Dr. Radhakrishnan Pillai is one of India’s foremost thinkers and authors on ancient Indian wisdom, best known for bringing the timeless teachings of Chanakya to the modern world. A scholar, teacher, and spiritual seeker, Dr. Pillai has dedicated his life to studying and interpreting the Arthashastra, the magnum opus of the legendary strategist Chanakya. With a background deeply rooted in the Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS) and a strong spiritual foundation from the Chinmaya Mission, Dr. Pillai has translated centuries-old philosophies into actionable lessons for today’s individuals, leaders, and governments. Through bestselling books like Katha Chanakya, Corporate Chanakya, and many others, he bridges the gap between ancient statecraft and contemporary leadership, personal development, and education reform. In this enlightening conversation with The Social Digest, Dr. Pillai speaks not just as a historian or philosopher, but as a modern-day guide—drawing from the past to illuminate paths for a more equitable, ethical, and empowered society.
The Social Digest: If anyone in this world who doesn’t know anything about ‘Chanakya” and his works, especially the ‘Arthashastra’, how will you describe Chanakya to him?
Chanakya can be described in multiple ways. I would call him a polymath. Polymath is a person who is a multi-disciplinarian, who actually has expertise in various domains and disciplines. Chanakya was a political strategist, a teacher, an author, a military expert, and so many different topics all rolled into one. So for anybody who wants to be successful in life, become a polymath like Chanakya.
The Social Digest: What inspired you to study and write about Chanakya’s philosophy in depth?
Two reasons. My own father and Chinmaya Mission. My father had encouraged me to study Indian wisdom. So since childhood I have been studying Indian wisdom, what we today call as IKS, Indian Knowledge Systems and ever since childhood I have been studying various Indian literature, spiritual literature like The Ramayana, The Mahabharata, The Upanishad, etc. But another important part of interest in Chanakya was my association with Chinmaya Mission, where I studied the whole Arthashastra in detail. And I studied this at CIF, Chinmaya International Foundation, which is a modern day ashram in Kerala, where Adi Shankaracharya was born. My own teacher, Dr. Gangadhar Nair, taught me the original sutras of Arthashastra, 6000 sutras, as one-to-one. As I have always said, one teacher, one student. So the inspiration was my father and Chinmaya Mission.
The Social Digest: In your book ‘Katha Chanakya’ there is one story titled ‘Right to Education”. How can Chanakya’s philosophy help in creating an equitable society ensuring the ‘Right to education’ to every citizen?
The major role of every government is to ensure basic necessity. The basic necessity, as they say in Hindi, is roti, kapda, makan. So roti is food, kapda is clothing, and shelter is makan. Yet, a good society and a good government will go beyond this and also give education to every single person. In the ancient days, education was limited to the elite class. The common man may or may not be guaranteed education. But today, fortunately, in many countries, including India, right to education is a fundamental right. How do we look at this dimension? Two things can be done. One is good government. That the government ensures that every single person should be taught. How to do it? Very simple , in every government mechanism, there are government officials and government workers. For example, we have ministries, we have bureaucrats, and we have workers like teachers, Aanganwadi workers. They have to ensure that every single child in every particular house in India has to be taught. You have to go to every house and find out that which child is getting educated or not. And we need to make sure that they get educated. The second thing, don’t leave education only to the government. We have to ensure that every particular family ensures that their children are educated. We should not differentiate between male and female. We should not even differentiate between old and young people. Even those people who are elderly should have access to education. India has government schemes like ‘Adult education’ to ensure this thing. So education should not be a barrier to any gender, community or age. So every family, especially the mothers, should ensure that every child is educated. So when the government at the top and every particular person in the family values education, the whole society in the long run will get educated.
The Social Digest: What lessons from Chanakya’s teachings can help individuals in their personal growth and success?
The first one is education. Education is not just about gathering degrees and certificates. Education is a mindset: I want to keep learning from anybody and everybody. So Vidya is very important to actually have growth in personal and professional life. So gather knowledge. Second, important experiment with your ideas. People have lot of ideas in their minds, but they don’t actually put the ideas into action. So only knowledge is not enough. Knowledge converted into action gives us result. Study a lot, and whatever you study, understand it, clarify your doubts, and apply it, only then you will be able to succeed in your life.
The Social Digest: Chanakya advised the use of spies and deceit as tools of statecraft. Can such strategies be morally acceptable in modern times?
Even in modern times, this happens. It happens very informally, and it happens under the carpet, as they say, for example. Today, spies are not necessarily only human beings. It can be also gathering information through various tools and techniques. Today, we have a complete system of satellites, mapping where the person is going, what he’s doing, your mobile phones and your messaging also can be tried to be decode and spied upon by various agencies. So the first thing is that spying is actually considered as gathering information, and without gathering information, you cannot actually vanish strategy. So in the modern day also it exists only difference is that the tools and the techniques have changed. In the policing department or defense system, it is said that information is gathered today through three methods: man, machine, and animal.
So the man definitely is required, but the percentage is becoming less. Machines, through various tools and animals are also used to gather information. And various departments of the government also have animals like dogs, which actually gather information, systems change, but information is the key to success, even in today’s world.
The Social Digest: How relevant are Chanakya’s patriarchal views in today’s progressive and gender-equal society?
There are two things about this. Number one, I personally believe that gender equality should be a way of life of our society. Men and women both come with their own unique strength and abilities. In fact, I would go to the third gender also, which we call transgender, even they should be given equal opportunities. Chanakya believed in all the three genders. So why limited only to the male and female genders, transgenders should also be given equal opportunities. In Chanakya’s time the society was very different. In today’s modern generation, we look at equal opportunities. So it’s very important to know that we have to take forward what is good in the past and leave behind or erase what is not relevant. In Arthashastra, we find that even the females and the transgenders were also given opportunities. Why not think about taking some of the best practices of Chanakya in our generation?
The Social Digest: Can you share a lesser-known story about Chanakya that reflects his wisdom?
This story was told by my teacher. A group of foreign students once came to India. They were from Greece. At that particular point in history, India was the richest part of the world. It was a highly developed country, and the students came to study leadership. In their homeland, they had heard that India was a very prosperous nation. So, they wanted to study its economic models.
When they arrived, they asked the locals, “Which is the richest part of your country?” Today, if you look at it, Mumbai is the financial capital of India—with tall buildings, skyscrapers, airports, roads, and bridges. Similarly, in those days, one of the richest cities was Pataliputra, which is present-day Patna. The students traveled to Pataliputra. There, they visited various places—the markets, government offices, and public areas. They interacted with many people and found that it was indeed a prosperous land, and that people were happy.
Curious, they asked a common man, “Why are you so happy? Why is your land so prosperous?”
He replied, “Because of our king.” “Who is your king?” they asked. “Chandragupta Maurya,” the man said.
“Can we meet him?” “Of course,” the man replied. “You can go and meet him.” The next day, the students went to meet King Chandragupta Maurya. They asked him, “How is your land so prosperous? How are you such a great leader?” Chandragupta replied, “I am not the one who runs the country. It is my Guru who runs the country.” “Can we meet him to understand why India is so successful and prosperous?” “Certainly,” he said. “His name is Chanakya.”
The students went in search of Chanakya and eventually found him—not in the palace or a government office, but far away from the city, in a Gurukul, in an ashram. They asked him, “How do you run the country?” Chanakya replied, “I don’t run the country.” The students were completely confused. The common people had said the king runs the country. The king said his guru runs the country. Now, the guru says he doesn’t run the country. Then who runs the country? Chanakya answered, “Dharma runs the country.” “What is Dharma?” they asked. “Dharma is moral values,” Chanakya explained. “It is ethics, integrity, and the inner strength of a person. My role as a teacher is to create leaders who are dharmic—those who possess moral values, spirituality, and ethics.”
And that is the essence of the story: If you want to be prosperous, if you want to earn wealth (Artha), there is nothing wrong with it. But before Artha, remember Dharma. That’s why Chanakya, along with teaching the Arthashastra (the science of economics and governance), also taught his students to be dharmic in nature.
This interview was conducted by Vansh Shah from The Social Digest on 30/04/2025. If you have any interview recommendations or have a story that you want to share with our readers, get in touch with our editor Vedant Bhrambhatt, at editor@thesocialdigest.com
