The Ethics of Public Administration: The Challenges of Global Governance

3 Ethical Traditions of India

49 Ethical Traditions of India A Brief Introduction to the Traditions of India, Chiefly Hinduism Chapter 3 I know morality, which is eternal, with all its mysteries. It is nothing else than that ancient morality which is known to all, and which consists of universal friendliness, and is fraught with beneficence to all creatures. That mode of living which is founded upon a total harmlessness towards all creatures or (in case of actual necessity) upon a minimum of such harm, is the highest morality. —Śāntiparva (262.5–6) Philosophy in India Although long regarded as “religious,” “mythological,” or “mystical ,” this perception of Indian philosophy is mistaken. There is a rich history of philosophy qua philosophy in India. This tradition, as we will elaborate here, contains some of the earliest, most poetic, and most decidedly universal insistences on moral conduct, knowledge , reality, and human nature. If by philosophy we mean texts that address problems of metaphysics, physics, metaethics, ethics, ontology, epistemology, logic, and their contrarian, argumentative counterparts, then India’s philosophical history is decidedly one of the greatest of the ancient, medieval, modern, and contemporary worlds. Although disambiguating philosophy as such from philosophies of religion in the Indian tradition can be difficult, particularly for those (many) who are not scholars of Sanskrit, the wealth 50 The Ethics of Public Administration of Indian philosophical material extant in various languages makes this ripe for exploration. Elementary to understanding the philosophies of India is an appreciation of the four aims of life as the basis for all philosophy, historical and contemporary (see Krishna 2007 for a contradictory approach). The four aims, puruísçārtha,1 in broad strokes are (1) artha, (2) kāma, (3) dharma, and (4) mokṣa. The Four Aims of Life in Indian Philosophy 1) Artha . . . is material possessions. The arts that serve this aim are those of economics and politics, the techniques of surviving in the struggle for existence against jealousy and competition, calumny and blackmail , the bullying tyranny of despots and the violence of reckless neighbors (Zimmer [1951] 1989, 35). 2) Kāma . . . is sensual pleasure, particularly as manifested in sexual and aesthetic experience. In its wider meaning, kāma refers not only to sensual pleasures and desires, but to desire in general and can thus be understood as including the desire for wealth (artha), the desire to fulfill one’s duty (dharma), and the desire for liberation (mokṣa) (Holdrege 1991, 16). 3) In its naturalistic dimension, dharma . . . “to uphold, maintain, preserve ,” is the cosmic ordering principle that promotes and upholds the evolution of the universe as a whole and of each of its individual parts. Dharma establishes each part in its proper place, ensuring that every aspect of life is properly balanced and coordinated with every other aspect and thus contributes the maximum to its own evolution and to the evolution of the whole. The principle of dharma can be found operating at every level, encompassing greater and greater wholes: individual , family, caste, society, and cosmos (Holdrege 1991, 13). 4) Mokṣa is redemption or spiritual release. This is regarded as the ultimate aim, the final human good, and as such is set over and against the former three (Zimmer [1951] 1989, 41). Blinded by the longstanding focus on the religious aspects of the philosophical texts of India as well as the argument that philosophy is the exclusive province of the “Western” progeny of the Greek tradition, there is comparatively little systematic exploration of the political implications of the philosophies of India in the West (though this is changing). Historically speaking, however, Indian philosophers represented some of the most paradigmatic political thinkers of the ancient world. If by political philosophy we mean systematic treatises describing the office of authority (e.g., kings, Ethical Traditions of India 51 princes), the apparatus of power (e.g., ministries or the administration of departments), and the civil association (e.g., social organization ), then major texts of the Indian epic period are decidedly political philosophy (Oakeshott 1991). Likewise, if the exploration of ontology, metaphysics, and epistemology is an essential precursor to political philosophy, then the orthodox and heterodox philosophies of the Vedas represent important preludes to political philosophy. An Abbreviated History of India As with most modern nations, the India represented on the modern map is not the historical India. The India of history is a complicated place of many histories coevolving through conquest, conflict, and (occasional) cooperation. The...