The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c15.s2.17

c15.s2.17

Kautilya observes that *prakriti-kopo hi sarva kopebhyo garîyân*, the wrath of the people is the supremest or most dangerous of all wraths. This is the Hindu counterpart of the Confucian proverb, “Of all who are to be feared, are not the people the chief?” In other words, the “fear of the people is the wisdom of the lord”. Like Mencius,¹ the Rousseau of ancient China, and Manegold of Lautenbach, the most radical anti-imperialist of mediaeval Europe, Manu has described in no uncertain terms as to the form generally taken by this “wrath of the people”. “The King who through foolishness arbitrarily tyrannizes over his own state is very soon deprived of his kingdom and life together with his kith and kin. As the lives of living beings perish through torture of the body, so the lives of kings also are lost through torturing the Kingdom.”² Such a “torturer” or persecutor is known as “ruiner” or “destroyer” in the *Mahâbhârata*. And according to its teachings he is to be executed (*nihantavyah*) by the people.³