The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c14.s9.t7.16

c14.s9.t7.16

Writing on Frederick the Great the following observation is made by Meinecke:⁶ "*Rationalisierung der aus dem Mittelalter her entwickelten sozialen Kräfte für die Zwecke des Staates, das war die Summe seiner inneren Politik*" (The rationalization of the social forces developed since the Middle Ages in the interests of the state,—this was the gist of his internal politics). It is by rationalization of the army, finance, the middle class and the farmers that Frederick the Great sought to transform Prussia into a real *Grossstaat*, i.e., great state (*mahā-rāṣṭra*). This short and pithy description can be used likewise as the key to Śivāji's political life. And he established not only the *Machtstaat* (power-state or military state) but the *Kulturstaat* (culture-state or *dharma*-state, humanitarian state) also of Frederick the Great's *Anti-Machiavel* (1739) and *Das Politische Testament* (1768).