State and Government in Ancient India c24.21

c24.21

An all-India state powerful enough to bring about the unity of the country and to defend it from foreign aggression through a cooperative effort under the aegis of the Central Government, but generous and considerate enough to permit the existence of local governments following their own customs and traditions and fostering their own culture and customs was thus the ideal of the ancient Indian polity. Curiously enough it is very much similar to our present ideal of a strong and united India with full autonomy to states. Let us therefore analyse a little more closely this ideal and find out its strong and weak points as disclosed by our ancient history.