The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c14.s9.t7.13

c14.s9.t7.13

In the present study we are not concerned with the details of Śivāji's political views or of his political institutions. The political theories of his *Hindwī Svarājya* cannot but be of profound interest. For the present, however, to get the approximate philosophical perspective we have but to mention the works like the British treatises on paternal despotism, e.g., the *Patriarcha* of Filmer (1590-1653), published during the year of Śivāji's death (1680). In France about the same time Pascal in his *Pensées* was adumbrating the doctrine of obedience to custom, and in Bossuet's *Politique* (1709), based on the Scriptures, the people were being taught "*O rois, vous êtes des dieux!*" (O kings, you are gods). In that age the Bible of contempt towards the people was Richelieu's *Testament Politique* (1668).⁵