The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c16.s1.t1.46

c16.s1.t1.46

In Hindu political thought, therefore, *danda* is a two-handed engine and cuts both ways. On the one hand, it is a terror to the people and is a corrective of social abuses. It is a moralizer, purifier, and civilizing agent. As Kâmandaka⁷ observes, it is by the administration of *danda* that the state can be saved from a reversion to the logic of the fish and utter annihilation, as well as the people set right. It is through fear of punishment, according to the *Sukra-nîti*,⁸ that people become “virtuous" and refrain from committing aggression or indulging in untruths. *Danda* is efficacious, moreover, in causing the cruel to become mild, the wicked to give up wickedness, and the garrulous to beware of loquacity. It can subdue even beasts, and of course it frightens the thieves and terrifies the enemies into submission as tributaries, demoralizing all those that are wayward. Nay, it is good also for preceptors and can bring them to their senses, should they happen to be addicted to an extra dose of vanity or unmindful of their own avocations.¹ Finally, it is the foundation of civic life, being the "great stay of all virtues"; and all the "methods and means of statecraft" would be fruitless without a judicious exercise of *danda*.² Its uses as a beneficent agency in social life are, therefore, unequivocally recommended by Śukra.³