NEED FOR A NEW PARADIGM IN POLITICAL SCIENCE

It is generally presumed that the commonly prevalent system of Government in ancient India was monarchy and instances of republic were either exceptions or aberrations. The paradigm of republic vs. monarchy stems from the history of Europe, where revolt against monarchy led to the rise of republics. The situation in ancient India was very different because no King had any legislative powers. Legislative activity or Law making was done only at the Centres of Learning, which can well be called the Universities of that time. The Kings were controlled by Universities. The paper proposes that Ancient Indian society was a GANTANTRA in the sense of GAN + TANTRA i.e. it was a society controlled by thinkers. The author proposes that GANTANTRA be recognized as a paradigm of political science different from the European concepts of monarchy and republic. 1