and more specifically tegal, rather than democratic.
In India, nevertheless, besides just guaranteeing order, or
danda, kings were obliged to promote the welfare of the
people. In China, this promotion extended to the principle
of reciprocity and even to tl1e right of the people to rebel.
Nevertheless, freedom in classical Asia was more of a reli-
gious goal than a political right: freedom from the cycle of
rebirths in India and in the cultivation of an inner peace of
the soul in China. Thus, in both societies, freedom was a
private preserve separate from the crush of public (com-
munal, religious, and political) responsibilities and duties.
ln these feudal systems of Asia, these responsibilities were
mainly to hierarchically ordered groups. Equality, then,
was a relative value and was tied to the status and position
of one's group compared with others. Any equivalence to
modem Western ideas of equality could be procured only
within one's group (and primarily for one's family), not
outside it.

Colonial Asia
The conquests of Western imperialism shattered this order.
Most of Asia was directly colonized. Even those who
escaped direct rule--like the Japanese, Koreans, Chinese,
and Thai-were still pulled into an international political
and economic system dominated by Western imperial
powers. Because Asian polities had unbroken insliluti<mal
histories for two millennia (in some cases), punclmllcd hy
their own moments of glory, the question ol' how to h<1th
accommodate and account for this Western imposi1inn
and superiority provoked deep soul-scan:hing among
Asians.
Nowhere was this more deeply felt than in India, which
became the crown jewel of the British Empire ur 50
colonies worldwide. Some Indians embraced Western civ·
ilization. The British Viceroy, Lord Thomas Macuulay,
was pa1tial1y successful in creating "a class of pen.tin!>,
Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinion.
in morals, and in intellect" (Spear, 1961, p. 257). L,ucr.
these scions were called "Brown Sahibs." In lllrtl1emncc uf
this strategy, the British invested in a modern u11ivcr:s1ly
system for India. A proud accompl ishmenl or tit is sysl~m
was the Nobel Prize for Literature in I 9 l3 won hy the
Bengali intellectual Rubindranath Tagore, writing in the
King's English (Metcalf~ 200 l ).
Following in the wake of the British nti were legions l!f
Christian missionaries who preached their "good news" nnrd
practiced their social gospel with institutions tif Slll.'.utl
reform. Beyond a nationwide network of sclmols, !he) :-11.*l
up hospitals, orphanages, homes for widows, lcpru:owm·
ums, demonstration farms for peasant laborers, and s<l('1;1I

services for outcasts. Many Hindus, nlthough leery tif Ill<
"good news," eagerly took up this cause or social rcfnrm
and, in the Bmhmo Samaj of the 19th century. launched
their own social gospel of reform or some or the ills ,md
neglects of Hinduism. Muslims displayed a split rc.ic1nin
to the Empire. Since they were lndia's previous ruler,..,
some resisted, and they went down to defeat in the Mulm~
of 1857. Others, such as Sir Sayccc.l Ahmntl Khan. anii.:u,
lated a path of accommodation with the British, insisun~
that Islam had no objections to at least the polith!ul culturlZ
of the West. Indeed, as a monotheistic "religion ur thi:
Book," Islam was the more naturnl ally of this culture th;m
was polytheistic Hinduism. Still othern were nol so ~ur~
of either the Hindus or the British {Pye, 19K5). It ~;1,
Mohammed Iqbal--poet, theologian, aml political thcmbt
who gave eloquent voice to a separate destiny !hr Mm,hm~
in the subcontinent (Malik, 1971 ).
Although never a directly ruled colony, the reacliun m
China was equally intense. Tiananmen Square in Bcijini
was an architectural declaration that it wus the gateway h1
Heaven. British gunboats brought a string of military
humiliations that shattered this gateway. A man who
dreamed that he was the younger brother of Jesus Chri~t
proclaimed a new portal and led the biwrre Taipinl:l,
Rebellion of the 1850s and 1860s. The movement also
preached equality for women and, at first, democracy. In
its suppression, it might have been dismissed as one of
those oddities of history, were it not for tho subsequent
influence the rebellion had on Mao Zedong and other rev-
olutionary modernizers (Ogden, 2002).
Meanwhile, the Qing Dynasty, Chinn 's last, made
earnest attempts at rcthnn. Western education replaced

classical texts for imperial civil service examinations.
Principles of constitutional democracy and parliamentary
elections were introdul!cd, as were modern railroads, mili~
tary academies, and financial institutionH. ln 1911, the
mixture of protest and reform exploded into a nationalist
revolution and a nearly 40-ycar interregnum of ehaos.
Intellectually, the boiling cuuldron of this ferment was
known ns the Muy Fourth Movement. In I.he lrnmilintion of
the demands of the upstart .lapuncse for the Shamlong
Peninsula al the Peace Conlcrcncc at Vcrsail lcs in May
1919, Chinese intellectuals dcspcralcly cast about for :1
prescription for modern power: in the prnginalism and lib-
eralism of John Dewey and the United States, in the mi li-
tarism from Germany und Japan, in language rel'nrm and
mass education, in physical culture and the cmtmdpalion
of women, in the assassirrntions und eomnurncs ol' mwr-
chism, and even in the communism of Karl Marx and the
Bolshevism or Russia (Zhou, I %0).
Then: was ferment in Southeast Asia as wdl. Pemmnts,
in a series of protests a Iler World Wnl' I. decried the col-
lapse of 11 trnditional social and political order guaranteed
by a royalty and l'cudal rctuincrs lhut used to sali!guard
their livelihoods and provide a sense of place anti security
by the Mandate ol' lh:avcn (in Vietnam), tile will tif Alluh
(in Malaya and lndoncsiu), the mandalu pallcm t1f pnlitks
and international relations ( in Thailand und Camhmlia ),
and u transl'ernl or mcril from Buddha (in Burma anti
Laos). Arter an initial. if reluctunt, uccommodatiun with
Western power and political institutions, these peasants
and emerging intcllcctuuls searched for thdr own h:rms nf
modern survival. The Cao Dai sect in Vietnam, whkh wnr-
shippcd nn all-seeing cosmic eye as interpreted hy Vklor
Hugo, Jesus Christ, Confucius, l.no Till, and foan uf An:.
il!ustrntcd this perplexity. The mood of rcsil,!nation lo thl'sc
confusing, but powerllil, outside forces was captmcd h~

the popult11· J tJth-century cpk pnl"m in Vietnam. K.mr nm
Kie11. This poem was a creative remake of :rn oltl ( 'him:sc
stmy nf n liliu I daughter who slays lrnc !ti her 1mtk:scn inµ
folhcr in a lire of untold sulforing but stcmlfosl ticvnlmn.
These r,casant protests, then. grew out ol' lh1:-.tr;itinns 1i 1.•r
their dcvoli(lll lo u traditional structure that could no lunger
i;ccnre this order ( Kershaw, 200 I),
In Japan in IX53. the conuncrciid viiiit or the ll.S,
naval communder ( 'ommodurc Matthew Purry found the
Japanese nt a moment in their history when they were
ready for an opening frorn the outsil.le. Their mature lcu-
dal order had reached a point of stugnutitm. A knightly
class of samurai undergirded an aristocracy that hdli the
emperor ho::.tage, even a:. this monarchy as an insliluticm
provided continuity, identity, and n sense of co::.mic pluce
for all Japanese. In the name or restoring the emperor to
real power (somwjoi), aristCJcratic modernizers overthrew
this samurai-dominated regime in what was called 1he
Meiji Restoration. The Meiji Constitution established a
Asian Political Thm1gltt • 563
liberal parliamentary system in the name of the c11111cror.
But for all this constilutiomdism, the fapancse actually
modcrnizcc.l through a military path of war with China
lirsl ( 1895) uml then Russia ( 1905; Gluck, 1985 ). Along
with these impressive manilestations of modem power,
the continued hold of samumi vnlucs, for all this Mcij i
"liberalism," wus nurtured by the.: education of all
Japuncse school children in rne Stm:v <!l tlw 47 Ronin, in
which linal loyalty was still given to extreme profossinns
of honor, in the nmnc of the cmpcrur. It was u path that
tumbled Japan into World Wur [I, its grculcst national
disaster (Bcncdict, 1946).

The fonnent touched off by European imperialism in
Asia was uot exclusively one wny. Eumpcans who had
prolonged coutad with Asian srn.:ictics were ol'tcn sur-
prised at what they saw. Despite their political wcuknusscs,
thc:;c sm:ictics revealed sophisticated and well-articulated
cultures. A lwst or scholars called "Oricnlnl ists," muny of
whom had served us colonial mlministrutors, begun to
trm1sl:rte hack for Eumpcun m1dicnces the ''pearls of the
Orient": thc philnsophk Upam):lwcls und the twin epics,
lite Me1lwhlwratll und the Ramaymw. from India, and tl1c
Analects 11( C1111/iwiu.~ nnd the J.>cw d<• Jing of Luo Dzc
( Lao Tzu) from C'hinn. Thc 111,ist mnbiti11us ,1 l' these rro-
jccts wai; thl.' I 11lh-ccntury "Ooldcn Bough" i,;crics of trans-
lations into Fnµlisl1. sponsm·cd by I lnrvard University, of
nwsl of' Asi,1 's linesl truditional work$. Thb impact, hnw-
evcr, was nmrc llum just inlhrmntivc. tdcas Ihm, these
trnnslatinns wor'ked their way into the transl:cntlcntulism
of the New Fn~land liM·ati (particularly on Ralph Waldo
Fmcrsun "m,crsntil"), us well us into lhc philosophic
syst~·ms o!' Martin l lcidcggcr and Fl'icdrich Nictzscl1c
and cwn into the 1111vcl:,; of' I krman flcssc, among others
tUarkc, PN7J.
l ln/<Htunatcly, some uf this nunantic "llricntulism"
tumi.nl p·ncrsc. ln thi:-. disc1wcry ,11'thc deep 1.:ulll1ral
ronls
,11' Asta. so1111.: Wcstcm sdmlars. partirnl.irly Uennau,
bt:g.111 h1 s1.•c llwmsclvl.'s ,ls dc!>ccndants or an elite lndo-
Ary,111 hru1h1:rhoud thal 1.•xtcmlcd from lhl.' Indus River hi
tht• Rhme ( M ulkr, It) 19 t ( icnnan natitmal sncinlism sub-
scqmmtly appr,1priatcll th!.' andeut I lrndu symhnl li.1r uni-
versal hrnthcrhnnd ns the i:cntcrptcL·e lo iii; !lag, !he
s,~ astil-.a
At lirst lfollcrcd by this ,11tcnlio11, mrnlcrn Asi,1n inkl-
kduals for their part hi.'.gun to resist this drnrnctcrizutiun

of a si:p.iwtc t1ric111albm us 1ant:111m11nt to u
i.:ivilizutimrnl
dismiss,11 similar tn the "sep,1rntc but cquul" kg:il <lm:trine
in the t Jnitcd States lhut scrvcll In perpchmlc racinl dis-
crimination. Whether intdlcdual trnditions prnduuc cul-
turally distinct idem, nr whether universal ideas fhrm uml
recllmbinc tlu~mselvcs 11rnuml different inlellectual tnu.Ji-
tions is II pervasive isi.ue of cpisternolt1gy. For the !ltudy of
political though! in Ash1, however, the unfortunate effect
of c,ricn1ali:.m has been to dismiss pol itic11I Lhllughl in Asia
as being lou cfosely Lied to religious constructiuns to be
worthy of secular analytical scrutiny.
564 • POLITICAL THOUGHT
Modern Asia
World War II (1939-1945) brought disaster to Europe.
Even in victory, the power of Britain and France collapsed,
and, with that collapse, their empires unraveled and their
hold over Asia ended. In independence, not always easily
gained, Asia was now free to find itself and define politics
in ways authentic to a free Asia and to the particular set of
traditional legacies and aspirations of each of its societies.
In this mix of the traditional and the colonial, what set of
political ideas and institutions would serve independent
Asian nations still having to fend for themselves in an
international system of Western creation and continued
dominance? In Asia's postwar trajecto1y of growing eco-
nomic prosperity and rising global political influence,
answers to this question have produced rich and innovative
contributions to the ongoing development of political
thought per se.

After World War II, all of Asia wanted to regain what
Asian counh·ies saw as their lost importance in the world.
Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India,
expressed these hopes for all Asians when, in his exultant
Independence Day speech on August 15, 194 7, he
declared, "Long years ago, we made a tryst with destiny,
and now the time comes when we shall redeem our
pledge" (cited in Hardgrave & Kochanek, 2000, p. 53).
Colonialism, he argued, had drained the wealth and ener-
gies of Asia, and now it would just flow back (Nehm,
1959). Although it certainly did not flow back right away,
in the opening years of the 21st centu1y, this tryst with a
recaptured Asian global importance seems well within
reach.
The Indian subcontinent, however, has been plagued by
serious differences both as to how to attain an independent
India and as to what it would look like. The towering fig-
ures in this agony were Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi.
Gandhi was the moral father of modem India. After travel-
ing around India for 4 years after his return from South
Africa at the age of 41 in 1915, Gandhi discovered his
three themes of poverty, unity, and indepe11dence. As he
made the continuation of British rule untenable, he won-ied
about an India "in pursuit of Lakshmi" (wealth), freed
from the moderating restraints of religion. Thus, even as he
dete1mined to entrust the future course of India to Nehru,
he was troubled by the younger man's Hamlet-like agnos-
ticism (Gandhi, 1957),
Nehru epitomized Macaulay's "Brown Sahib," and
Nehru's highly cerebral autobiography, The Discovery of
India (1946/1959), was really an m1iculation of his own
divided soul. His professed admiration for the ancient
Hindu scriptures and epics was profoundly philosophical
and somewhat idealized. He prefen·ed to highlight the

moments of unity and power and gloss over the divisions
and wars oflndia's past. He could not bring himself to take
this philosophical appreciation to a spiritual awakening.
For Nehru, the influences of a secular English liberalism
were too strong for this. To him, the best (ll' India lay in ii,
moments of unity around a clwkravarti11, or unh·cr::;.;tj
emperor, such as Ashoka, Harsha, or Akbar. lkcatbC or
India's deep religious and social divides, Nchm felt that
this unity could come, in modern times, only under a ~c,
ular India united by Western principles of lihcrnl <lcmoc~
racy. The Congress Party was rounded with this as its cor~
credo. Unfortunately, Nehru dulled his ccom1mks h~
embracing the socialism of the British Fuhi:ms 11nd lh~
Russian Bolsheviks (he expressed a continual admimtii1ri
for the accomplishments of the 5-year pluns of the Smil.'!t
Union). Under Nehru's lcadcrshi11 as prime 1m1w,ter
(l 947-1964), Lakshmi, the goddess or wt:ullh, rcmainql
aloof (Nehru, 1946/1959).
Although Gandhi and Nehru were the gi,mh, ,•1111:r
voices arose in the subcontinent. lronknlly cm111f.!h.
Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the father or mmh:rn P.iJ..1,tiln.
shared Nehru's secularism cwn as he insislcd utt .1 ""r-t-
rate Muslim state. 01hers in Pakistan ct1llcd for thi., ,1a1c !11
be subservient lo the Jslmnh: Shari'a. This tlni~Ml h;t~
brought the country to the brink of im11lnsiu11 o',;:f the
never-healing sore ol' Kashmir and the recent rc.:rhtr.1.
tions of Islamic radicalism lhm1 Al'glmnishm ,md d•.:.
where in the Muslim wmld. There huvc 1-»!cll ~t,nl
voices in Hinduism a.s well. The terrorism c"~m,<J
B. K. Tilak heforc World Wur I and the foi.l.'.bm ul :,iubt,Jt,
Chandra Bose in World War II round exprc,,u,n 111
Hindu commtmalism or !-;anlar Vullahhhlmi fl,itd, S<ltni
co-prime minister in tht: lirst 2 yc.ir.. ol' imkf"Cltt!,;rt;,;,t
Patel died of u heaii attack, but these :-;c·cral d1 MH"

~,~i1~.h
collected into the I lindu nationalism or Mr .. l . :tlur,,i
the Bharaliyu Janata Prniy, whkh is now a crn:,10,1! 11,~,i,,,i,
•• r
rival to the secular Congn.:ss Party, J ndia :md l',1!..1~tu1
confront each other us nuclear powl.'r,. ;m~I ,a,1,,>f-h,;r.
chnkrnvartin, in this lcnxe sube~intinent. b n,• h~~.: i:i
(Mehta, 1996).
ln China. the lirst coherent voit:I..' tu nrlt:'11t1t· ..;i
modernization out or the swirling slt;1ml, nl
Fourth Movcnicnl was Sun Y,ll·scn, ht1 ,hl1.,i,,,.l1c~£ 1
min cl111yi (thrnc people's prindplci.l tit' l"'-'''l'k',.
hoot!, people's rule, aml pcopk:'s na1i111rnli"m lh.:
to uphold China's traditional Mandatc ul' lk.1'l'.!I lt,i:
was translated into rural lil'c as "lm1d tu the U!lt·11"
1,H:~0;r:..:
that the communists later tried to cull their 1m nl t
second principle, tkmocrm;y, Sun culkd l!if ;1
to constitutional democracy in ('hinu th1,•uih 1IM:i,i
stages of tutelage. In pructic<!, Sun's p-ohtn;;:il
Gumnindang, could not pull it utl It hin.::b'l;d
between the Christian sucial gospel of the Nt'iil
Movement and an Italian-like fascism or Bill(;' ShtJ1
pline, all the while continuing in a reluclJUlOI: •~
power. Even as Sun's ideology tailed in ChtnL rl
the basis for the subsequent ecunomic mime:le <m
It also desctibes the long path taken by South
economic prosperity and a lagged followint4, of
perity to full democracy (Wells, 200 I), …
1
Term Paper Writing: Elements and documentation

Introduction
Different courses may have different requirements for the
writing of a term paper. You
need to find them out and comply with them. This website
introduces some
common principles and elements for a proper term paper.
Samples of standard
format of English and Chinese documentation are provided for
your reference.
1. Components of a Term Paper
2. Guidelines for Preliminaries
3. Guidelines for Text
4. Guidelines for Reference Materials
2
1. Components of a Term Paper
i. Preliminaries
a. Title Page
b. Abstract (if required)
c. Table of Contents (if required)
ii. Text
a. Introduction
b. Main Body (Chapters or Sections)
c. Conclusion

iii. Reference Materials
a. Parenthetical Documentation
b. Notes (if any)
c. Appendix (if any)
d. English References
e. Chinese References
3
2. Guidelines for Preliminaries
2.1. Title Page
A title page contains:
i. the title of your paper
ii. your name and student number
iii. the course name and code,
iv. the instructor’s name
v. the due date
2.2. Abstract
An abstract is a brief summary of the main ideas of your term
paper usually
in about 100 to 200 words. The main elements are as follows:
i. a short statement of your research nature or subject
ii. a brief description of your general theoretical approach and

research methods
iii. a short summary of your main arguments and research
findings
2.3. Table of Contents
A table of contents provides an analytical outline of your paper
with the
sequence of your presentation. A table of contents should list
out:
i. the heading of every division of the paper
ii. the subheadings of every subsection within the divisions (if
any)
iii. page number for every division and subsection
4
3. Guidelines for Text
3.1. Introduction
An introduction should be an interesting opening to show the
main theme and
specific topics of your paper. An introduction usually forms
through:
i. a concise and complete statement of your research question or
the
general purpose of your term paper.

ii. a justification for your study (the significance)
iii. a background to your research question and a review of the
relevant
literatures on it (literature review)
iv. a brief statement of the sources of data, the procedure or
methods of
analysis (methodology)
v. a preview of the organization of the paper
3.2. Main Body (Chapters or Sections)
Since the topics of term papers are so diverse, it is impossible
to give specific
indications of how to write the main body of a term paper. But,
the general rule
is that you must organize your presentation in a logical
framework with a clear
conceptual linkage among sections and give every point with
substantial support
from concrete source.
3.3. Conclusion
A conclusion should provide a firm ending of what you have
discussed in the
paper and, preferably, further to reach a judgment, to endorse
one side of an issue,
or to offer directives. A good conclusion usually contains:
i. a recapitulation of the main findings or main themes

ii. statements about the specific values or alternative insights of
your paper
for understanding the subject matter
iii. indications of the important relevance to the current
circumstance or
future possibility
iv. suggestions for policy in points to your findings
5
4. Guidelines for Reference Materials
Different institutions have developed different styles of
documentation. No
matter which one you use for your paper, the principle is to be
consistent. The
format system provided. Here comes from the American
Psychological
Association (APA system).
4.1. Parenthetical Reference
A term paper must have a clear documentation of all reference
materials used in
the text. This requires that your paper must indicate from
where you obtained:
i. direct quotations
ii. borrowed ideas (including paraphrases and summaries)
iii. data and cases (if they did not come through your own

research)
Sample:
i. One work by one author
If the author’s name appears in the text,
Walker (2000) compared reaction times
If not,
In a recent study of reaction times (Walker, 2000)
ii. One work by multiple authors
First citation in the text:
Wasserstein, Zappulla, Rosen, Gerstman, and Rock (1994)
found
First next citation in the text:
Wasserstien et al. (1994) found
iii. One work by group as author
Use the name of the group as the author
Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department (1997) found
6
iv. Authors with the same surname
For one work by one author, show author’s initials in all text
citation:

R. D. Luce (1959) and P. A. Luce (1986) also found
For one work by multiple authors, show the first author’s
initials in all
text citation:
J. M. Goldberg and Neff (1961) and M. E. Goldberg and
Wurtz (1972) studied
v. Two or more works within the same parenthese
By different authors:
Several studies (Balda, 1980; Kamil, 1988; Pepperberg &
Funk, 1990)
By the same author:
Past research (Gogel, 1984, 1990)
By the same author in the same year:
Several studies (Johnson, 1991a, 1991b, 1991c)
vi. Specific parts of a source
One specific page:
(Cheek & Buss, 1981, p.332)
More than one page:
(Cheek & Buss, 1981, pp. 332-333)
A specific chapter:

(Shimamura, 1989, chap.3)
7
4.2. Notes
The notes at the foot of each page are called as footnotes. The
notes at the end of
each chapter or at the end of the paper before other reference
materials are called
as endnotes. But, both formats and functions are the same.
i. Documentation notes
Footnotes or endnotes for reference documentation is seldom
used now.
In APA system, it is replaced by the parenthetical
documentation form.
If you would like to know how to use footnotes or endnotes for
reference documentation, see The research paper: Process, form,
and
content by Roth (1986, chap. 8) or Assignment and thesis
writing by
Anderson and Poole (2001, chap. 11).
ii. Content notes
However, it remains common to use footnotes or endnotes for
providing additional content in the text. Such footnotes or
endnotes
may:
a. include material which is not strictly relevant to the main
argument while yet is too important to be omitted.

b. explain, supplement, amplify material that is included in the
main text.
c. give cross-reference to other sections of a paper
4.3. Appendix
The purpose of appendix is to provide reader with detailed
information which
would be distracting to read in the main body of the paper.
Usually, the
information in an appendix is a large table, a long cross-
reference to the text, a
sample of a questionnaire or other survey instrument used in the
research.
If your paper has only one appendix, you should simply label it
Appendix; if
your paper has more than one appendix, you need to label each
one with a
capital letter (Appendix A, Appendix B, Appendix C, etc.)
4.4. English References
At the end of your paper, you must provide a reference list in an
alphabetical
order by the surname of the author. If you use the title
Bibliography, you can
list out both references cited in the text and the relevant works
which have
been consulted. If you use the title Reference, you should only
list out the

8
references cited in the text.
General forms:
i. Book reference
Author’s name. (Year). Title of work. Location: Publisher
ii. A chapter or an article in an edited book
Author’s name. (Year). Title of chapter or article. In Editor’s
name (Ed.), Title
of book (page numbers). Location: Publisher.
iii. Periodical (e.g., journal articles)
Author’s name. (Year). Title of article. Title of periodical,
Volume Number,
Page.
iv. Daily newspaper report or article
Heading of the report or the article. (year, month and date).
Title of the
newspaper, page.

Sample: Book reference
i. A reference to an entire book
Beck, C. A. J., & Sales, B. D. (2001). Family mediation: Facts,
myths, and
further prospects. Washington, DC: American Psychological
Association.
ii. Book in new edition (second, third, etc.)
Mitchell, T. R., & Larson, J. R. (1987). People in orga
nizations: An
introduction to organizational behavior (3rd ed.). New York:
Mcgraw-Hill.
iii. Edited book
Gibbs, J. T., & Huang, L.N. (Eds.). (1991). Children of color:
Psychological
interviews with minority youth. San Francisco: Jossey-bass.
iv. Translated work
Laplave, P. -S. (1951). A philosophical essay on probabilities
(F. W. Truscott &
F. L. Emory, Trans.). New York: Dover. (Original work
published 1814)

v. Book, group author as publisher
9
American Bureau of Statistics. (1991). Estimated resident
population by age
and sex in statistical area, New South Wales, June 1991 (No.
3209.1).
Canberra, Australian Capital Territory: Author
Note. When the author and publisher are identical, use Author
as the
same of the publisher.
Sample: A chapter or an article in an edited book
Bjork, R. A. (1989). Retrieval inhibition as an adaptive
mechanism in human
memory. In H. L. Roediger III & F. I. M. Craik (Eds.), Varieties
of memory
& consciousness (pp. 309-330). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Sample: Periodical
Mellers, B. A. (2000). Choice and the relative pleasure of

consequences.
Psychological Bulletin, 126, 910-924.
Sample: Daily newspaper report or article
New drug appears to sharply cut risk of death from heart
failure. (1993, July
15). The Washington Post, p. A12.
10
4.5. Chinese References
For paper written in Chinese, the format of reference
documentation used by
Chinese Social Science Quarterly (CSSQ System) is
recommended. The details
are as follows:
《中國社會科學季刊》注釋體例說明
注釋體例建制是學術研究規範代的一項重要內容，一方面，它表明作者對他人學
術著述的尊重，
以及自身從事研究的基點和依托；另一方面，亦有助於讀者查閱相關文獻，獲得
比較全面的信息；
故完整而準確的引文注釋，在學術研究和交流活動中具有不可忽視的作用和意義

。在國際學術交
流日趨頻繁之今日，建立一種規範化的注釋體例，對於中國社會科學的發展顯得
尤為迫切。
本刊願與廣大讀者/
作者一起從事這項建設性的活動。下面所述的格式，是本刊在參酌國內外有
關資料後擬釆用的注釋方式。自然，一種規範的形成，需要互動者的創造而非被
動的接受。我們
真誠歡迎廣大作者/ 讀者的 “參與”，在實踐中確立和完善學術研究的注釋規範。
一、著作引文注釋
統一規格：作者、書名、卷次、版本﹝出版社名、出版年份﹞、頁碼。
範例：
1. 徐民：《抗美援期的歷史回顧》，北京：中國廣播出版社 1990 年版，頁
5、7。
2. 柴成文、趙永田：《板門店談判》，上海：上海人民出版社 1989 年版，頁
5-9。
3.
﹝作者為三人以上﹞王永民等：《五筆字型輸入法》，石家莊：河北人民出版社
1992年版，
頁 5、8、12。
4.
﹝集體作者﹞軍事科學院軍史研究室：《朝鮮戰爭史話》，北京：解放軍出版社
1990年版，

頁 233。
5. 《魯迅全集》，卷
13﹝十以下用漢字表示，十以上用阿拉伯數字﹞，北京：人民文學出版
社 1991 年版，頁 9。
6. 《魯迅全集》，卷十，北京：人民文學出版社 1991 年版，頁 462、464。
編寫：
7. 陳忠龍主編：《論朝鮮戰爭》，南京：南京大學出版社 1991 年版，頁 2。
文選、選集：
8. 《毛澤東選集》卷二，北京：人民出版社 1970 年版，頁 2。
譯著：
9. 約瑟夫‧格登：《朝鮮戰爭》，於濱等譯，北京：解放軍出版社 1990
年版，頁 23。
原文著作：﹝書名排斜體﹞
10. Robert Gilpin, Economy of Internation Relations,
Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1986, p. 5.
11. Max Singer and Aaron Wildavsky, The Red World Order,
Chatham House
11

Publishers, 1993, pp.5-10.
二、文章引文注釋
統一規格：作者、文章題目、引自何種出版物、出版時間、頁碼。
範例：
著作中的文章：
1. 王民：“市場經濟理論”，張歌主編：《市場經濟論集》，北京：經濟出版社
1992 年版，頁
33-44。
期刊中的文章：
2.
鄧正來、景躍進：“建構中國的市民社會”，《中國社會科學季刊》﹝香港﹞199
2 年創刊
號，頁 18。
報紙上的文章：
3. 劉育寧：“克林頓政府經濟政策”，《人民日報》1993 年 3 月 23 日，第 6
版。
原文著作的文章：
4. Robert Arts, “Power”. J. Nye ed., Power, Cambridge: Harvard
University Press,
1988, pp. 23-35.

原文期刊中的文章：
5. Robert Gilpin, “War and Change”, International
Organization, Vol. 33, No. 4,
1993, pp. 45-55.
外國報紙上的文章：
6. Robert Knorr, “China: Third Economic Power”, New York
Times, June 10, 1992.
注釋統一放在文章尾處。
12
Selected bibliography
American Psychological Association. (2001). Publication
manual of the American
Psychological Association (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
Anderson, J., & Poole, M. (2001). Assignment and thesis
writing (4th ed.). New York:
Jon Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.
Lester, J. D. (1990). Writing research papers: A complete guide
(6th ed.). New York:
Harper Collins.

Roth, A. J. (1986). The research paper: Process, form, and
content (5th ed.).
California: Wadsworth Publishing Company.
8/18/2017 Letter from a Birmingham Jail [King, Jr.]
http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.h
tml 1/8
AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER - UNIVERSITY OF
PENNSYLVANIA
"Letter from a Birmingham Jail [King, Jr.]"
16 April 1963
My Dear Fellow Clergymen:
While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across
your recent statement calling my present
activities "unwise and untimely." Seldom do I pause to answer
criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to
answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries
would have little time for anything other than such
correspondence in the course of the day, and I would have no
time for constructive work. But since I feel that
you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are
sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your
statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms.
I think I should indicate why I am here in Birmingham, since
you have been influenced by the view which

argues against "outsiders coming in." I have the honor of
serving as president of the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every
southern state, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia.
We have some eighty five affiliated organizations across the
South, and one of them is the Alabama Christian
Movement for Human Rights. Frequently we share staff,
educational and financial resources with our affiliates.
Several months ago the affiliate here in Birmingham asked us to
be on call to engage in a nonviolent direct
action program if such were deemed necessary. We readily
consented, and when the hour came we lived up to
our promise. So I, along with several members of my staff, am
here because I was invited here. I am here
because I have organizational ties here.
But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is
here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C.
left their villages and carried their "thus saith the Lord" far
beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just
as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the
gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco
Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom
beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must
constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.
Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all
communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta
and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham.
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a
single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one
directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live
with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator"
idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be
considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.

You deplore the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham.
But your statement, I am sorry to say, fails to
express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about
the demonstrations. I am sure that none of you
would want to rest content with the superficial kind of social
analysis that deals merely with effects and does not
grapple with underlying causes. It is unfortunate that
demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham, but it is
even more unfortunate that the city's white power structure left
the Negro community with no alternative.
In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps:
collection of the facts to determine whether injustices
exist; negotiation; self purification; and direct action. We have
gone through all these steps in Birmingham.
There can be no gainsaying the fact that racial injustice engulfs
this community. Birmingham is probably the
most thoroughly segregated city in the United States. Its ugly
record of brutality is widely known. Negroes have
experienced grossly unjust treatment in the courts. There have
been more unsolved bombings of Negro homes
and churches in Birmingham than in any other city in the
nation. These are the hard, brutal facts of the case. On
the basis of these conditions, Negro leaders sought to negotiate
with the city fathers. But the latter consistently
refused to engage in good faith negotiation.
Then, last September, came the opportunity to talk with leaders
of Birmingham's economic community. In the
course of the negotiations, certain promises were made by the
merchants--for example, to remove the stores'
humiliating racial signs. On the basis of these promises, the
Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth and the leaders of the

tml 2/8
Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights agreed to a
moratorium on all demonstrations. As the weeks
and months went by, we realized that we were the victims of a
broken promise. A few signs, briefly removed,
returned; the others remained. As in so many past experiences,
our hopes had been blasted, and the shadow of
deep disappointment settled upon us. We had no alternative
except to prepare for direct action, whereby we
would present our very bodies as a means of laying our case
before the conscience of the local and the national
community. Mindful of the difficulties involved, we decided to
undertake a process of self purification. We
began a series of workshops on nonviolence, and we repeatedly
asked ourselves: "Are you able to accept blows
without retaliating?" "Are you able to endure the ordeal of
jail?" We decided to schedule our direct action
program for the Easter season, realizing that except for
Christmas, this is the main shopping period of the year.
Knowing that a strong economic-withdrawal program would be
the by product of direct action, we felt that this
would be the best time to bring pressure to bear on the
merchants for the needed change.
Then it occurred to us that Birmingham's mayoral election was
coming up in March, and we speedily decided to
postpone action until after election day. When we discovered
that the Commissioner of Public Safety, Eugene
"Bull" Connor, had piled up enough votes to be in the run off,
we decided again to postpone action until the day
after the run off so that the demonstrations could not be used to

cloud the issues. Like many others, we waited to
see Mr. Connor defeated, and to this end we endured
postponement after postponement. Having aided in this
community need, we felt that our direct action program could be
delayed no longer.
You may well ask: "Why direct action? Why sit ins, marches
and so forth? Isn't negotiation a better path?" You
are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very
purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct
action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that
a community which has constantly refused to
negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to
dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My
citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the
nonviolent resister may sound rather shocking. But I must
confess that I am not afraid of the word "tension." I have
earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of
constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth.
Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to
create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from
the bondage of myths and half truths to the
unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, so
must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to
create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from
the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the
majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood. The purpose
of our direct action program is to create a
situation so crisis packed that it will inevitably open the door to
negotiation. I therefore concur with you in your
call for negotiation. Too long has our beloved Southland been
bogged down in a tragic effort to live in
monologue rather than dialogue.
One of the basic points in your statement is that the action that I
and my associates have taken in Birmingham is

untimely. Some have asked: "Why didn't you give the new city
administration time to act?" The only answer that
I can give to this query is that the new Birmingham
administration must be prodded about as much as the
outgoing one, before it will act. We are sadly mistaken if we
feel that the election of Albert Boutwell as mayor
will bring the millennium to Birmingham. While Mr. Boutwell
is a much more gentle person than Mr. Connor,
they are both segregationists, dedicated to maintenance of the
status quo. I have hope that Mr. Boutwell will be
reasonable enough to see the futility of massive resistance to
desegregation. But he will not see this without
pressure from devotees of civil rights. My friends, I must say to
you that we have not made a single gain in civil
rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure.
Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged
groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals
may see the moral light and voluntarily give up
their unjust posture; but, as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us,
groups tend to be more immoral than
individuals.
We know through painful experience that freedom is never
voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be
demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a
direct action campaign that was "well timed" in
the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease
of segregation. For years now I have heard the
word "Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing
familiarity. This "Wait" has almost always meant
"Never." We must come to see, with one of our distinguished
jurists, that "justice too long delayed is justice
denied."

tml 3/8
We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional
and God given rights. The nations of Asia and
Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political
independence, but we still creep at horse and
buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter.
Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the
stinging darts of segregation to say, "Wait." But when you have
seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and
fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim;
when you have seen hate filled policemen curse,
kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see
the vast majority of your twenty million Negro
brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst
of an affluent society; when you suddenly find
your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to
explain to your six year old daughter why she
can't go to the public amusement park that has just been
advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her
eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored
children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning
to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort
her personality by developing an unconscious
bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an
answer for a five year old son who is asking:
"Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?";
when you take a cross county drive and find it
necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners
of your automobile because no motel will
accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by
nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when
your first name becomes "nigger," your middle name becomes

"boy" (however old you are) and your last name
becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the
respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by
day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro,
living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing
what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer
resentments; when you are forever fighting a
degenerating sense of "nobodiness"--then you will understand
why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a
time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no
longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair.
I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable
impatience. You express a great deal of anxiety
over our willingness to break laws. This is certainly a legitimate
concern. Since we so diligently urge people to
obey the Supreme Court's decision of 1954 outlawing
segregation in the public schools, at first glance it may
seem rather paradoxical for us consciously to break laws. One
may well ask: "How can you advocate breaking
some laws and obeying others?" The answer lies in the fact that
there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I
would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not
only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just
laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey
unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that
"an unjust law is no law at all."
Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one
determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just
law is a man made code that squares with the moral law or the
law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of
harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St.
Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is
not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts
human personality is just. Any law that degrades
human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust

because segregation distorts the soul and
damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of
superiority and the segregated a false sense of
inferiority. Segregation, to use the terminology of the Jewish
philosopher Martin Buber, substitutes an "I it"
relationship for an "I thou" relationship and ends up relegating
persons to the status of things. Hence segregation
is not only politically, economically and sociologically
unsound, it is morally wrong and sinful. Paul Tillich has
said that sin is separation. Is not segregation an existential
expression of man's tragic separation, his awful
estrangement, his terrible sinfulness? Thus it is that I can urge
men to obey the 1954 decision of the Supreme
Court, for it is morally right; and I can urge them to disobey
segregation ordinances, for they are morally wrong.
Let us consider a more concrete example of just and unjust
laws. An unjust law is a code that a numerical or
power majority group compels a minority group to obey but
does not make binding on itself. This is difference
made legal. By the same token, a just law is a code that a
majority compels a minority to follow and that it is
willing to follow itself. This is sameness made legal. Let me
give another explanation. A law is unjust if it is
inflicted on a minority that, as a result of being denied the right
to vote, had no part in enacting or devising the
law. Who can say that the legislature of Alabama which set up
that state's segregation laws was democratically
elected? Throughout Alabama all sorts of devious methods are
used to prevent Negroes from becoming
registered voters, and there are some counties in which, even
though Negroes constitute a majority of the
population, not a single Negro is registered. Can any law
enacted under such circumstances be considered
democratically structured?

tml 4/8
Sometimes a law is just on its face and unjust in its application.
For instance, I have been arrested on a charge of
parading without a permit. Now, there is nothing wrong in
having an ordinance which requires a permit for a
parade. But such an ordinance becomes unjust when it is used to
maintain segregation and to deny citizens the
First-Amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and protest.
I hope you are able to see the distinction I am trying to point
out. In no sense do I advocate evading or defying
the law, as would the rabid segregationist. That would lead to
anarchy. One who breaks an unjust law must do so
openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I
submit that an individual who breaks a law that
conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the
penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the
conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality
expressing the highest respect for law.
Of course, there is nothing new about this kind of civil
disobedience. It was evidenced sublimely in the refusal
of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to obey the laws of
Nebuchadnezzar, on the ground that a higher moral
law was at stake. It was practiced superbly by the early
Christians, who were willing to face hungry lions and the
excruciating pain of chopping blocks rather than submit to
certain unjust laws of the Roman Empire. To a
degree, academic freedom is a reality today because Socrates
practiced civil disobedience. In our own nation, the

Boston Tea Party represented a massive act of civil
disobedience.
We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in
Germany was "legal" and everything the Hungarian
freedom fighters did in Hungary was "illegal." It was "illegal"
to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler's Germany.
Even so, I am sure that, had I lived in Germany at the time, I
would have aided and comforted my Jewish
brothers. If today I lived in a Communist country where certain
principles dear to the Christian faith are
suppressed, I would openly advocate disobeying that country's
antireligious laws.
I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and
Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the
past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white
moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable
conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride
toward freedom is not the White Citizen's
Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who
is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who
prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a
positive peace which is the presence of justice; who
constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I
cannot agree with your methods of direct action";
who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for
another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical
concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait
for a "more convenient season." Shallow
understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than
absolute misunderstanding from people of ill
will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than
outright rejection.
I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law

and order exist for the purpose of establishing
justice and that when they fail in this purpose they become the
dangerously structured dams that block the flow
of social progress. I had hoped that the white moderate would
understand that the present tension in the South is
a necessary phase of the transition from an obnoxious negative
peace, in which the Negro passively accepted his
unjust plight, to a substantive and positive peace, in which all
men will respect the dignity and worth of human
personality. Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct
action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring
to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring
it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt
with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered
up but must be opened with all its ugliness to
the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be
exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the
light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before
it can be cured.
In your statement you assert that our actions, even though
peaceful, must be condemned because they precipitate
violence. But is this a logical assertion? Isn't this like
condemning a robbed man because his possession of
money precipitated the evil act of robbery? Isn't this like
condemning Socrates because his unswerving
commitment to truth and his philosophical inquiries precipitated
the act by the misguided populace in which
they made him drink hemlock? Isn't this like condemning Jesus
because his unique God consciousness and never
ceasing devotion to God's will precipitated the evil act of
crucifixion? We must come to see that, as the federal
courts have consistently affirmed, it is wrong to urge an
individual to cease his efforts to gain his basic
constitutional rights because the quest may precipitate violence.
Society must protect the robbed and punish the

robber. I had also hoped that the white moderate would reject
the myth concerning time in relation to the
tml 5/8
struggle for freedom. I have just received a letter from a white
brother in Texas. He writes: "All Christians know
that the colored people will receive equal rights eventually, but
it is possible that you are in too great a religious
hurry. It has taken Christianity almost two thousand years to
accomplish what it has. The teachings of Christ
take time to come to earth." Such an attitude stems from a tragic
misconception of time, from the strangely
irrational notion that there is something in the very flow of time
that will inevitably cure all ills. Actually, time
itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or
constructively. More and more I feel that the people of ill
will have used time much more effectively than have the people
of good will. We will have to repent in this
generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the
bad people but for the appalling silence of the
good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of
inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of
men willing to be co workers with God, and without this hard
work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of
social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the
knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right. Now is
the time to make real the promise of democracy and transform
our pending national elegy into a creative psalm
of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our national policy from
the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock

of human dignity.
You speak of our activity in Birmingham as extreme. At first I
was rather disappointed that fellow clergymen
would see my nonviolent efforts as those of an extremist. I
began thinking about the fact that I stand in the
middle of two opposing forces in the Negro community. One is
a force of complacency, made up in part of
Negroes who, as a result of long years of oppression, are so
drained of self respect and a sense of
"somebodiness" that they have adjusted to segregation; and in
part of a few middle-class Negroes who, because
of a degree of academic and economic security and because in
some ways they profit by segregation, have
become insensitive to the problems of the masses. The other
force is one of bitterness and hatred, and it comes
perilously close to advocating violence. It is expressed in the
various black nationalist groups that are springing
up across the nation, the largest and best known being Elijah
Muhammad's Muslim movement. Nourished by the
Negro's frustration over the continued existence of racial
discrimination, this movement is made up of people
who have lost faith in America, who have absolutely repudiated
Christianity, and who have concluded that the
white man is an incorrigible "devil."
I have tried to stand between these two forces, saying that we
need emulate neither the "do nothingism" of the
complacent nor the hatred and despair of the black nationalist.
For there is the more excellent way of love and
nonviolent protest. I am grateful to God that, through the
influence of the Negro church, the way of nonviolence
became an integral part of our struggle. If this philosophy had
not emerged, by now many streets of the South
would, I am convinced, be flowing with blood. And I am further
convinced that if our white brothers dismiss as

"rabble rousers" and "outside agitators" those of us who employ
nonviolent direct action, and if they refuse to
support our nonviolent efforts, millions of Negroes will, out of
frustration and despair, seek solace and security
in black nationalist ideologies--a development that would
inevitably lead to a frightening racial nightmare.
Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The
yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself, and
that is what has happened to the American Negro. Something
within has reminded him of his birthright of
freedom, and something without has reminded him that it can be
gained. Consciously or unconsciously, he has
been caught up by the Zeitgeist, and with his black brothers of
Africa and his brown and yellow brothers of
Asia, South America and the Caribbean, the United States
Negro is moving with a sense of great urgency toward
the promised land of racial justice. If one recognizes this vital
urge that has engulfed the Negro community, one
should readily understand why public demonstrations are taking
place. The Negro has many pent up resentments
and latent frustrations, and he must release them. So let him
march; let him make prayer pilgrimages to the city
hall; let him go on freedom rides -and try to understand why he
must do so. If his repressed emotions are not
released in nonviolent ways, they will seek expression through
violence; this is not a threat but a fact of history.
So I have not said to my people: "Get rid of your discontent."
Rather, I have tried to say that this normal and
healthy discontent can be channeled into the creative outlet of
nonviolent direct action. And now this approach is
being termed extremist. But though I was initially disappointed
at being categorized as an extremist, as I
continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a
measure of satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus an
extremist for love: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse

you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for
them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." Was not
Amos an extremist for justice: "Let justice roll
down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing
stream." Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian
tml 6/8
gospel: "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." Was
not Martin Luther an extremist: "Here I stand; I
cannot do otherwise, so help me God." And John Bunyan: "I
will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make
a butchery of my conscience." And Abraham Lincoln: "This
nation cannot survive half slave and half free." And
Thomas Jefferson: "We hold these truths to be self evident, that
all men are created equal . . ." So the question is
not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists
we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for
love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or
for the extension of justice? In that dramatic
scene on Calvary's hill three men were crucified. We must never
forget that all three were crucified for the same
crime--the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for
immorality, and thus fell below their environment. The
other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and
goodness, and thereby rose above his environment.
Perhaps the South, the nation and the world are in dire need of
creative extremists.
I had hoped that the white moderate would see this need.
Perhaps I was too optimistic; perhaps I expected too

much. I suppose I should have realized that few members of the
oppressor race can understand the deep groans
and passionate yearnings of the oppressed race, and still fewer
have the vision to see that injustice must be
rooted out by strong, persistent and determined action. I am
thankful, however, that some of our white brothers
in the South have grasped the meaning of this social revolution
and committed themselves to it. They are still all
too few in quantity, but they are big in quality. Some -such as
Ralph McGill, Lillian Smith, Harry Golden, James
McBride Dabbs, Ann Braden and Sarah Patton Boyle--have
written about our struggle in eloquent and prophetic
terms. Others have marched with us down nameless streets of
the South. They have languished in filthy, roach
infested jails, suffering the abuse and brutality of policemen
who view them as "dirty nigger-lovers." Unlike so
many of their moderate brothers and sisters, they have
recognized the urgency of the moment and sensed the
need for powerful "action" antidotes to combat the disease of
segregation. Let me take note of my other major
disappointment. I have been so greatly disappointed with the
white church and its leadership. Of course, there
are some notable exceptions. I am not unmindful of the fact that
each of you has taken some significant stands
on this issue. I commend you, Reverend Stallings, for your
Christian stand on this past Sunday, in welcoming
Negroes to your worship service on a nonsegregated basis. I
commend the Catholic leaders of this state for
integrating Spring Hill College several years ago.
But despite these notable exceptions, I must honestly reiterate
that I have been disappointed with the …
8/17/2017 KING ASHOKA: His Edicts and His Times

https://www.cs.colostate.edu/~malaiya/ashoka.html 1/17
THE EDICTS OF KING
ASHOKA
An English rendering by
Ven. S. Dhammika
The Wheel Publication No. 386/387
ISBN 955-24-0104-6
Published in 1993
BUDDHIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY
KANDY SRI LANKA
Copyright 1993 Ven. S. Dhammika
DharmaNet Edition 1994
This electronic edition is offered for free distribution
via DharmaNet by arrangement with the publisher. DharmaNet
International
P.O. Box 4951, Berkeley CA 94704-4951
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
THE FOURTEEN ROCK EDICTS
KALINGA ROCK EDICTS
MINOR ROCK EDICTS
THE SEVEN PILLAR EDICTS

MINOR PILLAR EDICTS
NOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Original texts
Buddhism in India
The Edicts of King Asoka
King Asoka, the third monarch of the Indian Mauryan dynasty,
has come to be regarded as one of the most
exemplary rulers in world history. The British historian H.G.
Wells has written: "Amidst the tens of thousands
https://www.cs.colostate.edu/~malaiya/Asoka.txt
of names of monarchs that crowd the columns of history ... the
name of Asoka shines, and shines almost
alone, a star." Although Buddhist literature preserved the legend
of this ruler -- the story of a cruel and
ruthless king who converted to Buddhism and thereafter
established a reign of virtue -- definitive historical
records of his reign were lacking. Then in the nineteenth
century there came to light a large number of edicts,
in India, Nepal, Pakistan and Afghanistan. These edicts,
inscribed on rocks and pillars, proclaim Asoka's
reforms and policies and promulgate his advice to his subjects.
The present rendering of these edicts, based
on earlier translations, offers us insights into a powerful and

capable ruler's attempt to establish an empire on
the foundation of righteousness, a reign which makes the moral
and spiritual welfare of his subjects its
primary concern. The Australian bhikkhu Ven. S. Dhammika,
the compiler of the present work, is the spiritual
director of the Buddha Dhamma Mandala Society in Singapore.
PREFACE
This rendering of King Asoka's Edicts is based heavily on
Amulyachandra Sen's English translation, which
includes the original Magadhi and a Sanskrit and English
translation of the text. However, many parts of the
edicts are far from clear in meaning and the numerous
translations of them differ widely. Therefore, I have
also consulted the translations of C. D. Sircar and D. R.
Bhandarkar and in parts favored their interpretations.
Any credit this small book deserves is due entirely to the labors
and learning of these scholars.
INTRODUCTION
//Dhamma sadhu, kiyam cu dhamme ti? Apasinave, bahu
kayane, daya, dane, sace, socaye//.
Dhamma is good, but what constitutes Dhamma? (It includes)
little evil, much good, kindness, generosity,
truthfulness and purity.
KING ASOKA
With the rediscovery and translation of Indian literature by
European scholars in the 19th century, it was not

just the religion and philosophy of Buddhism that came to light,
but also its many legendary histories and
biographies. Amongst this class of literature, one name that
came to be noticed was that of Asoka, a good
king who was supposed to have ruled India in the distant past.
Stories about this king, similar in outline but
differing greatly in details, were found in the Divyavadana, the
Asokavadana, the Mahavamsa and several
other works. They told of an exceptionally cruel and ruthless
prince who had many of his brothers killed in
order to seize the throne, who was dramatically converted to
Buddhism and who ruled wisely and justly for
the rest of his life. None of these stories were taken seriously --
after all many pre-modern cultures had
legends about "too good to be true" kings who had ruled
righteously in the past and who, people hoped,
would rule again soon. Most of these legends had their origins
more in popular longing to be rid of the
despotic and uncaring kings than in any historical fact. And the
numerous stories about Asoka were assumed
to be the same.
But in 1837, James Prinsep succeeded in deciphering an ancient
inscription on a large stone pillar in Delhi.
Several other pillars and rocks with similar inscriptions had
been known for some time and had attracted the
curiosity of scholars. Prinsep's inscription proved to be a series
of edicts issued by a king calling himself
"Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi." In the following
decades, more and more edicts by this same king were
discovered and with increasingly accurate decipherment of their
language, a more complete picture of this
man and his deeds began to emerge. Gradually, it dawned on
scholars that the King Piyadasi of the edicts
might be the King Asoka so often praised in Buddhist legends.
However, it was not until 1915, when another

edict actually mentioning the name Asoka was discovered, that
the identification was confirmed. Having been
forgotten for nearly 700 years, one of the greatest men in
history became known to the world once again.
Asoka's edicts are mainly concerned with the reforms he
instituted and the moral principles he recommended
in his attempt to create a just and humane society. As such, they
give us little information about his life, the
details of which have to be culled from other sources. Although
the exact dates of Asoka's life are a matter of
dispute among scholars, he was born in about 304 B.C. and
became the third king of the Mauryan dynasty
after the death of his father, Bindusara. His given name was
Asoka but he assumed the title Devanampiya
Piyadasi which means "Beloved-of-the-Gods, He Who Looks On
With Affection." There seems to have been a
two-year war of succession during which at least one of Asoka's
brothers was killed. In 262 B.C., eight years
after his coronation, Asoka's armies attacked and conquered
Kalinga, a country that roughly corresponds to
the modern state of Orissa. The loss of life caused by battle,
reprisals, deportations and the turmoil that
always exists in the aftermath of war so horrified Asoka that it
brought about a complete change in his
personality. It seems that Asoka had been calling himself a
Buddhist for at least two years prior to the Kalinga
war, but his commitment to Buddhism was only lukewarm and
perhaps had a political motive behind it. But

after the war Asoka dedicated the rest of his life trying to apply
Buddhist principles to the administration of
his vast empire. He had a crucial part to play in helping
Buddhism to spread both throughout India and
abroad, and probably built the first major Buddhist monuments.
Asoka died in 232 B.C. in the thirty-eighth
year of his reign.
Asoka's edicts are to be found scattered in more than thirty
places throughout India, Nepal, Pakistan and
Afghanistan. Most of them are written in Brahmi script from
which all Indian scripts and many of those used
in Southeast Asia later developed. The language used in the
edicts found in the eastern part of the sub-
continent is a type of Magadhi, probably the official language
of Asoka's court. The language used in the
edicts found in the western part of India is closer to Sanskrit
although one bilingual edict in Afghanistan is
written in Aramaic and Greek. Asoka's edicts, which comprise
the earliest decipherable corpus of written
documents from India, have survived throughout the centuries
because they are written on rocks and stone
pillars. These pillars in particular are testimony to the
technological and artistic genius of ancient Indian
civilization. Originally, there must have been many of them,
although only ten with inscriptions still survive.
Averaging between forty and fifty feet in height, and weighing
up to fifty tons each, all the pillars were
quarried at Chunar, just south of Varanasi and dragged,
sometimes hundreds of miles, to where they were
erected. Each pillar was originally capped by a capital,
sometimes a roaring lion, a noble bull or a spirited
horse, and the few capitals that survive are widely recognized as
masterpieces of Indian art. Both the pillars
and the capitals exhibit a remarkable mirror-like polish that has
survived despite centuries of exposure to the

elements. The location of the rock edicts is governed by the
availability of suitable rocks, but the edicts on
pillars are all to be found in very specific places. Some, like the
Lumbini pillar, mark the Buddha's birthplace,
while its inscriptions commemorate Asoka's pilgrimage to that
place. Others are to be found in or near
important population centres so that their edicts could be read
by as many people as possible.
There is little doubt that Asoka's edicts were written in his own
words rather than in the stylistic language in
which royal edicts or proclamations in the ancient world were
usually written in. Their distinctly personal tone
gives us a unique glimpse into the personality of this complex
and remarkable man. Asoka's style tends to be
somewhat repetitious and plodding as if explaining something to
one who has difficulty in understanding.
Asoka frequently refers to the good works he has done, although
not in a boastful way, but more, it seems, to
convince the reader of his sincerity. In fact, an anxiousness to
be thought of as a sincere person and a good
administrator is present in nearly every edict. Asoka tells his
subjects that he looked upon them as his
children, that their welfare is his main concern; he apologizes
for the Kalinga war and reassures the people
beyond the borders of his empire that he has no expansionist
intentions towards them. Mixed with this
sincerity, there is a definite puritanical streak in Asoka's
character suggested by his disapproval of festivals
and of religious rituals many of which while being of little
value were nonetheless harmless.
It is also very clear that Buddhism was the most influential
force in Asoka's life and that he hoped his
subjects likewise would adopt his religion. He went on
pilgrimages to Lumbini and Bodh Gaya, sent teaching

monks to various regions in India and beyond its borders, and
he was familiar enough with the sacred texts
to recommend some of them to the monastic community. It is
also very clear that Asoka saw the reforms he
instituted as being a part of his duties as a Buddhist. But, while
he was an enthusiastic Buddhist, he was not
partisan towards his own religion or intolerant of other
religions. He seems to have genuinely hoped to be
able to encourage everyone to practice his or her own religion
with the same conviction that he practiced his.
Scholars have suggested that because the edicts say nothing
about the philosophical aspects of Buddhism,
Asoka had a simplistic and naive understanding of the Dhamma.
This view does not take into account the fact
that the purpose of the edicts was not to expound the truths of
Buddhism, but to inform the people of Asoka's
reforms and to encourage them to be more generous, kind and
moral. This being the case, there was no
reason for Asoka to discuss Buddhist philosophy. Asoka
emerges from his edicts as an able administrator, an
intelligent human being and as a devoted Buddhist, and we
could expect him to take as keen an interest in
Buddhist philosophy as he did in Buddhist practice.
The contents of Asoka's edicts make it clear that all the legends
about his wise and humane rule are more
than justified and qualify him to be ranked as one of the
greatest rulers. In his edicts, he spoke of what might
be called state morality, and private or individual morality. The
first was what he based his administration
upon and what he hoped would lead to a more just, more
spiritually inclined society, while the second was
what he recommended and encouraged individuals to practice.
Both these types of morality were imbued with
the Buddhist values of compassion, moderation, tolerance and

respect for all life. The Asokan state gave up
the predatory foreign policy that had characterized the Mauryan
empire up till then and replaced it with a
policy of peaceful co-existence. The judicial system was
reformed in order to make it more fair, less harsh and
less open to abuse, while those sentenced to death were given a
stay of execution to prepare appeals and
regular amnesties were given to prisoners. State resources were
used for useful public works like the
importation and cultivation of medical herbs, the building of
rest houses, the digging of wells at regular
intervals along main roads and the planting of fruit and shade
trees. To ensue that these reforms and projects
were carried out, Asoka made himself more accessible to his
subjects by going on frequent inspection tours
and he expected his district officers to follow his example. To
the same end, he gave orders that important
state business or petitions were never to be kept from him no
matter what he was doing at the time. The
state had a responsibility not just to protect and promote the
welfare of its people but also its wildlife.
Hunting certain species of wild animals was banned, forest and
wildlife reserves were established and cruelty
to domestic and wild animals was prohibited. The protection of
all religions, their promotion and the fostering
of harmony between them, was also seen as one of the duties of
the state. It even seems that something like
a Department of Religious Affairs was established with officers
called Dhamma Mahamatras whose job it was

to look after the affairs of various religious bodies and to
encourage the practice of religion.
The individual morality that Asoka hoped to foster included
respect (//susrusa//) towards parents, elders,
teachers, friends, servants, ascetics and brahmins -- behavior
that accords with the advice given to Sigala by
the Buddha (Digha Nikaya, Discourse No. 31). He encouraged
generosity (//dana//) to the poor (//kapana
valaka//), to ascetics and brahmins, and to friends and relatives.
Not surprisingly, Asoka encouraged
harmlessness towards all life (//avihisa bhutanam//). In
conformity with the Buddha's advice in the Anguttara
Nikaya, II:282, he also considered moderation in spending and
moderation in saving to be good (//apa
vyayata apa bhadata//). Treating people properly (//samya
pratipati//), he suggested, was much more
important than performing ceremonies that were supposed to
bring good luck. Because it helped promote
tolerance and mutual respect, Asoka desired that people should
be well-learned (//bahu sruta//) in the good
doctrines (//kalanagama//) of other people's religions. The
qualities of heart that are recommended by Asoka
in the edicts indicate his deep spirituality. They include
kindness (//daya//), self-examination (//palikhaya//),
truthfulness (//sace//), gratitude (//katamnata//), purity of heart
(//bhava sudhi//), enthusiasm
(//usahena//), strong loyalty (//dadha bhatita//), self-control
(//sayame//) and love of the Dhamma
(//Dhamma kamata//).
We have no way of knowing how effective Asoka's reforms
were or how long they lasted but we do know that
monarchs throughout the ancient Buddhist world were
encouraged to look to his style of government as an
ideal to be followed. King Asoka has to be credited with the

first attempt to develop a Buddhist polity. Today,
with widespread disillusionment in prevailing ideologies and
the search for a political philosophy that goes
beyond greed (capitalism), hatred (communism) and delusion
(dictatorships led by "infallible" leaders),
Asoka's edicts may make a meaningful contribution to the
development of a more spiritually based political
system.
THE FOURTEEN ROCK EDICTS
Ashoka's First Rock inscription at
Girnar
1
Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi, has caused this Dhamma
edict to be written.[1] Here (in my domain) no
living beings are to be slaughtered or offered in sacrifice. Nor
should festivals be held, for Beloved-of-the-
Gods, King Piyadasi, sees much to object to in such festivals,
although there are some festivals that Beloved-
of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi, does approve of.
Formerly, in the kitchen of Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi,
hundreds of thousands of animals were killed
every day to make curry. But now with the writing of this

Dhamma edict only three creatures, two peacocks
and a deer are killed, and the deer not always. And in time, not
even these three creatures will be killed.
2
Everywhere [2] within Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi's
domain, and among the people beyond the
borders, the Cholas, the Pandyas, the Satiyaputras, the
Keralaputras, as far as Tamraparni and where the
Greek king Antiochos rules, and among the kings who are
neighbors of Antiochos,[3] everywhere has
Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi, made provision for two
types of medical treatment: medical treatment
for humans and medical treatment for animals. Wherever
medical herbs suitable for humans or animals are
not available, I have had them imported and grown. Wherever
medical roots or fruits are not available I have
had them imported and grown. Along roads I have had wells dug
and trees planted for the benefit of humans
and animals.[4]
3
Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi, speaks thus:[5] Twelve
years after my coronation this has been ordered -
- Everywhere in my domain the Yuktas, the Rajjukas and the
Pradesikas shall go on inspection tours every
five years for the purpose of Dhamma instruction and also to
conduct other business.[6] Respect for mother
and father is good, generosity to friends, acquaintances,
relatives, Brahmans and ascetics is good, not killing
living beings is good, moderation in spending and moderation in
saving is good. The Council shall notify the
Yuktas about the observance of these instructions in these very
words.

4
In the past, for many hundreds of years, killing or harming
living beings and improper behavior towards
relatives, and improper behavior towards Brahmans and ascetics
has increased.[7] But now due to Beloved-
of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi's Dhamma practice, the sound of the
drum has been replaced by the sound of the
Dhamma.[8] The sighting of heavenly cars, auspicious
elephants, bodies of fire and other divine sightings has
not happened for many hundreds of years. But now because
Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi promotes
restraint in the killing and harming of living beings, proper
behavior towards relatives, Brahmans and
ascetics, and respect for mother, father and elders, such
sightings have increased.[9]
These and many other kinds of Dhamma practice have been
encouraged by Beloved-of-the-Gods, King
Piyadasi, and he will continue to promote Dhamma practice.
And the sons, grandsons and great-grandsons of
Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi, too will continue to
promote Dhamma practice until the end of time;
living by Dhamma and virtue, they will instruct in Dhamma.
Truly, this is the highest work, to instruct in
Dhamma. But practicing the Dhamma cannot be done by one
who is devoid of virtue and therefore its
promotion and growth is commendable.
This edict has been written so that it may please my successors
to devote themselves to promoting these
things and not allow them to decline. Beloved-of-the-Gods,
King Piyadasi, has had this written twelve years
after his coronation.
5

Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi, speaks thus:[10] To do
good is difficult. One who does good first does
something hard to do. I have done many good deeds, and, if my
sons, grandsons and their descendants up to
the end of the world act in like manner, they too will do much
good. But whoever amongst them neglects this,
they will do evil. Truly, it is easy to do evil.[11]
In the past there were no Dhamma Mahamatras but such officers
were appointed by me thirteen years after
my coronation. Now they work among all religions for the
establishment of Dhamma, for the promotion of
Dhamma, and for the welfare and happiness of all who are
devoted to Dhamma. They work among the
Greeks, the Kambojas, the Gandharas, the Rastrikas, the
Pitinikas and other peoples on the western borders.
[12] They work among soldiers, chiefs, Brahmans,
householders, the poor, the aged and those devoted to
Dhamma -- for their welfare and happiness -- so that they may
be free from harassment. They (Dhamma
Mahamatras) work for the proper treatment of prisoners,
towards their unfettering, and if the Mahamatras
think, "This one has a family to support," "That one has been
bewitched," "This one is old," then they work
for the release of such prisoners. They work here, in outlying
towns, in the women's quarters belonging to my
brothers and sisters, and among my other relatives. They are

occupied everywhere. These Dhamma
Mahamatras are occupied in my domain among people devoted
to Dhamma to determine who is devoted to
Dhamma, who is established in Dhamma, and who is generous.
This Dhamma edict has been written on stone so that it might
endure long and that my descendants might
act in conformity with it.
6
Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi, speaks thus:[13] In the
past, state business was not transacted nor were
reports delivered to the king at all hours. But now I have given
this order, that at any time, whether I am
eating, in the women's quarters, the bed chamber, the chariot,
the palanquin, in the park or wherever,
reporters are to be posted with instructions to report to me the
affairs of the people so that I might attend to
these affairs wherever I am. And whatever I orally order in
connection with donations or proclamations, or
when urgent business presses itself on the Mahamatras, if
disagreement or debate arises in the Council, then
it must be reported to me immediately. This is what I have
ordered. I am never content with exerting myself
or with despatching business. Truly, I consider the welfare of
all to be my duty, and the root of this is exertion
and the prompt despatch of business. There is no better work
than promoting the welfare of all the people
and whatever efforts I am making is to repay the debt I owe to
all beings to assure their happiness in this
life, and attain heaven in the next.
Therefore this Dhamma edict has been written to last long and
that my sons, grandsons and great-grandsons
might act in conformity with it for the welfare of the world.

However, this is difficult to do without great
exertion.
7
Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi, desires that all religions
should reside everywhere, for all of them desire
self-control and purity of heart.[14] But people have various
desires and various passions, and they may
practice all of what they should or only a part of it. But one
who receives great gifts yet is lacking in self-
control, purity of heart, gratitude and firm devotion, such a
person is mean.
8
In the past kings used to go out on pleasure tours during which
there was hunting and other entertainment.
[15] But ten years after Beloved-of-the-Gods had been
coronated, he went on a tour to Sambodhi and thus
instituted Dhamma tours.[16] During these tours, the following
things took place: visits and gifts to
Brahmans and ascetics, visits and gifts of gold to the aged,
visits to people in the countryside, instructing
them in Dhamma, and discussing Dhamma with them as is
suitable. It is this that delights Beloved-of-the-
Gods, King Piyadasi, and is, as it were, another type of revenue.
9
Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi, speaks thus:[17] In times
of sickness, for the marriage of sons and
daughters, at the birth of children, before embarking on a
journey, on these and other occasions, people
perform various ceremonies. Women in particular perform many
vulgar and worthless ceremonies. These

types of ceremonies can be performed by all means, but they
bear little fruit. What does bear great fruit,
however, is the ceremony of the Dhamma. This involves proper
behavior towards servants and employees,
respect for teachers, restraint towards living beings, and
generosity towards ascetics and Brahmans. These
and other things constitute the ceremony of the Dhamma.
Therefore a father, a son, a brother, a master, a
friend, a companion, and even a neighbor should say: "This is
good, this is the ceremony that should be
performed until its purpose is fulfilled, this I shall do."[18]
Other ceremonies are of doubtful fruit, for they
may achieve their purpose, or they may not, and even if they do,
it is only in this world. But the ceremony of
the Dhamma is timeless. Even if it does not achieve its purpose
in this world, it produces great merit in the
next, whereas if it does achieve its purpose in this world, one
gets great merit both here and there through
the ceremony of the Dhamma.
10
Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi, does not consider glory
and fame to be of great account unless they are
achieved through having my subjects respect Dhamma and
practice Dhamma, both now and in the future.
[19] For this alone does Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi,
desire glory and fame. And whatever efforts
Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi, is making, all of that is

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