The Grand Strategy of Cultural Intrinsic Logic

Or: What Is Actually “Indian” about the Indian Secret Service and Its New Global Significance?

Abstract

With the increasing multipolarity of global relations comes a heightened desire for culturally distinct interpretive frameworks of these relationships. In the case of India, for example, the pursuit of political emancipation from the West is also, and to a significant extent, carried out on the level of cultural narratives. Taking the growing global significance of India's intelligence agency, R&AW, as a starting point, this article examines the narrative strategies that shape India’s story of political and cultural emancipation, focusing in particular on the importance attributed to the approximately 2,000-year-old Arthaśāstra by Kautilya.