Report of Monday Morning Meeting on Mahabharata: A Strategic Overview

Col. Vivek Chadha (Retd.), Senior Fellow, MP-IDSA, delivered a presentation on “Mahabharata: A Strategic Overview” at the Monday Morning Meeting held on 20 November 2023, at 10 a.m. The venue was Seminar Hall I, Second Floor. Dr. Adil Rasheed, Research Fellow and Coordinator of the Counter Terrorism Centre, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, moderated the session. Ambassador Sujan R. Chinoy, Director General, MP-IDSA, and scholars of the Institute attended the meeting.

Executive Summary

The Mahabharata is not a prescriptive text nor is it a myth or a tale, nor is it merely a story about war and warfighting. The epic is guided by the overarching principle of idealism and its functional implementation through realism. It focuses on the concept of dharma as guidance for force application. The presentation provided an essential overview of the Mahabharata and what it is and what it is not. He delved deep into certain characteristic features and elements of Mahabharata, what is Dharma and its nuances. He touched upon various concepts such as war and laws of war; the elements of diplomacy; tools of negotiations for realising political objectives and ends.

Detailed Report

Dr. Adil Rasheed began with his opening remarks, in which he emphasised that Vedanta, in a way, helps to develop our consciousness and self-awareness to a higher level so that we appreciate and understand our realities in our own way and arrive at our solutions. He underscored that this is the time for India and other nations to develop their strategic outlook and their intellectual heritage. According to Dr. Rasheed, the Mahabharata is a comprehensive compendium of ancient Indian thought that one needs to study and explore to enlighten and realise wisdom.

Col Vivek Chadha commenced his presentation with a question, ‘Is the Study of Ancient Indian Texts Questionable?’ and provided a compact backdrop into what the text of Mahabharata is.  Additionally, he highlighted MP-IDSA’s efforts towards understanding and unveiling the potential of the ancient Indian texts for strategic thought and culture. Col. Chadha also noted that historical texts such as Mahabharata somehow have not been part of the focus area, despite the wider public desire to know and learn more about the past through historical Indian texts.

He emphasised the paramount significance of Mahabharata to strategic thought by quoting the inclusion of Mahabharata as a part of the syllabus at the US War College, which teaches certain ancient texts to its officers to better understand the nature, character, and strategy of war. Furthermore, he listed out some of the scholars and their works that were included in that syllabus list, such as Kautilya and Sun Tzu.

According to Col. Vivek Chadha, the logic behind Mahabharata’s inclusion in the US War College syllabus is due to the fact that these theories and concepts from these historic texts are the foundation for the study of war, strategy, and statecraft. Indeed, these concepts continue to resonate in contemporary international security. He underscored that Alastair Iain Johnston is the foremost forerunner in the study of this field and mentioned his work, “Cultural Realism: Strategic Culture and Grand Strategy in Chinese History.” He elaborated on the relevance of ancient texts and introduced the audience to certain features of Mahabharata—what it is and what it is not.

According to Col. Chadha, Mahabharata is not a history, prescriptive text, myth or tale, religious text, recent obsession, discovery, or re-discovery, only war and warfighting, nor one single text. Mahabharata is a multitude of texts. It is an Itihaas (it indeed was) based on certain factual elements based on historical realities. It is believed to have been composed from around 800 BCE to 400 BCE. He enumerated its multiple editions and how it evolved from what was known as Jaya (8800 verses) to Bharat (24,000 verses) and from Bharat to Mahabharata with one lakh verses. He also noted that there are some inconsistencies and changes in the writing of the texts due to their evolution.

Col. Chadha added that at present the final authentic edition is the critical edition, which was compiled in Sanskrit with little less than eighty thousand verses by the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune, and whose compilation commenced in 1919 and was successfully completed in 1966. The only English edition of that, composed by Bibek Debroy in 2010, is available in 10 volumes. He then went on to briefly enumerate the core characteristics of how the Mahabharata operates. According to Col. Chadha, the Mahabharata operates through an understanding of decisions and dilemmas. It is a text that can be seen and perceived by different people in many different ways. There are different means through which these decisions and dilemmas are being resolved for every possible human emotion, such as deceit, righteousness, realism, and idealism. Additionally, he noted that every possible human emotion is applied to arrive at an answer through these decisions and dilemmas, and there are no right answers to the situations as one comes to the answers through his or her own perception.

According to Col. Chadha, in a broad sense, this could be better visualised as a strategic gaming exercise (SGE), where, when given a situation, a policymaker, general, or diplomat tends to arrive at a solution based on their own perception. To make this happen, find solutions to problems or situations. Hence, the Mahabharata, in a way, coaches one on how to look at the situation and how to take certain decisions in that given situation in a more proactive way.  He emphasised that the Mahabharata is essentially a text about Dharma and highlighted the concepts of Dharama and Arth. He said there is no black-and-white definition of what exactly is Dharma by quoting some examples from the Mahabharata. Consequently, there is doubt, debate, and deliberation in the Mahabharata to arrive at Dharma. Arth draws its inspiration from Dharma, and Arth requires certain functional requirements. Hence, the core driver for guidance for one’s action comes from the idea of dharma, and in a way, it guides one to find the ends, means, and ways of a strategy.

According to Col. Vivek Chadha, the main purpose of all negotiations and interactions that happened in Mahabharata are directed towards war avoidance. So, the idea of Dharma as far as war is concerned is not prosecution of war but war avoidance. He also touched upon various other concepts of war and laws of war, elements of diplomacy, and tools for negotiation used for realising political objectives and ends. He also spoke on war, conceptualising war and the application of force and diplomacy in war. According to him, a good way to make sense of the present and prepare for the future is to understand the past.

His concluding remarks and the crux of his presentation were that the Mahabharata is of humongous importance to the nation and its strategic culture, as the principles of warfighting remain the same even as its context changes. The nature of war itself remains the same, even as its character changes. The collective psyche of a nation follows a protracted cycle that emerges from the ancient and has already stepped into the future. Therefore, unless we can make sense of our past, a reasoned understanding of the future may at best remain murky.  In a nutshell, Col. Vivek Chadha presented an essential overview of the Mahabharata and how it would contribute to strategic thought and culture, and he also noted that this presentation is a precept for his upcoming fellow paper, which he is currently working on.

Q & A

Ambassador Sujan R. Chinoy, during his comments, observed that the West has always been preoccupied only with Chinese classics and to an extent the Arthashastra. China is at a greater advantage since over the years, Sun Tzu’s “Art of War” has been studied systematically as part of Chinese curriculum. He elaborated by indicating that ancient literature is included as part of the syllabus for children even in kindergarten. He said Dharma and Adharma are all based on sensory perception of information and the distinction between what is right (Dharma) and what is not (Adharma) is getting diminished or becoming unpredictable. In the context of deepfakes and artificial intelligence (AI), it becomes relevant to contextualise this and safeguard the potential for its exploitation. He asked Col. Chadha to rethink on how the concepts of Mahabharata can be put into place and navigate the implications posed by deepfakes, AI, and other such futuristic technological advancements.

During the discussion, a series of questions were raised. These related to the broader vision of the Mahabharata and unravelling the Hamas – Israel conflict from the prism of the epic and its principles.

Col. Chadha actively responded to all the questions and comments raised by the scholars. 

Key Takeaways 

1. The texts of Mahabharata help to understand the nature, character, and strategy of war.
2. The Mahabharata is essentially a text about Dharma.
3. The main purpose of all negotiations and interactions that happened in Mahabharata are directed towards war avoidance.
4. The Mahabharata operates through an understanding of decisions and dilemmas.
5. The Mahabharata, in a way, coaches one on how to look at the situation and how to take certain decisions in that given situation in a more proactive way.
6. A good way to make sense of the present and prepare for the future is to understand the past.

The report is prepared by D. S. Murugan Yadav, Research Intern, Military Affairs Centre, Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies (MP-IDSA).