A History of Hindu Political Theories from the Earliest Times to the End of the First Quarter of the Seventeenth Century A.D. c14.11

c14.11

∗ It has been alleged (vide D. R. Bhandarkar loc. cit.) as the ground of superiority of the Hindu theory over the Hobbesian, that while the latter involved the irrevocable transfer of absolute power to the ruler, the former contemplated the king to be still a servant of the people. We are not quite sure whether this view can be accepted as correct, for apart from the fact that even Hobbes permits the subjects to cancel their obligation to the sovereign in the event of the latter's failure to protect them from the evil of anarchy, the Hindu thinkers, as we have insisted before, do not appear to have developed the case for popular sovereignty into a complete system (cf. p. 272 supra). [^*] Cf. the views of Profs. P. N. Banerjea and D. R. Bhandarkar, quoted, p. 182 footnote, supra.