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The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c11.s4: The Welfare-State of Kauṭalya

The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c11.s4

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The Welfare-State of Kauṭalya

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In Breloer's interpretation the Kauṭalyan state follows a store or reserve-economy as its most old and original duty. Further, it receives its business resources in kind. The dimensions of planned economy resulting from this are so considerable for the whole economic structure that the statal economy becomes by itself the determining factor in economic life. All the same, the state seeks to evoke private initiative. This kind of "state-planning" was not due to any ideologies or experiments, says Breloer, but owed its origin to the solution of a gigantic problem. That problem, according to him, "remained unknown to the West until most recent times." It consisted in the provision of guarantee for the barest lives of India's untold millions and the conservation of her space in the interest of food supply.²⁰

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²⁰ Vol. III, pp. 361-362.

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The monopoly-economy, the centralized bureaucracy and the standing army are described as items that clearly demonstrate the strength and preponderance of the "control" elements in the *Fürsorgestaat*.²¹

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²¹ Vol. III, pp. 363-364.

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The instrument on which the state has to play in order to carry out its functions is said to be no unorganized dumb mass but a living organism which is almost as strong as the state itself. This is the "total society"

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corresponding to the well known category of the "total state." And in this "total society" every class discharges its own functions, its *sva-dharma*.

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According to Breloer the concentration of preventive measures or precautionary provisions as suggested in the *Arthaśāstra* in the hands of the state is economically simple, sound and effective. Along with this comes into operation the "welfare principle" and the state undertakes the direction or management of the economy.²² This economic direction or guidance (*Wirtschaftsführung*) is, however, radically different from communalization, says he.

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²² Vol. III, pp. 74, 284, 302.

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The direction of economic activities by the state embodies itself essentially in "economic superintendence or control" (*Wirtschaftsaufsicht*) which does not shrink from compulsory measures. But it fights shy of direct participation in economic enterprises. The "monopolies" are clear exceptions and they are managed by the state only when it is sure of surplus in all circumstances.²³

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²³ Vol. III, p. 95.

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In these statements Breloer should be credited with having rightly grasped the functions of the Hindu state, as the present author has indicated in his *Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus* (Leipzig 1922) in the extensive chapter on "National Finance," with parallels from the experience of non-Indian regions.²⁴

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²⁴ See also B. K. Sarkar: *Positive Background of Hindu Sociology* (Allahabad) Vol. II, (1921) chapter on "State House-keeping."

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But Breloer is not content with this objective analysis of data. He goes beyond these facts into philosophical speculations about the alleged fundamental and peculiar causes of this growth in India.

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