After his debut book, Corporate Chanakya, created a record for the highest number of pre-release sales for any first book of an author in 2010, author Radhakrishnan Pillai decided to translate his book into 10 regional languages, including Tamil. “I thought Chanakya was a theme that was required to be taken beyond the English language,” says the author, who was in the city to release the Tamil version of his book.
Though the book has been translated into several languages including Telugu, Kannada, Marathi and Oriya, Pillai confesses that the Tamil language is extra special to him. “I find the love for literature in Tamil to be unique,” he says.
Pillai, who was awarded the Sardar Patel National award in 2009 for his research on Chanakya and his principles, recalls that it was his association with the Chinmaya Mission that facilitated his passion for the royal advisor and economist. “We were taught to study Indian scriptures at the Mission,” he says.
The more he read Chanakya’s principles, the more he fell in love with the man who managed Chandragupta’ empire. He also realised that “all solutions to modern day problems can be derived from ancient scriptures”, especially Chanakya’s works.
“Chanakya might have written about governance and politics, but it can be applied to modern management,” explains Pillai, who is the director of the Chanakya Institute of Public Leadership, Dept of Philosophy, University of Mumbai.
But since Pillai believes that management is not something that can only be applied in the business or corporate sector, but also in our everyday lives, he had to make sure that his book was relatable and useful to the general audience. “The challenge always with the book was to not make it academic,” he says.
Pillai has picked up roughly 200 slokas and sutras from Chanakya’s Arthasashtra, dividing them into three chapters – leadership, management and training. The reason Pillai feel Chanakya’s principles remain relevant even today is because he did not create a fad of management, but principles of management. “Principles of management deals with the basic human mind, which is what needs to be managed first. It does not deal with changes in the environment,” he backs his argument.