The first amongst the basic concepts in Indian Knowledge Tradition is that the Veda is the source of perennial flow of India’s living tradition. Second, Brahma, the absolute reality, that spans the infinite and the infinitesimal connects all levels and forms of reality in a cosmic web. Third basic concept is that Rta or Dharma- is the cosmic and human order that upholds all activity in living and non-living systems. (SCR (Supreme Court Records), (1966), (3) 242.) In Indian tradition international relations is seen as an interconnected, and emergent system in which our active and insightful engagement as co-creator is crucial for national and global peace and prosperity

1. Sunil Sondhi
Seminar on Global Presence of Indic Civilisation
29-30 September 2022, New Delhi

2. Objectives of Studying Indic Civilisation
 Exploration of Footprints
 Knowing Ourselves
 Guidance for Action
 Our pride in the traditional systems of thought requires us to possess a
holistic outlook that always broadens and grows with the reality.
 Indian knowledge tradition acquires a meaning and a justification for
the present only if it advances and ennobles life, which is Dharma
and Satya.
 International relations based on shared values and spiritual coexistence can
help build a world characterized by peace and prosperity.

3. Delusional Realism
 Discovery of India 1945, Asian Relations Conference 1947, Bandung
Conference 1955, Non Aligned summit 1961.
 “When we discovered in 1958 that a road had been built in Ladakh… we did
not know where it was. We have always looked upon the Ladakh area as
some vaguer area…We have to put up with the Chinese occupation of this
North East sector and their road across this area”. (RS Debate, HBR, 1959)
 “We were getting out of touch with the reality in the modern world and living
in an artificial world of our creation” (S. Gopal/Nehru).
 “The staying power of Indian philosophy and religion need not necessarily be
a virtue…. I think it has meant in India for a long time past, stagnation and
decay”. (Nehru, DOI, p.81).

4. Western Knowledge Tradition
 Machiavelli has often been called the father of modern Western political
science. He went beyond Aristotle’s two-valued logic in separating ethics
from politics, and paved the way for a science of society in Comte’s Positive
Philosophy in which the understanding of nature, society and human beings
had to pass through three stages;
 1) the theological,
 2) the metaphysical, and
 3) the scientific.
 To the last of these Comte gave the name ‘positive’, and said that the social
sciences could be scientific by treating social phenomena as objective
“thing”.

5. State of Discipline
 Westphalia System
 Realism
 Liberalism
 Constructivism
 Today, the common concern of all the different approaches is the need of a
new world view to address the devastating condition of our environment, the
deep crises of economics, finances, and legitimation, the tremendous social
dislocations between states, and the deadlocks in almost all areas of
international politics that require true and genuine cooperative solutions for
the sake of humankind.

6. Beyond Positivism
 Quantum approach looks at the uncertainty of fundamental processes of
nature that lie outside space and time. They generate activities and objects
that constitute reality at different levels and forms in space and time.
 The positivists had a simple solution: the world must be divided into that
which we can see and say clearly and the rest, which we had better pass over
in silence.
 What we can see and say clearly is tip of the iceberg. If we overlook all that
is unsaid and unseen we would probably be left with completely misleading
and superficial play of words.

7. Nasadiya Sukta
• Then even non-existence was not there, nor existence,
• After all, who knows, and who can say
From where it all came, and how creation happened?
• The gods themselves are later than creation,
So who knows truly when it has arisen?
• The creator who surveys it all from highest heaven,
Does he know - or maybe even he does not know. (RV10.125)

8. Indian Knowledge Tradition
 The first amongst the basic concepts in Indian Knowledge Tradition is that
the Veda is the source of perennial flow of India’s living tradition.
 Second, Brahma, the absolute reality, that spans the infinite and the
infinitesimal connects all levels and forms of reality in a cosmic web.
 Third basic concept is that Rta or Dharma- is the cosmic and human order
that upholds all activity in living and non-living systems. (SCR (Supreme Court
Records), (1966), (3) 242.)
 In Indian tradition international relations is seen as an interconnected, and
emergent system in which our active and insightful engagement as co-
creator is crucial for national and global peace and prosperity.

9. Knowledge Power Action
His great power alone is of various kinds,
His knowledge, power and action is inherent in Him. (Svetasvtara Upanisad, 6.8)
परास्य शक्तिविविधैि: श्रुयते स्वाभाविकी ज्ञानबलक्रिया च
Power is possession of strength, Success is obtaining happiness.
Power is three-fold: the power of knowledge, the power of the treasury and
the army, the power of valour. (Arthasastra, RPK, II, 319)
बलं शक्तििः । सुखं वसक्तधिः ।
शक्तिविविधा -ज्ञानबलं मन्त्रशक्तििः,. कोशदण्डबलं प्रभुशक्तििः, क्रििमबलं सुत्साहशक्ति ।

10. Spiritual Coexistence
 After gaining new territory, he should carry out what is agreeable and
beneficial to the subjects by doing his own duty as laid down, granting
favours, giving exemptions, making gifts and showing honour.
 He should adopt a similar character, dress, language and behaviour as the
subjects. And he should show the same devotion in festivals in honour of
deities of the country, festive gatherings and sportive amusements. (Arthasastra,
RPK, II, 491)
 स्वधमम कममनुग्रहपररहारदानमानकममवभश्च प्रक
ृ वतवप्रयवहतान्यनुितेत
तस्मात्समानशीख्वेषभाषाचारता-मुपगच्छे त्।देशदेितसमाजोत्सिविहारेषु च भक्तिमनुव्तेत ।

11. Spiritual Realism
Wherever there is spiritual vision and inspired action, victory is assured BG 18.78
यि क
ृ ष्णो यि पार्थो. ति श्रीविमजयो
Reflect on it fully, use your discrimination, do as you choose BG 18.63
यर्था इच्छवस तर्था क
ु रु. विमृश्य शेषेण
 Spiritual view of life does not exclude or neglect matter, mind or power.
Reality is both transcendental and immanent.
 Those who are exclusively devoted to spirituality, to the neglect immanent
reality are in greater darkness than those lost in transcendental reality.
 Global peace and security requires national peace and security. What will be
the nature of global peace if nations are at war within.

12. References
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 Bhagvadgita, Tr. S. Radhakrishnan, Penguin, New Delhi, 2014.
 Chandra, Lokesh, Cultural Horizons of India, 7 Vols. Aditya Prakashan, New delhi,
1990.
 Chatterji, J.C. Hindu Realism. The Indian Press, Allahabad, 1912.
 Coedes, G. The Indianized States of Southeast Asia, ANU Press, Canberra, 1975.
 Heisenberg, Werner, Physics and Philosophy, Penguin, New Delhi, 1989.
 Majumdar, R.C. The Cultural Heritage of India Vol.3, Ramakrishna Centenary,
Calcutta, 1953.
 Majumdar, R.C. Ancient Indian Colonies in the Far East, Punjab Sanskrit Book,
Lahore, 1927.
 Moore, Charles A. The Indian Mind, MLBD, New Delhi, 2008.
 Nag, Kalidas, Greater India, Greater India Society Bulletin. 1926.
 The Principal Upanisads, Tr. S. Radhakrishnan, George Allen and Unwin, London,
1968.
 Raju, P.T. Activism in Indian Thought, Annals of BORI, Vol.XXXIX, July-October
1958, pp.185-226.
 Rg Veda, Tr. D. Satwalekar, Swadhyaya Mandal, Pardi, 20o7.
 Sarkar, Benoy Kumar, Hindu Theory of International Relations, American Political
Science Review Aug., 1919, Vol. 13, No. 3 (Aug., 1919), pp. 400-414